100723 faithposting

 

VOTD = God is our refuge, yes, BUT that implies a NEED FOR ONE-- no one goes to a bomb shelter when there isn't a war!!!
"God is where the joy is"; stormy circumstances cannot change that.
Rescue doesn't mandate removal from the struggle. It might mean a DEEPER rescue from something we cannot yet see, on a spiritual level, BY staying in that struggle. BUT GOD WILL RESCUE YOU either way, IF you turn to Him TO do so with TOTAL TRUST.
This is also how He "provides"= the promise of provision stands, for the faithful, but the means & methods are a mystery!
We CANNOT control or predict the details of God's ways, but we CAN TRUST THEM.

The app is so glitchy now. It won't save prayers, it won't let me choose Bible verses, it keeps skipping between translations & books, it frequently refuses to load at all, it keeps either deleting or duplicating actions... honestly we need to actively find another app with translation capability, because the update destroyed that in this one. You literally cannot click through comparisons anymore, and you can only compare them if you download them offline. It's a mess.

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BARCLAY TIME.

...I'm shocked that he starts off claiming this chapter is possibly not in proper chronological order? Because it "makes more sense" with events moved around. But that's a dangerous motivation, to place your own opinion of coherence over how it is literally preserved as written. That prioritizes your perspective over God's. For the record-- the reordering he suggested actually could not be true, because it would destroy the essential chronological timing of both Christ's anointing and entry into Jerusalem with the Passover preparations of Nisan 10-15. ALWAYS trust GOD'S timing, even if it seems to make little sense. There is always more going on than we realize-- just like John 12:16 reminds us.


"When Jesus came to Bethany they made him a meal... in [their] own house. It was then that Mary's heart ran over in love."
This is beautifully simple yet deep.
1. When Jesus arrived in town, they invited Him into their own home.
2. They fed Him and waited on Him.
3. In this exact environment, Mary's heart overflowed with love.
...


"There is the character of Martha. She was serving at table. She loved Jesus; she was a practical woman; and the only way in which she could show her love was by the work of her hands. Martha always gave what she could. Many and many a great man has been what he was only because of someone's loving care for his creature comforts in his home. It is just as possible to serve Jesus in the kitchen as on the public platform or in a career lived in the eyes of men."
This is SO PROFOUNDLY REASSURING to me.
I don't think we talk about this enough in the church, which is ironic, because it is the sheer practical love of elderly homemaker women that is holding it together right now.


"We see love's extravagance. Mary took the most precious thing she possessed and spent it all on Jesus. Love is not love if it nicely calculates the cost. It gives its all and its only regret is that it has not still more to give... Real love cannot think of any other way to give."
I need to ask myself these questions.
1. What, in all raw honesty, is the most precious thing I possess? How many answers can I get?
2. How, practically, can I "spend" ALL of those things on Jesus? How can I "pour them out" for His honor & worship alone?
3. Where am I calculating the cost of love? What determines my budget? What else am I spending it on that I need to "save it" for?
4. How can I practically give "my all" in love for God, to the point where I can say there is "nothing more" that hasn't been offered?


"We see love's humility. It was a sign of honour to anoint a person's head... But Mary would not look so high as the head of Jesus; she anointed his feet. The last thing Mary thought of was to confer an honour upon Jesus; she never dreamed she was good enough for that."
This is shocking because THIS IS TRUE HUMILITY!! This is the standard that checks spiritual pride & presumption!!!
When we think that we wretched mortals CAN honor God of ourselves, that's actually pride. Everything good in us COMES FROM HIM, FOR HIM. To act like we're giving Him honor, as if it is ours to dish out-- it turns the stomach.
HOWEVER. Love still yearns to show love, for the sake of the beloved. Love is inherently humble, but it ALSO CAN HONOR GOD because it is inherently OF GOD.
Love, in humbly recognizing its total dependence on God, gives the only thing it CAN give-- its entire self. THAT is honor, from a human to God, in mirroring His very Self-gift in Christ for Love of us.
...
Mary foreshadowed this, before it happened in time, but because it already was in His eternal Heart that loved her.
...

