tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23055969721661197452024-03-05T23:43:12.216-08:00SOUL-SEARCHING - A new Philip Robinson blogPhilip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-38073863136938322432020-03-17T08:34:00.001-07:002020-03-17T08:34:03.721-07:00SALT IN GENESIS - The emblem of GOD'S PROMISE, PROVISION and PROTECTION. <div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">SALT IN GENESIS</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="text Rev-22-1" id="en-KJV-31082" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Revelation 22, 1-2: <i>"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.</i></span><span class="text Rev-22-2" id="en-KJV-31083" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><i>In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The vision of the new heaven and the new earth in Revelation 22, with its 'river of the water of life' and the 'tree of life', promises a future restoration of the original 'Garden of Eden' state of perfection as described in Genesis </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-2-8" id="en-KJV-39" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">GENESIS 2, 8-10: <b> </b><i>And the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.</i></span><span class="text Gen-2-9" id="en-KJV-40" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><i>And out of the ground made the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.</i></span><span class="text Gen-2-10" id="en-KJV-41" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><i>And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.</i></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what has this to do with salt? Well, after the 'fall', and after Noah and the 'flood', we come to the call of Abraham from Mesopotamia (along with his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot) to Canaan and the 'Promised Land', it is revealing to consider the completeness of God's provision and promises there (including both actual salt, and its symbolic meaning in the developing incremental covenants). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These applied not only to Abraham and the patriarchs (about 2500 BC); but also the returning children of Israel led by Moses after 500 years captivity in Egypt (about 1500 BC); the Davidic Kingdom of Israel (about 1000 BC); the restoration from exile in Babylonia (about 500 BC); and of course, the messianic days of Jesus Christ (about the year 'dot'!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 'Promised' or 'Holy' land of Canaan had 'natural' boundaries of water to the east and west. On the west side was of course the Mediterranean Sea, and it is worth observing the perfect planning of God in this strategic coast with its global hinterland at the intersection of 3 continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. But the eastern frontier was no less wonderful in its perfect provision. The Jordan Valley had to the north the fresh-water sea of Galilee, with its abundant fish and obedient fishermen. The Jordan river flowing from the sea of Galilee, the place of entry and of baptism. And then in the south, the SALT SEA, or Dead Sea. No fish, no life, no water flowing from it. Not only one of the worlds richest sources of commercial salt, but also on of the lowest places on earth (its shore is almost 1,500 ft. below sea level). Were it not for this natural deep basin, the waters would flow on out to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea - and no salt!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The prophesy and vision of Ezekiel (from the time of exile) of the 'restored' temple emphasises the use of salt in temple sacrifice:</span><br />
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<span class="text Ezek-43-23" id="en-KJV-21596" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">EZEKIEL 43, 23-24:<b> "</b>When thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.</span></span><span class="text Ezek-43-24" id="en-KJV-21597" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And thou shalt offer them before the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>, and <b>the priests shall cast salt upon them</b>, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>."</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But when Ezekiel, in his vision, was led out of the temple, the river of life and its ending in salt marsh is explained as the border of the land of inheritance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="text Ezek-47-1" id="en-KJV-21681" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">EZEKIEL 47, 1-13:<b> </b>Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-2" id="en-KJV-21682" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-3" id="en-KJV-21683" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-4" id="en-KJV-21684" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-5" id="en-KJV-21685" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-6" id="en-KJV-21686" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-7" id="en-KJV-21687" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-8" id="en-KJV-21688" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-9" id="en-KJV-21689" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-10" id="en-KJV-21690" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-11" id="en-KJV-21691" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; <b>they shall be given to salt.</b></span><span class="text Ezek-47-12" id="en-KJV-21692" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.</span><span class="text Ezek-47-13" id="en-KJV-21693" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Thus saith the Lord <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">God</span>; This shall be the border, whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But, going back to Genesis, we find Abraham, his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot, with their servants and livestock, moving beyond Canaan into Egypt because of a famine. On their return to Canaan, Abraham and Lot's herdsmen were in dispute, so Abraham offered Lot his choice of where to settle, to the right or the left, and he would take the other. Lot chose the apparently fertile vale of Siddim south of the Salt or Dead Sea. Here was Sodom and Gomorrah and great wickedness. When Abraham received his covenant promises from God, the Lord announced the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In response to Abraham's plea, Lot and his wife and daughters were brought out before the destruction by fire and brimstone. But Lot's wife, 'looked back' and became a "pillar of salt".</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF6628nmRA3txal2BHa0fR9tJpMc9yKl_qJAmdEKrnmzMc0mZkKrnh0FV-dF28EjJ7QUTJxV0A6VNo9I2PtwYKQfoCiCY6L41SsTeucjYYDqKhUVykndwIeJB1TOaGryu_5vqxbpRJOJc/s1600/pillar+of+salt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF6628nmRA3txal2BHa0fR9tJpMc9yKl_qJAmdEKrnmzMc0mZkKrnh0FV-dF28EjJ7QUTJxV0A6VNo9I2PtwYKQfoCiCY6L41SsTeucjYYDqKhUVykndwIeJB1TOaGryu_5vqxbpRJOJc/s320/pillar+of+salt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GENESIS 19, 24-29: "<i>Then the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> out of heaven; </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. </i></span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-19-26" id="en-KJV-484" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">But his wife looked back from behind him, and <b>she became a pillar of salt.</b></span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span class="text Gen-19-27" id="en-KJV-485" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>:</span><span class="text Gen-19-28" id="en-KJV-486" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.</span><span class="text Gen-19-29" id="en-KJV-487" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt."</span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The "Pillar of Salt" became not only a 'boundary marker' between the land covenanted to the children of Abraham, and that of Lot's incestuous sons, the Ammonites and the Moabites, but also a memorial in salt to the covenant itself. </span><br />
