Mark 1:32 That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus… 35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
Two verses from this past Sunday’s text remind us of the value of perceiving the beginning of the new 24 hour day as the evening rather than the morning. Jewish culture treated evening followed by morning as part of the same 24 hour day rather than two days separated by night.
God pointed to the first day as being initiated with evening followed by morning calling that the first day. Genesis 1:5 And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
So too Sabbath begins Friday evening and ends Saturday evening. This new day beginning Saturday evening suspended the no-work rule of the Sabbath allowing people to carry their sick to Jesus lawfully in the case of mark 1:32.
The point for us to be made is that when our day begins in the evening, the morning seems more likely to be a planned as a next event as opposed to some far-off distinct occurrence that we don’t have to worry about until tomorrow.
We begin to realize that for the morning to go as planed we must begin that process in the evening. If we are to follow Jesus in his pattern of carving out quiet meditative solitary time which includes mental energy available to invest in prayer and the alertness to listen to God and receive from God, that will only happen when the evening is perceived as that which immediately precedes the morning rather than seeing them as distinct.
As much as you must make coffee before you can expect to drink it, you must prepare your morning meditation time by preceding it with planned, proportioned sleep that will allow you the freedom and energy to enter morning devotions rested and alert.
Profitable morning devotions are preceded by a planned and disciplined evening.
Hebrews 11:6 Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
If we express to God an earnestness to seek him out, we can expect him to reward that desire by meeting us and revealing more of himself to us in a way that produces joy.
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Pain Has a Purpose and a Cure
Half the pain of pain is not knowing its purpose.
Half the pain of pain is not knowing its cure.
Imagine suffering the pain of an operation, knowing the incision will soon heal and the operation will obtain a cure. This is pain you are supposed to feel it is intentional, purposeful. You want this pain.
You face the operation willingly, in fact gladly and endure the pain, though perhaps hating it at the same time. You know the pain brings the cure, like cauterizing a wound, like the scene in “Papillon” with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
The whole point of all the pain in the world caused by sin and sickness is simply this: to provide a means by which we may recognize and embrace our greatest desire, which is that all pain would go away and we would live happily in paradise.
If we embrace our pain we will find our greatest desire and in embracing that desire, we will find a promise from God to fulfill it: Paradise with him and Jesus is the way.
That’s the purpose, the cure, hope in Jesus and his promise for you. Don’t be distracted by other offers. No matter how seemingly good, a spouse, children, a fulfilling job, a decent pay-cheque, an enjoyable retirement, none, can fulfill our deepest desire, none should derail our investment of hope in Christ.
It’s easy. The biggest and worst problem in the world, sin and suffering, has an easy answer, so easy the self-impressed will never grasp it, love it, only the childlike, only the sick, will.
Mark 2:17 It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Mark 10:15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Half the pain of pain is not knowing its cure.
Imagine suffering the pain of an operation, knowing the incision will soon heal and the operation will obtain a cure. This is pain you are supposed to feel it is intentional, purposeful. You want this pain.
You face the operation willingly, in fact gladly and endure the pain, though perhaps hating it at the same time. You know the pain brings the cure, like cauterizing a wound, like the scene in “Papillon” with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
The whole point of all the pain in the world caused by sin and sickness is simply this: to provide a means by which we may recognize and embrace our greatest desire, which is that all pain would go away and we would live happily in paradise.
If we embrace our pain we will find our greatest desire and in embracing that desire, we will find a promise from God to fulfill it: Paradise with him and Jesus is the way.
That’s the purpose, the cure, hope in Jesus and his promise for you. Don’t be distracted by other offers. No matter how seemingly good, a spouse, children, a fulfilling job, a decent pay-cheque, an enjoyable retirement, none, can fulfill our deepest desire, none should derail our investment of hope in Christ.
It’s easy. The biggest and worst problem in the world, sin and suffering, has an easy answer, so easy the self-impressed will never grasp it, love it, only the childlike, only the sick, will.
Mark 2:17 It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Mark 10:15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Agnosticism
Etymology: Greek agnōstos unknown, unknowable, from "a"(without) + "gnōstos"(known,)
I am tempted to become an agnostic. Not in a religious sense, but in a social way. I am almost convinced that I should treat those who are dedicated to being unknowable, as irrelevant and unworthy of effort. People who commit themselves to treating God as though he were unknowable and therefore irrelevant, unworthy of searching out, inevitably become like their God: incomprehensible. Those who refuse to admit pain or doubt or wrestle with the Knowable One as a means of coping become unknowable themselves.
Those who hide from pain and their wounded souls in a delusion of respectable ignorance and worldly hedonism are not the sort of people who will be able to help anyone in any struggle. Nor will they receive any real help. It is too uncomfortable to dress their wounds, so they are allowed to fester. They make knowing them pointless, without the benefit or comfort of any hard-found truth being traded back and forth. They are unwilling to hear, unwilling to loosen their grip on the philosophy that is enabling them to survive in this very moment.
I bet they hurt way worse than I do, though they my not know it. And I bet they will for all eternity, when all the remedy to their life’s pain is gone, a cure left behind in a bottle on a shelf, unused. I will drink the remedy. I wish I could share it. I wish I could help, but no one can, not even God if one refuses to seek him. I guess I’ll wipe the dust off my sandals. I guess someone has to populate hell, even if they are people I know and love.
I am considering becoming an agnostic, forgetting about people I love who refuse to diligently seek the One who never stops making himself known. I am considering it. So far, I cannot forget them. Their speech seems completely irrelevant and yet I love them. I wish I could help. I wish they would change. I wish I could forget them. One day I will. That is part of the cure. But that day is not yet.
I am tempted to become an agnostic. Not in a religious sense, but in a social way. I am almost convinced that I should treat those who are dedicated to being unknowable, as irrelevant and unworthy of effort. People who commit themselves to treating God as though he were unknowable and therefore irrelevant, unworthy of searching out, inevitably become like their God: incomprehensible. Those who refuse to admit pain or doubt or wrestle with the Knowable One as a means of coping become unknowable themselves.
Those who hide from pain and their wounded souls in a delusion of respectable ignorance and worldly hedonism are not the sort of people who will be able to help anyone in any struggle. Nor will they receive any real help. It is too uncomfortable to dress their wounds, so they are allowed to fester. They make knowing them pointless, without the benefit or comfort of any hard-found truth being traded back and forth. They are unwilling to hear, unwilling to loosen their grip on the philosophy that is enabling them to survive in this very moment.
I bet they hurt way worse than I do, though they my not know it. And I bet they will for all eternity, when all the remedy to their life’s pain is gone, a cure left behind in a bottle on a shelf, unused. I will drink the remedy. I wish I could share it. I wish I could help, but no one can, not even God if one refuses to seek him. I guess I’ll wipe the dust off my sandals. I guess someone has to populate hell, even if they are people I know and love.
I am considering becoming an agnostic, forgetting about people I love who refuse to diligently seek the One who never stops making himself known. I am considering it. So far, I cannot forget them. Their speech seems completely irrelevant and yet I love them. I wish I could help. I wish they would change. I wish I could forget them. One day I will. That is part of the cure. But that day is not yet.
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