"Jesus well aware that there was a traitor within the ranks. It may well be that He tried to touch Judas' heart by making him the treasurer of the apostolic company. It may well be that He tried to appeal to his sense of honour. It may well be that He was saying in effect to him: "Judas, here's something that you can do for Me. Here is proof that I need you and want you." That appeal failed with Judas, but the fact remains that often the best way to reclaim someone who is on the wrong path is to treat him not with suspicion but with trust; not as if we expected the worst, but as if we expected the best."
This is breaking my heart. This aches so much.
I needed to be treated like that, when I was in the throes of sin. No one trusted me to ever do good, or get better, or change whatsoever. I was permanently suspect, disparaged, unwanted, seen as the worst possible outcome guaranteed.
Jesus didn't treat Judas like that.
Jesus doesn't treat me like that.
...
I keep thinking of Outspacers, of Kakofoni, of my family, of my old friends.
THIS is mercy. THIS is what I needed more than oxygen and ONLY got from God-- and through Him, UPMC and the System.
...
This is exactly what I need to give to everyone else, now, for love of Jesus. Lord make me kind like You.


"We see one of the laws of temptation. Jesus would not have put Judas in charge of the money-box unless he had some capabilities in that direction; [and] temptation commonly comes through that for which we are naturally fitted. If a man is fitted to handle money, his temptation may be to regard money as the most important thing in the world. If a man is fitted to occupy a place of prominence, his temptation may be to think first and foremost of reputation. If a man has a particular gift, his temptation may be to become conceited about that gift. Judas had a gift for handling money, and became so fond of it that he became first a thief and then a traitor for its sake... Judas did not only carry the bag; he pilfered from it. Temptation struck him at the point of his special gift."
MAN. Knowing the laws of the warfare changes ones ENTIRE strategic perspective, so to speak. I NEVER CONSIDERED THIS.
This demands thorough self-examination. What are our capabilities? Where are our weak points?
We've cast off & rejected so much; was that an intuitive defense mechanism against this???
...


"We see how a man's view can be warped. Judas had just seen an action of surpassing loveliness; and he called it extravagant waste. He was an embittered man and he took an embittered view of things. A man's sight depends on what is inside him. He sees only what he is fit and able to see. If we like a person, he can do little wrong. If we dislike him, we may misinterpret his finest action. A warped mind brings a warped view of things; and, if we find ourselves becoming very critical of others and imputing unworthy motives to them, we should, for a moment, stop examining them and start examining ourselves."
This convicts us like a knife to the gut.
Most, if not ALL, of our "critical judgments" of others are based in trauma.
...


"Lastly, there is here one great truth about life. Some things we can do almost any time, but some things we will never do, unless we grasp the chance when it comes. We are seized with the desire to do something fine and generous arid big-hearted. But we put it off--we will do it tomorrow; and the fine impulse goes, and the thing is never done. Life is an uncertain thing. We think to utter some word of thanks or praise or love but we put it off; and often the word is never spoken... There is a time for doing and for saying things; and, when it is past, they may never be said and never be done..."
I paste this because we never lived this until grandma's death.
Since then, we've been so much more sensitive. We aren't willing to gamble on tomorrow. Every night we think, "I might not wake up in the morning," and so whatever the day brings, whatever the Spirit spontaneously speaks into our soul-- we're learning, more and more, to obey on the spot.
...I don't know if we have any lingering regrets of this sort with grandma. If anything it's just general wishes, impossible in hindsight as being spoken from a totally different Now.
...
Chris taught us to always end phone calls with "I love you," back when he didn't know if he'd ever see his family again.
We think of mom & dad growing older. We must treasure every moment. If I have the car & see dad is home I will stop by. If mom invites me to do something with her I will go joyfully.
...