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Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-82816389070110058652020-03-13T13:59:00.001-07:002020-03-14T07:57:51.652-07:00<span style="font-size: large;">THE COVENANT OF SALT - In the Beginning.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEqUSCYMPh8q7JrKFbETxsD6ba0YC2HV2p6K1iYJLh9mtBhfKJE_-E9aIz4S1UboACtzHq-h6srWDxfSTPEHVHA9Y2Y5pCyIcDYEXfsFRqtE6cNXk0zq_URxVHIY-FzPkpj_j9cjNupzY/s1600/salt+covenant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="896" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEqUSCYMPh8q7JrKFbETxsD6ba0YC2HV2p6K1iYJLh9mtBhfKJE_-E9aIz4S1UboACtzHq-h6srWDxfSTPEHVHA9Y2Y5pCyIcDYEXfsFRqtE6cNXk0zq_URxVHIY-FzPkpj_j9cjNupzY/s320/salt+covenant.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sealing of an agreement (or a relationship) through a meal which involved the sharing of <b>salt</b> as the symbolic focus became established among the Israelite people in Old Testament times. It had a religious significance as inviolable, for it originated in the '<b>salt covenants</b>' established between God and his chosen people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In <span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">LEVITICUS 2,13, the specific commandment was given for offerings at the sanctuary -- <i>"</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><i>You shall season all your grain offerings with <b>salt</b>. You shall not let the <b>salt of the covenant </b>with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer <b>salt</b>." </i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span aria-live="polite" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; line-height: 18px; outline: none; width: auto;" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption">In </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">NUMBERS 18,19, the covenant of salt was to confirm that specified parts of the food offerings were to be given to the Levites and priests of the children of Aaron in lieu of land inheritance: -- <i>"</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><i>All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a <b>covenant of salt</b> forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” </i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2 CHRONICLES 13, 5, the covenant of salt was to confirm God's promise of the kingdom of Israel to the line of David. -- <i>"<span style="background-color: white;">Ought ye not to know that the </span><span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white;"> God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a <b>covenant of salt</b>?"</span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The biblical symbolism of SALT is defined in contrast to YEAST.</span><br />
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In the first reference by Moses to the <b>covenant of salt</b> in Leviticus, it is made clear that SALT stands in contrast to YEAST in these commandments for worship. YEAST is of course a figure for sin and corruption, and remains so throughout the Bible. Unleavened (that is, without yeast) bread is the only sort that is permitted. In contrast, SALT is a figure throughout the Bible for blessing, purification and preservation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LEVITICUS 2, 4-13.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="text Lev-2-4" id="en-KJV-2767" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">4. And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be <b>unleavened </b>cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or <b>unleavened </b>wafers anointed with oil.</span><span class="text Lev-2-5" id="en-KJV-2768" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">5 </span>And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour <b>unleavened</b>, mingled with oil.</span><span class="text Lev-2-6" id="en-KJV-2769" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">6 </span>Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering. ...</span></i></span><i style="font-size: small;"><span class="text Lev-2-10" id="en-KJV-2773" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">10 </span>And that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> made by fire.</span><span class="text Lev-2-11" id="en-KJV-2774" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">11 </span><b>No meat offering,</b> which ye shall bring unto the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>, <b>shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, </b>nor any honey, in any offering of the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> made by fire.</span><span class="text Lev-2-12" id="en-KJV-2775" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">12 </span>As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour.</span><span class="text Lev-2-13" id="en-KJV-2776" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">13 </span>And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou<b> season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the SALT OF THE COVENANT of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: </b>with all thine offerings <b>thou shalt offer salt.</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"> </span></i></span></blockquote>
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Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-55641263866690110902011-10-19T11:41:00.000-07:002011-10-19T12:47:18.055-07:00"We'll all be there" - a Dublin soul-singing event<span style="font-size:130%;"><br />There was a great sense of occasion when the men of the Ards Testimony Male Voice Choir got on the bus for Dublin on Saturday morning. We were to meet up with other Irish Testimony Male Voice Choirs from all over Ireland (mostly Northern Ireland) for a Festival of Praise in Christ Church Cathedral as guests of the Dublin Choir. They were expecting 60 men to turn up, but over 100 answered the call. And with 680 seats available in the church, all tickets had been snapped up weeks before.<br /><br />I am a new kid on the block, having only joined the choir about a year ago, but what a buzz I get from even the practices and our own local services. I hope the video clip from youtube gives a bit of a flavour. There are about 10 pieces from the same event now on youtube, if you want more! Those that know me might get a glimpse of me on the right behind the piano - my 15 minutes of fame!<br /></span><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P_PP6cLij74" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">This post is a bit different from my earlier ones on this blog-site. Usually I am grumping about Churchianity with my post-denominational hat on. But what a refreshing experience this choir is. No talk of denominations or status, but each practice starts with one of the men bringing a message from the Bible, followed by a 30-minute prayer time when all participate without leadership. To join the choir you have only to 'love the Lord' (as I was told at the start), and give your own testimony. The choir has local engagements in different churches and meetings, and not only sing but bring the Word and testify. I say all this to give you a sense of why the men in this video are singing, and I hope it gives a little added poignancy.<br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F9Px2mMcyf0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe><br /></span>Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-80873248546383780332011-07-04T08:42:00.000-07:002011-07-07T00:15:56.236-07:00Job's "Redeemer" and his "double portions"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifN0o2c-uG2e7-NUlfms2E17RpiGZgh28AgfyZhDBVGaR0CoFFSjjP0rKSwAyypAZ871jyzcmLdiYvih-KmfR3fTw4wO1fQ25AmFYCdtWVES_frpX2V3e9PKoxBAD8AjiZSfYJ5hro4r4/s1600/Job.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifN0o2c-uG2e7-NUlfms2E17RpiGZgh28AgfyZhDBVGaR0CoFFSjjP0rKSwAyypAZ871jyzcmLdiYvih-KmfR3fTw4wO1fQ25AmFYCdtWVES_frpX2V3e9PKoxBAD8AjiZSfYJ5hro4r4/s400/Job.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625528804347282034" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">When traumatic events shake the life of a decent, God-fearing person to its very foundations, the age-old questions of "why me?" and "where are the promised blessings?" almost inevitably arise. Well, for me anyway it has lead to serious doubts - if not depression - and a real questioning of the basic issues of faith. The last place in the Bible anybody in that situation might turn to for comfort is the Book of Job. It s</span><span style="font-size:130%;">eems to present a God who was prepared to devastate an innocent and 'blameless' rich man (Job) just to prove a point to Satan - that Job's faith was not simply a natural result of his blessings (as Satan had alleged). If God would only permit Satan to remove the blessings, Satan had said, "<span style="font-style: italic;">he will surely curse you to your face</span>". And Job's 'comforters' - his friends and his wife - are proverbial because of the bad advice and sanctimonious comfort they bring him.<br /><br />But God had declared "<span style="font-style: italic;">my servant Job</span>" to be "<span style="font-style: italic;">blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil</span>". The accolade from God when he tells Satan about Job and that </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >"there is no one on earth like him"</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> is made all the more poignant when we realise that Job was not an Israelite, and that he was singled out as the model of 'election', by redemption, into the future messianic Kingdom of God.<br /><br />The 'testing' of Job began when he was afflicted by the death of all his children and livestock in five separate incidents (7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 oxen, 500 donkeys, 7 sons and 3 daughters), and then in a second 'testing' when he was given "<span style="font-style: italic;">painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head</span>", he still refused to question the authority and goodness of God.<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzpV4VKZvfiHPl2zMx8ImshM4AWAaJiskSmdYMMLleCBzPo7FpmFlqzwJ3ItHeH6icx2g3g4CYHZAis0CEUfOo74A2D51z2SoafgufAV9-A0DL9FUk8vheJ9rEQzrb9a7ydq5BW3zoks/s1600/Job-redeemerliveth400.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzpV4VKZvfiHPl2zMx8ImshM4AWAaJiskSmdYMMLleCBzPo7FpmFlqzwJ3ItHeH6icx2g3g4CYHZAis0CEUfOo74A2D51z2SoafgufAV9-A0DL9FUk8vheJ9rEQzrb9a7ydq5BW3zoks/s400/Job-redeemerliveth400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625610043583383378" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The main section of the book is written as a poetic "dialogue" between Job and his three Edomite "friends" who (along with his wife) try to comfort him - mostly by pointing out that he must have sinned to merit such punishment. But Job has two, oft-quoted responses. In the first place he says: </span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised",<br />.