"Let us remember to do things now, for the chance so often never comes again, and the failure to do them, especially the failure to express love, brings bitter remorse... Here is one tragic instance of how a man realized too late the things he had never said and done. Thomas Carlyle loved Jane Welsh Carlyle, but he was a cross-grained, irritable creature and he never made life happy for her. Unexpectedly she died... In his long sleepless nights, he recognized too late what she had felt and suffered under his childish irritabilities. His faults rose up in remorseless judgment, and as he had thought too little of them before, so now he exaggerated them to himself in his helpless repentance... 'Oh!' he cried again and again, 'if I could see her but once more, were it but for five minutes, to let her know that I always loved her through all that. She never did know it, never.'"
...
...that is exactly our biggest haunting grief over grandma.
Did she know?
Yeah, we cared for her 24/7 for months upon months, but at the very end when we were forced to move out by government law and her mind started to go and she thought we just left her... when we were too sick and addicted and weak to go back to living in her house full-time after that... when I unexpectedly caught COVID and had to quarantine away from her home for a full month, during which time her health failed rapidly... When near the end both she & I got sicker and sicker and I ended up in the ER when she was going into hospice... oh how asinine and selfish and stupid and foolish I was!!! How blind I was to how my "childish irritabilities" hurt her!!! What a miserable excuse for a granddaughter I was!!!
Did she think we hated her? Did she think we abandoned her?
Did she know we actually always loved her through all that?
...
I'm going to cry. My chest feels like it's about to break into rain. I can't type more about this right now, we won't be able to eat or prepare for Mass in time.
But don't you dare leave these unfinished. Don't be such a heartless hypocrite as to bail on her memory, too.


"The Sadducees saw Jesus as the possible leader of a rebellion. He was stealing away the hearts of the people. The atmosphere was electric; and the Sadducees were determined to get rid of him in case there should be an uprising of the people and their own ease and comfort and authority be threatened."
I just realized why this was a threat= Jesus could ONLY "cause a rebellion" IF THE SADDUCEES REJECTED HIM. Otherwise there wouldn't be a problem. But everything Jesus taught & stood for & actually opposed was apparently in irreconcilable contrast to their own ease & comfort & authority??? They wouldn't accept His TRUTH-- they wouldn't even consider Him to be Messiah, and so COOPERATE with Him-- because His order of holy business threatened their cushy worldly lives. So ironically, THEY THEMSELVES were "causing the rebellion"-- Jesus was only "stealing away their hearts" to a reign of peace & justice & charity, but their very language shows that these wealthy aristocratic priests considered the common people to be their property. If thr people rebelled, it would only be BECAUSE there was an active opposing force TO rebel against, one that willingly fought against Jesus's revolution of compassion... and the Sadducees were willing to play that role, for their own shortsightedly selfish sakes. All they cared about was their status & control, and they were willing to point fingers at the Romans to justify their mad tantrum of an assassination plot. They had no idea what Authority they were actually up against...


"Second, they regarded it as theologically intolerable. Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead; and, here they were confronted with Lazarus who had been raised from the grave. Unless they could do something about it, the foundations of their power, their influence and their teaching, were slipping from beneath their feet. So they proposed to destroy the evidence by doing away with Lazarus, [as if] to say: "Let's hope it's not true, and, if it is, let's hush it up!" When a man has to support a position by destroying the evidence which threatens it, it means that he is using dishonest methods to support a lie-- and knows it. The Sadducees were prepared to suppress the truth to further their own self-interest. For many people self-interest is the most powerful motive in life... Self-interest dictates policy and action. In order to maintain their own place and their own influence the priests and the Sadducees were prepared to destroy the evidence for the truth. A man has come to a sorry pass when he is afraid of the truth and sets his personal prestige and profit before it."
Oh this is twisted.
I actually struggle with this in a sense-- I instinctively fear the "threat of upheaval" in my faith, but I'm learning to actually surrender to the mystery of Creation with a closer hold yet gentler grip on the equal mystery of Christianity. To white-knuckle your belief system betrays a real lack of belief deep down. To accept the core Truths of Christ without putting limits on His revelations and manifestations of them... it's scary, stepping into that unknown, but it's exhilaratingly beautiful, too, with the Light of Faith shimmering starlight in the darkness. God is so much bigger and stranger than I can ever comprehend; why would His religion be any less grand?
...
But the bit about finding evidence for truth, and destroying it when it threatens your own opinions and interests... that sums up the state of the religious wars today, really, in our culture.
...


"It is always possible to attract people for a time by sensationalism and shrewd publicity; but it never lasts. Those who were that day regarding Jesus as a sensation were within a week shouting for his death."
This reminds me in a deeper sense of the parable of the sower.
...What really caught me was the wordplay. So many people want to "feel good" about their faith. They only choose-- or reject-- a religion FOR the "feelings."
Love isn't a feeling. Neither is Jesus.
...