</span> </blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">But Job's response to Bildad the Shuhite's argument that every wicked person gets paid in full, in this life, for his wicked deeds, while the righteous prosper, is one of the most dramatic and prophetic in the Old Testament. Indeed it is the central theme of the aria "I know that my Redeemer lives" in Handel's <span style="font-style: italic;">Messiah</span>. I don't think there is anywhere else in the Old Testament that the resurrection of the righteous dead with the </span><span style="font-size:130%;">future </span><span style="font-size:130%;">coming of the Lord is articulated as clearly (Job 19, 25-27):<br /></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end </span><span style="font-size:130%;">he will stand upon the earth.<br />And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;<br />I myself will see him with my own eyes".<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_QuK8tQU4AL_JBvQfQGT3HK2Fm7JboFWwwQiQtf4M7Gfmwc-9O1XDSisH8dnUsA30eGlf_XSZTR_48Kj4yjpEOQbegLVVszK049NalwEKvNuD-hG5FmnEnfkHPTV1Rv9deb-73rydEU/s1600/Handel.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 330px; height: 339px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_QuK8tQU4AL_JBvQfQGT3HK2Fm7JboFWwwQiQtf4M7Gfmwc-9O1XDSisH8dnUsA30eGlf_XSZTR_48Kj4yjpEOQbegLVVszK049NalwEKvNuD-hG5FmnEnfkHPTV1Rv9deb-73rydEU/s400/Handel.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626286714031539650" border="0" /></a><br /></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Of course, with the poetic dialogue between Job and his comforters taking up almost 39 of the Book of Job's 42 chapters, it is hardly surprising that there are many, many other gems giving revelation of the nature of God, the nature of His desired relationship with all, and the nature of his planned 'Kingdom' including the reward of everlasting life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Apart from the message of 'redemption' mentioned briefly here - Job also talks about it in chapter 14 (<span style="font-style: italic;">"If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you"</span>) -<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>I have come across many things that I thought were 'new' revelations through Paul, or at least 'New Testament' concepts. The righteous will indeed suffer in this life and be persecuted; their afflictions are not<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span>a 'punishment' for sin; but if 'tested' it is to spiritually prosper the individual as in the refining and purification of gold in the fire ("<span style="font-style: italic;">When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold</span>").<br /><br />When Job finally ends his often angry arguments with his friends, he still maintains that he had not sinned. At this point a fourth, younger friend joins in the dialogue to show that both Job and the three other counselors are in the wrong. In four short poetic speeches, Elihu considers Job's insistence on vindicating himself rather than God reprehensible, and that the friends' inability to refute Job or to understand the extent of God's wisdom and sovereignty was a twisted condemnation of God.<br /><br />Then God himself then enters the debate, asking Job "<span style="font-style: italic;">who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?</span>" God had not, as Job alleged, wronged him. The Lord asserts his justice as sovereign, and Job is told to leave all this, including his own vindication, under God's control.<br /><br />The penultimate test for Job is passed when he accepts with remorse that he had spoken "<span style="font-style: italic;">of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know ... therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes". </span>Here we see Job, with Satan out of the picture, still being refined as gold towards perfection in God's sight.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The final test, and for me the most revealing one, comes in the final section of the last chapter. The Lord had said to one of Job's friends,<br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly".<br /><br /></span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">When this happened (and Job's own forgiveness of them was prayed to God) , and only then, do we see the restoration of Job's prosperity and blessings (Job 42, 10):<br /></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before".</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">So the Lord <span style="font-style: italic;">"blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1000 oxen and 1000 donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters". </span>Only the daughters<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>are named, interestingly enough, and Job lived to see his grandchildren to the fourth generation. It is also significant that although Job's possessions were all doubled, only seven sons and three daughters were then given to replace those that had been killed previously. His conviction of a future resurrection (when he would see his "Redeemer" face-to-face) was not something only for himself, but also for his doubled family of 14 sons and 6 daughters.<br /><br />The Book of Job is known as one of the "wisdom" books of the Bible. It is too easy to miss the message when we bring our own wisdom to reading it. The real 'prosperity gospel' that it teaches only begins with a belief that the Redeemer lives and having a desire to serve him that is greater than the value we place on family, health, possessions or even life itself. The final stumbling blocks (as if the first weren't enough) are to repent humbly of self-righteousness and to be forgiven as we forgive others. Is this message from Job different from that of the New Testament?<br /></span>Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-48687928047534280432010-12-18T02:47:00.000-08:002010-12-19T05:29:13.544-08:00Skeletons in the cupboard? The highs and lows of Christ's geneology.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITVbvWDNYdwAD6-0GId2Utx3teNDUuKJxXIpcpRD8blX_EtRyhsI5Rx19o_baS1bW06IjQHrceXQqyfPshxnWwtAj7TmKbUFBxkMs_FDfl0FuUGTHfwGOSlxHCyjiJF9gW7mqEgjFCcA/s1600/rahab.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 273px; height: 293px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITVbvWDNYdwAD6-0GId2Utx3teNDUuKJxXIpcpRD8blX_EtRyhsI5Rx19o_baS1bW06IjQHrceXQqyfPshxnWwtAj7TmKbUFBxkMs_FDfl0FuUGTHfwGOSlxHCyjiJF9gW7mqEgjFCcA/s400/rahab.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552072777227320370" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I'm one of those people that usually skips over the long lists of genealogies, places or tribes when I'm reading the Bible. But for some reason - maybe I was thinking that there must be SOME reason for them being there - this Christmas I took a closer look at the first chapter of Mathew which begins: <span style="font-style: italic;">"A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:"</span><br /><br />We have two genealogies of Christ from the gospels - one in Mathew and one in Luke. On the surface, these introductions to the birth of Christ provide him with an impeccable lineage from King David to both Mary and Joseph as his biological and 'legal' parents respectively. Indeed it was because they were of the 'house of David' that they visiting Bethlehem ("Royal David's City") for the Roman Census at this particular time.<br /><br />The other high points of this lineage include the central biblical figures of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah (one of the 12 sons of Jacob from whom the Jews - the tribe of Judah - were descended). Also we later have King David, and his son King Solomon (who built the first temple in Jerusalem) as further links in a continuous family tree down to Joseph. The later names do differ between the two genealogies (at least for the generations between King David and Mary and Joseph), as it is believed Mathew traces the legal descent of the house of David using only heirs to the throne, while Luke traces the direct bloodline of Joseph back through David to Abraham and further still back to Adam.<br /><br />Given that Mathew's listing emphasizes Jesus's birthright to the throne of David, it is interesting that he alone chooses to include four women (besides Mary) in the family tree. Why these four women? The reasons may be shocking to some. All four were of 'low' estate - either they were not Israelites, or they were involved in adulterous relationships with the men in the genealogy, or both. There can be no reason to think that Jesus </span>w<span style="font-family:verdana;">as who he claimed to be simply because of a sort of high spiri</span>t<span style="font-family:verdana;">ual or royal inheritance.<br /><br />The four women mentioned in Mathew's account are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah the Hittite).They are certainly worth knowing about.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" ></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >1 This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:<br />2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,<br /> Isaac the father of Jacob,<br /> Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,<br />3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">whose mother was Tamar,</span><br /> Perez the father of Hezron,<br /> Hezron the father of Ram,<br />4 Ram the father of Amminadab,<br /> Amminadab the father of Nahshon,<br /> Nahshon the father of Salmon,<br />5 Salmon the father of Boaz, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">whose mother was Rahab,</span><br /> Boaz the father of Obed, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">whose mother was Ruth,</span><br /> Obed the father of Jesse,<br />6 and Jesse the father of King David.<br /> David was the father of Solomon, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">whose mother had been Uriah’s wife</span>, </span> [Mathew, Chapter 1, 1-6]</blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">If you think the Christmas story is a sanitized one, prepare to be shocked by the story of these four female 'ancestors' of Jesus. But I should state the obvious - there is no suggestion that the blame for the adulterous side of this story is to be laid exclusively on the females!<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Tamar</span></span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">the mother of Perez<br /></span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJHXxv-QbconK2TWlVDtnkucR2pRw_Dk3r4O77CQX-856GQYEjdYvxI0uocc3KXZxBtfQaYcanzEYMCw5yUdbBXCdxZ5HaAtoXS3-9fE1hkmeVJWDm5G_1dQempUiMh7lorN_3O5BSG0/s1600/judah_tamar.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJHXxv-QbconK2TWlVDtnkucR2pRw_Dk3r4O77CQX-856GQYEjdYvxI0uocc3KXZxBtfQaYcanzEYMCw5yUdbBXCdxZ5HaAtoXS3-9fE1hkmeVJWDm5G_1dQempUiMh7lorN_3O5BSG0/s320/judah_tamar.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552084571695551554" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Tamar was a Canaanite woman married to Judah's son Er. When Er died, his brother Onan refused to take Tamar as his wife as was the custom. When Onan also died, Tamar returned to her Canaanite home with Judah's promise that if she lived as a widow she would have his third son Shelah when he was old enough. </span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">But this promise was broken, and when Tamar heard that her father-in-law, Judah, was coming to shear sheep near her own father's house she took off her widow's clothes and disguised herself with a veil at the roadside.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">The unabridged version of what happened next is from Genesis, chapter 28:</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"> </span></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;">15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”<br /><br />“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.<br /><br />17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.<br /><br />“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.<br /><br />18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?”<br /><br />“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.<br /><br />20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21 He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”<br /><br />“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.<br /><br />22 So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”<br /><br />23 Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”<br /><br />24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”<br /><br />Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”<br /><br />25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”<br /></span></blockquote><blockquote style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;">26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.<br /></span></blockquote><blockquote style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> 27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 28 As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” 29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez. 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-family:verdana;">And so we have "</span></span><span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Tamar</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >".<br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Rahab the </span></span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">mother of Boaz</span></span></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEHXd0PDPqC3V1v2hFAjyE_7mB9BevkUg0LLKKR4pWkuIv3rRFVr0Gd7o7YsY94-_9XbaCidCspSNhaokeagoFo-VV6qDhchonl4U7XAVIZT_eyfoyGEHZ3-6WvfG3ofFoJ_ujHlVw1pQ/s1600/rahab+1.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 189px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEHXd0PDPqC3V1v2hFAjyE_7mB9BevkUg0LLKKR4pWkuIv3rRFVr0Gd7o7YsY94-_9XbaCidCspSNhaokeagoFo-VV6qDhchonl4U7XAVIZT_eyfoyGEHZ3-6WvfG3ofFoJ_ujHlVw1pQ/s320/rahab+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552118174949005282" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Rahab is commonly referred to in the New Testament as 'Rahab the harlot'. It was in her house or inn built into the walls of Jericho that the Israelite spies stayed, and when Joshua took the city in the first days of the conquest of Canaan, her life was spared because of her help in hiding them. A scarlet rope hanging from her outer window in the walls - the same window that the spies made their escape from - was the given signal. Joshua honoured the promise and the Canaanite Rahab, who now confessed her faith in the Hebrew God, married into the Israelites.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews says:</span> </span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">30. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">31. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[Hebrews, Chapter 11]<br /><br /></span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">And in James, chapter 2, we have:</span><br /></span><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">25. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies?</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">And so we have "</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rahab</span></span></span><span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >".<br /></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ruth</span></span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">the mother of Obed</span></span></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlwhKud2aMVjfDwiOGnqqyBkEHpCnOGsEBNQosaBY8htxKrUu_E5Wi3IFHNa7JHkwMHKTVzk8O3Atb7RqgZfYhlxdSMEojVdMTlTnpfJXsLvWKp5BZJzZXLGOdtZVuiiN5d9huvisNDGo/s1600/Ruth_and_Naomi_gleaning_in_the_fields.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlwhKud2aMVjfDwiOGnqqyBkEHpCnOGsEBNQosaBY8htxKrUu_E5Wi3IFHNa7JHkwMHKTVzk8O3Atb7RqgZfYhlxdSMEojVdMTlTnpfJXsLvWKp5BZJzZXLGOdtZVuiiN5d9huvisNDGo/s320/Ruth_and_Naomi_gleaning_in_the_fields.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552130340192401618" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Ruth was a Moabitess who married two Jewish farmers despite the statute in Deuteronomy explicitly forbidding Jews to accept Moabites into their assembly.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">In the first place she married Mahlon, one of the sons of Naomi and Emilelech in her own land, but when both her husband and father-in-law died, she returned to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law Naomi. Here she met her second husband Boaz, who was a near-relative of Naomi's, while gleaning in his fields at harvest-time.<br /><br />There is no implication of immorality in the familiar story of Ruth, quite the reverse in fact, but a parallel is frequently drawn throughout </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">the Old Testament between the sins of adultery and intermarriage with gentiles.<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />And so we have "</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ruth</span></span></span><span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >".</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Bathsheba the mother of Solomon<br /><br /></span></span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheDjxdhuNsleMrQl1siBGHz5wWn7uHs8PtxAzcPLwRgijpULcGkZ_rIMNnESBhVbkCU_mxaTi5JHc4B75iuMjGDF5GVclWRKc1u0LwXKL1kaE1p-pYUico51HOp7Elg-1wkDf9WEpYTM8/s1600/David%2526Bathsheba.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheDjxdhuNsleMrQl1siBGHz5wWn7uHs8PtxAzcPLwRgijpULcGkZ_rIMNnESBhVbkCU_mxaTi5JHc4B75iuMjGDF5GVclWRKc1u0LwXKL1kaE1p-pYUico51HOp7Elg-1wkDf9WEpYTM8/s320/David%2526Bathsheba.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552137584830319650" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, a foreign mercenary fighting for King David in the Ammonite war about 1000 bc. When the war was in full swing, David watched from his palace as Bathsheba bathed on the roof of her house below. He sent for her to spend the night with him, and when she fell pregnant, David sent orders for Uriah to be placed in a battle position so that he would be killed. Guilty of murder and adultery, David eventually married Bathsheba after the baby of their first union had died.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Bathsheba then had four sons to David, including Solomon who was to succeed to his throne.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />And so we have "</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >David was the father of Solomon whose mother had been <span style="font-weight: bold;">Uriah's wife</span></span></span><span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >".</span></span></span></span><br /><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><br />What does all this mean? The stories of these four women, all gentiles, who are included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, maybe draw a cautionary line in the sand about the veneration of his lineage - not just in terms of the morality of key figures like David and Judah - but more significantly about the Kingship of Christ over Jews and Gentiles alike. One thing seems clear; these four women were deliberately selected for inclusion for SOME purpose - and one that would have been transparent to Mathew's contemporaries.<br /></span>Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-30115193285789261372010-10-27T03:15:00.000-07:002010-10-29T07:59:19.387-07:00A Trinity of Psalms: King David's vision of Christ, 1000 b.c.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C8B3I9NfsLzrqBBMTyCTAORb46RK-I6y9SixZg9kKzqWiHmFCguUi4-T8jfSm97XYrTE9c415LmRRFLPRF__CO7s1ehQxapCfh8KdoEtyG21AvAG3mnaSouj3iFiSDkDb-AYn9RXoWo/s1600/field+001.jpg"><br /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshPcOOYmdGLIepj6lbz_PbaQhj5pnSVWT_w4EL20upVy0-qBHq41oHV8qdXJLr3BmIRy5uYl7ZLsUj0ZX_m8E2isflYcnY51i5yaSZHGJ_I9yTcbrGAKdQxC3DqCK68EFfeWfPUbK-Ts/s1600/slemish+017.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshPcOOYmdGLIepj6lbz_PbaQhj5pnSVWT_w4EL20upVy0-qBHq41oHV8qdXJLr3BmIRy5uYl7ZLsUj0ZX_m8E2isflYcnY51i5yaSZHGJ_I9yTcbrGAKdQxC3DqCK68EFfeWfPUbK-Ts/s400/slemish+017.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532671746906303874" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">When Saint Patrick was a herd on Slemish mountain in county Antrim, he found liberation in the words of Psalm 23 which begins "</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >The Lord is my Shepherd</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> ...". Thousands of years earlier, and thousands of miles away, King David had written this Psalm with its images of shepherds and green pastures that struck a chord with Patrick.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;">I don't understand the replacement theology of some "New Testament Alone" churches. There are many reasons why it doesn't hold up, but for me it is like trying to ride a 1-wheeled bicycle, or rather, a 2-wheeled bicycle with one of the wheels removed. I heard two sayings recently that struck home. The first was that "<span style="font-style: italic;">Christ is in every page of Genesis</span>", and the second was:<br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> "the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, while the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed".</span></span></blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5ypV4qvaXyFrfJU5XqlcnULv1i1w5P9LzhxkX0IGU6k86W_zIzRnzQd2RB7FEuFGHoGa9Reg68vtpzLwFeJ7pg7GVswS3WDipfD5FJ9ulZthw_zrl3G83cu_Is4u_KOeTxAwOhBh0Lo/s1600/DSC00290.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5ypV4qvaXyFrfJU5XqlcnULv1i1w5P9LzhxkX0IGU6k86W_zIzRnzQd2RB7FEuFGHoGa9Reg68vtpzLwFeJ7pg7GVswS3WDipfD5FJ9ulZthw_zrl3G83cu_Is4u_KOeTxAwOhBh0Lo/s400/DSC00290.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532743523334353362" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The 23rd Psalm is the one that every Christian, of any denomination, still knows best. Maybe it is because it contains a complete summary of the gospel message that very few folk read it in the context of the two psalms that embrace it, the one before and the one after. It sits in the middle of a 'trinity' of psalms (Psalms 22, 23 and 24) that take the central one out of the realms of symbolism and metaphor into the sphere of prophetic detail.<br /><br />The first Psalm of this trinity is Psalm 22 and it is a quite stunning vision of Christ's death and passion on the cross, while the third Psalm 24 is a breath-taking vision of Christ's victorious entry into and enthronement in the Kingdom of Heaven - on the third day.</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">It is only when I read these three Psalms together that the full impact of those 3 pivotal days in world history comes alive.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Psalm 22</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">(I have highlighted some verses for reasons which will be obvious to anybody familiar with the gospel accounts of the Crucifixion)</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXUMpVq1rfEk0sgG18d790Xnxe8bi-bL6mUk442_Xko7JHEYIDf0wEyC2JesRy6IULEBIjIzr5Ppw0JWsp8TW38kq3n4rYeUPxkD_ZlnwVJ81rwWli-qpOCWUS9K5uvibpxvBtJDKk1o/s1600/Jesus_On_Cross.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXUMpVq1rfEk0sgG18d790Xnxe8bi-bL6mUk442_Xko7JHEYIDf0wEyC2JesRy6IULEBIjIzr5Ppw0JWsp8TW38kq3n4rYeUPxkD_ZlnwVJ81rwWli-qpOCWUS9K5uvibpxvBtJDKk1o/s400/Jesus_On_Cross.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532755908376131058" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> 1 <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Why are you so far from saving me,</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">so far from the words of my groaning?</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"> </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">6 <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">But I am a worm and not a man,</span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">scorned by men and despised by the people.</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">7 </span>All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">8</span> "He trusts in the LORD;</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> let the LORD rescue him.</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> Let him deliver him,</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> since he delights in him."</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">14 I am poured out like water,</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> and all my bones are out of joint.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">My heart has turned to wax;</span><span style="font-style: italic;">it has melted away within me.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">you lay me in the dust of death.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">16 Dogs have surrounded me;</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">17</span> I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">18</span> They divide my garments among them</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">and cast lots for my clothing.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">24 For he has not despised or disdained </span><span style="font-style: italic;">the suffering of the afflicted one; </span><span style="font-style: italic;">he has not hidden his face from him </span><span style="font-style: italic;">but has listened to his cry for help.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; </span><span style="font-style: italic;">before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; </span><span style="font-style: italic;">they who seek the LORD will praise him —</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">may your hearts live forever!</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">27 <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">All the ends of the earth</span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">will remember and turn to the LORD,</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">and all the families of the nations</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">will bow down before him,</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">28 <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">for dominion belongs to the LORD</span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">and he rules over the nations.</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">29</span> All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">all who go down to the dust will kneel before him — those who cannot keep themselves alive.</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">30 </span>Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">31 </span>They will proclaim his righteousness</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> to a people yet unborn—</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> for he has done it.<br /><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;">...</span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;">Moving then to Psalm 24, the scene moves to the Resurrection, but not from the perspective of the empty tomb on the third day, but that of Christ's triumphal entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Psalm 24</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,</span></span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAELziXVIFbmtwHgorCaFUSj1j6IF2D4zWBssrW1SGQVD_XeF5us1w4FyyodD5FBLFvagQBgMWZQl3rT3Ei0A2WnU3PpdXDbB3jEuusPIFowOGOhBGvAOb8SlUE4LWjGuxilSVEe4TJI/s1600/gates.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 145px; height: 99px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAELziXVIFbmtwHgorCaFUSj1j6IF2D4zWBssrW1SGQVD_XeF5us1w4FyyodD5FBLFvagQBgMWZQl3rT3Ei0A2WnU3PpdXDbB3jEuusPIFowOGOhBGvAOb8SlUE4LWjGuxilSVEe4TJI/s400/gates.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532790856479222978" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > the world, and all who live in it;<br />2 for he founded it upon the seas<br />and established it upon the waters.<br />3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD<br />Who may stand in his holy place?<br />4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">7 Lift up your heads, O you gates;</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> be lifted up, you ancient doors,</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> that the King of glory may come in.</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> 8 Who is this King of glory?</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> The LORD strong and mighty,</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> the LORD mighty in battle.</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates;</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> lift them up, you ancient doors,</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> that the King of glory may come in.</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> 10 Who is he, this King of glory?</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> The LORD Almighty—</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> he is the King of glory. </span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;">...</span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;">With these two pillars of support to the 23rd Psalm, like the prelude and finale to a pastoral symphony, I leave this (King James) version of the old, old story without further comment.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Psalm 23</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.</span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI9KrLGpcJIaHcBKgjxT4Rkm0SpkYWFb6xPS36U9hTfxtIj8PxIzC40RAHbxSNVW6hPwoTsfHkVgPerzlWE-vNM-9KWczyGZZ6wtx70X-2UWetCkQHEVjC1kfokoRIIn_opdrMLt1lhg/s1600/good_shepherd_ol.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI9KrLGpcJIaHcBKgjxT4Rkm0SpkYWFb6xPS36U9hTfxtIj8PxIzC40RAHbxSNVW6hPwoTsfHkVgPerzlWE-vNM-9KWczyGZZ6wtx70X-2UWetCkQHEVjC1kfokoRIIn_opdrMLt1lhg/s200/good_shepherd_ol.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533482627360432818" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.<br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C8B3I9NfsLzrqBBMTyCTAORb46RK-I6y9SixZg9kKzqWiHmFCguUi4-T8jfSm97XYrTE9c415LmRRFLPRF__CO7s1ehQxapCfh8KdoEtyG21AvAG3mnaSouj3iFiSDkDb-AYn9RXoWo/s1600/field+001.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C8B3I9NfsLzrqBBMTyCTAORb46RK-I6y9SixZg9kKzqWiHmFCguUi4-T8jfSm97XYrTE9c415LmRRFLPRF__CO7s1ehQxapCfh8KdoEtyG21AvAG3mnaSouj3iFiSDkDb-AYn9RXoWo/s400/field+001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533481288119352546" border="0" /></a>Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-879911115904614102010-09-06T01:20:00.000-07:002010-09-06T04:10:34.726-07:00Instinct for God - from before 'original sin'?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGvJ_34KdYEYl2lEberBRi1ADE6sT-x0P4HswJ-DaDfltvTnj9BZeQ9cYD8hfT9cRKd2h_u3pstkODj-EVGkgMkYkDPICAOmUeTa7g4Gqd_y1hEoycuEZSC1yfev7TaaeoyDC8pjmcMc/s1600/flock-2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGvJ_34KdYEYl2lEberBRi1ADE6sT-x0P4HswJ-DaDfltvTnj9BZeQ9cYD8hfT9cRKd2h_u3pstkODj-EVGkgMkYkDPICAOmUeTa7g4Gqd_y1hEoycuEZSC1yfev7TaaeoyDC8pjmcMc/s400/flock-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513712942708363042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">When birds migrate half-way round the world, they know where they are going 'by instinct'. I suppose if any one bird was unfortunate enough to have a more developed brain so that it was aware of other options and choices, this instinct would be drowned. But then it could always just join a flock and follow for the sake of it.<br /><br />The patterns birds make in the sky when preparing to migrate are hypnotic. They seem to take on a collective mind, and can even appear like a single organism. This picture looks to me like a giant fish in the sky.<br /><br />But what of mankind? If we have 'original sin' in our make-up, ought there not to be a remnant of even earlier (before the fall) perfect connection with God? A connection that would be truly 'original', although it could not again be wholly innocent or perfect in this world.<br /><br />This train of thought began with wondering why 'fasting' seems to have no place in the religious tradition I was brought up in. Everything I read about fasting, and its association with prayer, seems to make sense. Not only did Jesus fast for 40 days, but he appears to have taught self-denial (of power, wealth, possessions, etc.) - or at least that all self-centered worldly desires should be secondary to the love of God, and the love of one's neighbour. His example was such: born in a stable with nothing, died on a cross with nothing and lived 'without a place to rest his head'. Where the prosperity gospel comes from, Heaven alone knows!<br /><br />I was told that fasting can actually bring on a sense of elation - is this true, and why? The one thing I'm sure about is that when my life is busy, busy with 'stuff', and when my mind is a constant buzz of 'interests', even religious 'duties' do not bring me to a frame-shaking sense of His presence. Maybe fasting is a state of mind, uncluttered by the world, where the voice of God can actually be heard.<br /><br />Before I finally shake off my denominational baggage and head off for a hermit's cave, I suppose I better reflect on the fact that fasting and self-denial was never an end in itself, but a preparation.<br /> </span>Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-4712163674165467752010-08-31T04:24:00.000-07:002010-08-31T11:47:39.161-07:00Wrestling with the Truth<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuo0sOvuclpWvppHKh-zoJy2PdhgNjUm8jnNpuetTBBetkKL5hS0o2yLJtvYAY83fHGsiufOiUIDcd1Z_Jy7ay2GudKAuAWiAzo51wh1rVmGW44LyglzXLt5PaHHQXyS-wqVVcF3nJjHg/s1600/Jacob_Wrestling_with_Angel_Delacroix.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 236px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuo0sOvuclpWvppHKh-zoJy2PdhgNjUm8jnNpuetTBBetkKL5hS0o2yLJtvYAY83fHGsiufOiUIDcd1Z_Jy7ay2GudKAuAWiAzo51wh1rVmGW44LyglzXLt5PaHHQXyS-wqVVcF3nJjHg/s320/Jacob_Wrestling_with_Angel_Delacroix.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511533718231515618" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">When Jacob wrestled physically all night with a man who turned out to be God, surprisingly, neither prevailed, and finally God dislocated Jacob's hip to bring the struggle to an end. I can understand why Jacob ('father' of the 12 tribes of Israel) got disappointed - no,</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-size:130%;">n</span><span style="font-size:130%;">ot disappointed, but</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > angry</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> - with God when things were not going well for him on his return to Canaan after 20 years exile. Can we prevail over God to get his blessing on our plans, when he has some other thing in mind for us?<br /><br />When disaster hits or you miss out on "the one good thing" that you wanted above all else - a job, a partner, a house - or even a 'good thing' like a cure from an illness or the 'fixing' of a broken marriage, the first question is, "Why, (me), God?" Has it all gone wrong as a punishment? Is it a test of my faith? - (and yes, it certainly is doing that all right!) Where is God's plan for me in this mess? How could a Sovereign God let it happen?</span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />When Christian people I know have been thrown to the edge of depression by such 'undeserved' traumatic events, I used to find it very hard to answer their questions, until it all happened to me.<br /><br />The answer to my own anguished prayers at a time of extreme trauma came when I was drawn, for some reason, to read the story of Jacob wrestling with the "Angel of the Lord" in Genesis, 32.<br /><br />Although Jacob and Esau were twins born to Isaac, it was the second-born twin (Jacob) that was destined to inherit God's promise given to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. But Jacob - whose name means 'deceiver' - thought he had to give God a helping hand by tricking Esau out of his birthright. When Jacob fled his brother under the guise of finding a wife from Abraham's kinsfolk in Haran, he had to work for 7 years for his first wife (Leah), another 7 for the wife he wanted in the first place (Rachel), and another 6 years for the flocks and herds he accumulated.<br /><br />But this was all just a preparation for his return to face Esau and fulfill God's promise in Canaan. Afraid of Esau's reaction, he divided his flocks and household in two (one with each wife) and sent them on ahead to meet Esau. Alone, Jacob wrestled with the "Angel of the Lord" all night before crossing the river into Canaan.<br /><br />The part of the story that hit me was that rather than let Jacob proceed as his old deceitful self, the Lord disabled him to ensure his submission. Only then did God bless him and renew the covenant promises given earlier to Abraham, and with the blessing, re-named Jacob as "Israel".<br /><br />Why did this story strike me so forcibly?<br /><br />Because I had been "crippled" in my own circumstances (both in health and in work situation), and I couldn't understand why my prayers had been falling on deaf ears. Then I could see that I was wrestling with God myself. I would not give up things, good in themselves, that had become the most important things in my life, and let God's plan take over whatever that might prove to be.<br /><br />Any Christian will see how the teachings of Jesus demand the highest levels of trust, obedience and self-sacrifice. Sometimes God permits us to have life-crippling experiences to put us back on the track He wants us on. </span>Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-25003844336974939482010-07-21T02:59:00.000-07:002010-07-21T09:19:16.923-07:00Third Person, Singular<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghlfa-lgCmk5x0-EcaUnRvbldwhH7BE9UPq47IdIkY6O2ksoI0qgACQGi44eaH9HHQ-BxS2-1mAD3d-iQgrJ4W16311nJQQwCzMU1c05wlXIxfIJ5eBT_LbHxoF2BQ5L_-JecOaC9UnbA/s1600/windy+trees.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghlfa-lgCmk5x0-EcaUnRvbldwhH7BE9UPq47IdIkY6O2ksoI0qgACQGi44eaH9HHQ-BxS2-1mAD3d-iQgrJ4W16311nJQQwCzMU1c05wlXIxfIJ5eBT_LbHxoF2BQ5L_-JecOaC9UnbA/s400/windy+trees.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496298635456171202" border="0" /></a>Can we see the wind?<br /><br />Well, we can see what it is doing to the trees and the direction it appears to be pushing them.<br /><br />As an unseen force, I like the image of wind as the breath of God, or the Holy Spirit. The third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, might be the hardest one to understand, but it is the one which gives understanding, power and life itself.<br /><br />I don't particularly like the image of the Holy Spirit as a dove. In the Genesis account of creation, the Spirit of God existed with the Father and the Son (the Word) in the Beginning:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">'Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.'</span> (Genesis 1, verse 2)<br /></blockquote>This is the only occasion, I think, when the Spirit is described as being in a waiting and apparently motionless state, but I suppose 'hovering' does imply a bird-like activity. The Hebrew word used here for 'Spirit' can also be translated (and is elsewhere in the Old Testament) as 'Breath' or 'Wind'. So in the creation account of Adam, ' <span style="font-style: italic;">the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life</span>'. In Job 33, verse 4, Elihu says to Job, <span style="font-style: italic;">'The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.' </span><br /><br />Of course the New Testament gives us the whole picture of the Holy Spirit, not only in the Pentecostal experience of wind and tongues of fire at the birth of the church, but before (in the teachings and promises of Christ), and after (in the teachings and experiences of the Apostles).<br /><br />I used to think of the Trinity as being the same thing in 3 different forms - a bit like water being liquid (normal water), solid (ice) or gas (steam), but the parallel breaks down if it is taken too far, and stops being helpful. Sometimes you can hear a hymn sung hundreds of times before particular words strike home with a new understanding. This happened recently to me with the hymn "Breath on me, Breath of God. Fill me with life anew." At the same time I came across Jesus' own illustration of the Holy Spirit as being like the wind in John 3, verses 6-8:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">'Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at me saying, "You must be born again." The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.'<br /><br /><br /></blockquote>We are all control freaks as far as being in control of our own destiny is concerned. It is hard to trust and obey an unseen God when it means letting go and sailing in faith with the Wind. But if I don't and just drift along with the earth's flow, where will I end up?<br /><br />Yes the question deepens, and we have all the gifts of the Spirit, baptism of the Spirit and so on. But then the denominational wrangles emerge and create a storm of their own. I think it's best to keep it simple so that you can actually feel the breeze that is directed at you.Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-16431016248325862010-07-04T02:19:00.000-07:002010-07-04T09:54:52.710-07:00In the Beginning, Christ ...?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuoNeQYZVZ5sX1O8cXU3lKBLt-Q-PF17Qhfnq9HsGITE9xe66FtxiloOWv9nNnH7r-F4sBI1pJlAund1MmHrXZup6YfnklODhEMoFcn63woT2dLDRYv8pu25-woT3k5OQKviaTv35zO3A/s1600/abraham_ps.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 263px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuoNeQYZVZ5sX1O8cXU3lKBLt-Q-PF17Qhfnq9HsGITE9xe66FtxiloOWv9nNnH7r-F4sBI1pJlAund1MmHrXZup6YfnklODhEMoFcn63woT2dLDRYv8pu25-woT3k5OQKviaTv35zO3A/s400/abraham_ps.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490029970368665186" border="0" /></a><br />I passed a bookshop yesterday that has a 'new release' book called "CHRIST IN GENESIS". I haven't bought it yet, and don't want to until I put down my own thoughts first - just in case I get accused of copying!<br /><br />Some folk will think this idea is out of sequence: surely Jesus wasn't born until the beginning of the New Testament? But most Christians will think straight away of the beginning of John's Gospel:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"> "In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ...<br />The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."</blockquote> The idea that Christ was one with the Father before creation, and was the agent of creation itself, is certainly a part of orthodox Christian theology. But I was thinking of something else - the idea that Christ's purpose in coming into the world was prophesied in the Old Testament, and 'fore-shadowed' by the events described.<br /><br />The story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4) always puzzled me. Yes, of course Cain's jealousy and murder of his brother was wrong, but it all came about because God rejected Cain's sacrifice of his 'fruits of the soil' in favour of Abel's 'firstborn of his stock'. After all, Cain worked the soil and Abel tended flocks. Only with the benefit of hindsight (i.e. the New Testament) do we understand the symbolic significance of blood sacrifice.<br /><br />But the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son Isaac (Genesis 22) to God's inexplicable request is even more striking. When the 'angel of the Lord' called out to Abraham at the last minute to revoke the request, the Lord provided a male sheep caught by its horns in a nearby thorn bush as a substitute.<br /><br />The significance of this event as a fore-shadowing of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the Cross really hit me the last time I read this familiar story. Not the climax - but just before, when Abraham had taken the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on the back of his son Isaac for him to carry. I had not made any connection before with Jesus carrying the wood of his own cross to the hill at Calvary.<br /><br />When they arrived, Isaac said to his father,<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."</span></blockquote><br />We used to have an embroidered text on the wall at home when I was a small boy. It said "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found". It is certainly true when you read Genesis.Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-11448842555127637212010-05-30T13:01:00.000-07:002010-06-01T10:17:50.060-07:00A day is a long time in Genesis?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ApMNiA8odtchPQqQ68clNsycfYMLQt81pFfHZxzgVxpewXSAd82OCh9KAE_YNg1UvZ2on_Fp38nae4Fv78ulUGB14touXuNEOEeRAyiqo9RZprIbO_qnOTlkENgDQFRvd0GYhObBjdc/s1600/nebulus.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 227px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ApMNiA8odtchPQqQ68clNsycfYMLQt81pFfHZxzgVxpewXSAd82OCh9KAE_YNg1UvZ2on_Fp38nae4Fv78ulUGB14touXuNEOEeRAyiqo9RZprIbO_qnOTlkENgDQFRvd0GYhObBjdc/s320/nebulus.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477846887174232130" /></a><br /><br />Nelson McCausland, Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland, has caused a bit of a political storm by criticising a new Ulster Museum exhibition on the origins of the universe. Here it provides only one storyline - 'Evolution Facts'. While the news story will follow predictable lines, his criticism is valid.<br /><br />The late 20th century has witnessed a reluctant revolution in the scientific world which appears to have left the museum behind. The idea the the universe was infinite and absolute - that neither it nor time itself had a 'beginning' - was a stubborn tenet of scientific faith that has not been dispelled until this generation.<br /><br />In 1915 Einstein introduced his General Theory of Relativity. He postulated that the universe exists in a space-time dimension that is neither linear nor absolute. Time and the universe had a simultaneous beginning. To talk of the time 'before' the beginning of the universe is like asking what is south of the south pole. <br /><br />The discovery in the 1920s by Edwin Hubble (by measuring light from distant galaxies) that the universe was expanding in all directions led to the calculation that the entire matter of the universe must have been at a single point some 15 billion years ago - if the speed of expansion had been constant. Was this the 'beginning'?<br /><br />In the 1940s, a group of scientists (unhappy at the prospect of having to accept a 'beginning') came up with the concept of a 'steady state' universe. This theory was abandoned by most scientists in the 1960s when a study of weak radio waves proved that the universe did not have a constant density in the past, and so a 'steady state' universe did not appear to exist.<br /><br />Since the 1960s - largely through the work of Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose and others as described in Hawking's best-seller<span style="font-style: italic;"> A Brief History of Time </span>- there is now almost universal acceptance in the scientific world of a 'singularity': a point of infinite density and spacetime curvature where time has a beginning. With this comes general scientific acceptance of the 'Big Bang' theory. Hawking is only concerned with events following the first microsecond of the 'Big Bang' - not with before or with its cause. <blockquote style="font-style: italic;">"The universe expanded by a factor of a million trillion trillion in a tiny fraction of a second. ... It produced a very large and uniform universe, just as we observe." </blockquote>The speed of expansion of the universe as observed today is unlikely to be anything like the speed imagined a micro-second after the 'big bang'. A 'day' of those first 24 hours would have been a spectacular light show.<br /><br />'Creationists' - by definition anybody that believes in a Creator God - have to contend with the assumption by atheists that they must believe in the 'Aunt Sally' of a literal 7-day (or more accurately, a 6-day) creation, where each day is 24 hours. The paradox is that many Christians are in denial about being 'Creationists' because of the implications that the label brings. So Nelson McCausland may not find much open academic support.<br /><br />The debate about whether the six 'days' of creation as described in Genesis were intended to be interpreted as literal or figurative is for another 'day', but the greatest discrepancy of scientific versus literal-biblical estimates of duration (amounting to billions of years) mostly relate to the 'first day' when, according to Genesis 1. 1-6:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.<br />And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day', and the darkness he called 'night'. And there was evening and there was morning - the first day.<br /></blockquote>A couple of things seem obvious to me. First, in the creationist debate about the meaning of 'day' (where a considerable body of Christians do accept this as figurative for 'age'), I find little recognition of the fact that these verses actually define 'day' as the presence of the 'light' just created. The creation of the sun, moon and stars to establish (govern) the seasons and day and night as we now experience them (depending on the relative positions of earth and sun) was not until the 'fourth day'.<br /><br />The second thing that appears obvious to me is that the biblical account of the first day of creation and the current scientific theories of the singularity event at the beginning of time and the universe are in greater harmony of cause and effect than ever before. It is 'evolution' that has no place in the debate.Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-1695101798110082022010-05-29T09:29:00.000-07:002010-05-30T05:04:06.484-07:00The seven ages of man<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-RIFelypsDac46xni-6UaakZfew82Mi0x9nhyF2xNzlkBhe5Nq41PUTWKozSdTJfXEdcjQQZfMpKlkojA-C35NO4IIYUT5_kQByZBFWXgBl_b9mMo93UOTHw8GJKBlaiw_BlAJmHSkM/s1600/Lightnings1.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 279px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-RIFelypsDac46xni-6UaakZfew82Mi0x9nhyF2xNzlkBhe5Nq41PUTWKozSdTJfXEdcjQQZfMpKlkojA-C35NO4IIYUT5_kQByZBFWXgBl_b9mMo93UOTHw8GJKBlaiw_BlAJmHSkM/s320/Lightnings1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476741764638638642" border="0" /></a><br />There are so many things I want to rant about I don't know where to start. So, as Julie Andrews says, lets start at the very beginning - a very good place to start.<br /><br />When I first got on the train to glory - the redemption express - I must have been about six or seven. All I knew was the tickets were free and if you weren't on board you might as well kiss good-bye to life there and then. The message was pretty unsophisticated: 'Turn or Burn'.<br /><br />Mark Twain once said that giving up smoking was easy - he had done it hundreds of times. By the time I was 30 I too had given up smoking, well, scores of times - and been 'born again' (or tried to be) almost as often. But that's another story, and although my 'church' identity has wobbled from 'what's a church?' to non-denominational Mission Hall to anti-church to Presbyterian to ... well, lets call it 'post-denominational'.<br /><br />Much as I've chewed the cud on transubstantiation, predestination and all that jazz, two things have always bothered me: If there is no God, these things are only cultural, tribal, or whatever. They don't matter. If there is a God, these things are probably still only cultural, tribal, or whatever and they still don't matter as much as the big, big picture. The entire edifice of all churches and religion stands or falls on the truth or otherwise of the first four words of the Bible: "In the beginning, God ..."<br /><br />Creation or evolution? Is one faith and the other science? Who or what caused the big bang on the first 'day' of creation? Well, having struggled though Stephen Hawking's <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">A </span>Brief History of Time</span>, I'm absolutely convinced that linear 'time' - be it 'days' in the literal or in the 'ages' sense - is a very human concept. A 24-hour day as we know it with earth and sun in their present relationships and velocities could not have 'evolved' until after the 3rd 'day' of creation! If, as the Bible says, God is eternal - without beginning and without end - the same yesterday, today and tomorrow - or as Jesus put it "Before Abraham was, I am", then the past the present and the future are all simultaneously 'present' with him. Now I think I understand that it is beyond me!<br /><br />Evolution is fact as far as explaining the modification and adaptions of life forms within species. It is contentious theory when it comes to 'explaining' the common origin of different species, and it is improbable theory when it comes to 'explaining' the origin of life. To call the processes forming the universe itself 'evolution' is science fiction.<br /><br />At the other end of the spectrum the beginning of my own life was contained in a microscopic event that already contained all the DNA information to predestine my variables of gender, sexuality, colour, size and inevitable baldness, as well as all the standard body parts! As far as I know I grew into an adult rather than evolved from a few cells. The programme was already there.Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305596972166119745.post-88517965426061106562010-05-01T10:15:00.000-07:002010-05-06T05:45:06.365-07:00drowning in churchianity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLWt_IRa_Jt-uXtMFuCbH36NMlvDPAptlc_JeJ_T93jyK4snaY4sc475_zspB7YUyeb9GGDbswvd_-aUet00zZaLhrbna4quZIGTBbo1zgeg7Ab7y6WyMoDeEJvSIGiQOnOvTEbg3mCE/s1600/sligo+012.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLWt_IRa_Jt-uXtMFuCbH36NMlvDPAptlc_JeJ_T93jyK4snaY4sc475_zspB7YUyeb9GGDbswvd_-aUet00zZaLhrbna4quZIGTBbo1zgeg7Ab7y6WyMoDeEJvSIGiQOnOvTEbg3mCE/s320/sligo+012.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466377095709453922" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Calling all troubled souls</span> who find their church, or any church, an impediment in their journey of faith.<br /><br />I have always seen some 'high' church rituals and traditions as little short of idolatry. But that is OK when you are criticising others. What about things closer to home in your own church, your own 'favorite' things? Is it forbidden territory to have pride in my own denomination? Can I make an idol out of psalms, praise bands, the Bible, church leaders?<br /><br />Is there anybody else out there who is unsettled by the way people in their own church seem to put 'church loyalty' before Jesus? I mean, although no-one would admit it, they get their buzz from the traditions, rituals and ethnic allegiances of their own church, and their lives are driven by church 'business' - even maybe the business of 'worship'. I'm not even sure if I want to go where this train - the 'denominational express' - is going.<br /><br />But before anybody rushes to join the attack on <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>denominations <span style="font-weight: bold;">other</span> than their own, we all do that. It is part of the problem. Of course we can see those bad traits in <span style="font-weight: bold;">other</span> churches, especially those most different from our own.<br /><br />Now this is not an attack on 'Holy-Rollers' (but that may come later!); nor on priests or pastors (although that may come sooner!)<br /><br />'Post-Denominationalism' is a term I heard somewhere (although my spell-check doesn't like it). That sounds like where I'm coming from. But where am I going? What will my next rant be? I'm spoiled for choice.Philip Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266929629062158843noreply@blogger.com9