"There is no doubt that when the people sang this psalm (118) they were looking on Jesus as God's Anointed One, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the One who was to come. And there is no doubt that they were looking on him as the Conqueror. To them it must have been only a matter of time until the trumpets rang out and the call to arms sounded and the Jewish nation swept to its long delayed victory over Rome and the world. Jesus approached Jerusalem with the shout of the mob hailing a conqueror in his ears--and it must have hurt Him, for they were looking in Him for that very thing which He refused to be."
...I always forget that's how the general populace viewed Him.
I stand corrected and I apologize. The potential "rebellion" wasn't just against the Sadducees-- it was ironically against Jesus Himself as well. The people were the powder keg. They were angry & oppressed & all too ready to fight. For Christ the long-awaited Messiah to actually be the Suffering Servant-- that would have scandalized their pugilistic pride, and indeed it did.
...


"Seldom in the world's history has there been such a display of magnificently deliberate courage as the Triumphal Entry. We must remember that Jesus was an outlaw and that the authorities were determined to kill him. All prudence would have warned him to turn back and make for Galilee or the desert places. If he was to enter Jerusalem at all, all caution would have demanded that he enter secretly and go into hiding; but He came in such a way as to focus every eye upon Himself. It was an act of the most superlative courage, for it was the defiance of all that man could do; and it was an act of the most superlative love, for it was love's last appeal before the end."
Upon reading this, I thought, "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday today and forever"... and I mused, then that means He STILL acts with such magnificently deliberate courage when entering the hearts of men hostile to His Kingship-- and He only ever enters with love.
That's profound. I guess that's how we actually have to read the whole Gospel! Christ's character is immutable. Whatever His motives and methods were during His earthly Life, they remain the same now in His Resurrected Life.
Again, I never thought of it that way before; it never even occurred to me. I didn't understand how continuous character worked, I guess. It's so unlike fallen humanity, and thank God, both for being that faithful and for calling us to be likewise through Himself.
...


"Philip did not know what to do, and he went to Andrew. Andrew was in no doubt and he led them to Jesus. Andrew had discovered that no one could ever be a nuisance to Jesus. He knew that Jesus would never turn any seeking soul away."
With all the teaching about hell & judgment & disappointing God I received as a child, especially the terrible claims that "Jesus didn't want to even look at a bad child like me"... this is shocking in its absolute compassion. For some folks I know these descriptions of Jesus are so oft-repeated, they get taken for granted, they become white noise. Not for me, thanks be to God. I still have enough memory of rejection for these testimonies of divine tenderness to send my head spinning with awe.
...


THIS TRANSLATION =
"This is the truth I tell you--unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains all by itself alone; but, if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life is losing it; and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal."
That phrasing is SO enlightening.
Ground = humility
ALONE instead of in relationship
The losing life is an active current event
The hating earthly life is the prerequisite for an active keeping=guarding it
"TO" life eternal?
...

AMAZING CLARIFICATION on this Scripture =
"The point of the [term "Son of Man"] is this. In Daniel 7:1-8 the writer has been describing the world powers which have held sway... They were so cruel, so savage, so sadistic that they could be described only under the imagery of wild beasts... But it was the dream of the seer that into the world there was going to come a new power, and that power was to be gentle and humane and gracious, so that it could be depicted under the symbol, not of a savage beast, but of a man. This passage means that the day of savagery would pass and the day of humanity was coming. That was the dream of the Jews, the golden age, when life would be sweet and they would be masters of the world. But how was that age to come? It became clearer and clearer to them that their nation was so small and their power so weak, that the golden age could never come by human means and human power; it must come by the direct intervention of God. He would send His champion to bring it in. So they thought back to the picture in the book of Daniel, and what more natural than that they should call the champion the Son of Man? The phrase which had once been merely a symbol came to describe a person... In Enoch the Son of Man is a tremendous figure who, as it were, is being held in leash by God. But the day will come when God will release him and he will come with a divine power against which no man and no kingdom will be able to stand..."
I have never heard that explained before. That makes so much sense it's shocking... as is the sad fact that it's still relevant today. When people try to wield God's power, only savage brutal war happens. God's intervention is humane and just-- His intervention is JESUS, the Christ, Who arguably IS the "golden age" IN His Person.
...
However, as I keep reading, there IS such a military bent.
...

I want to paste all of this for serious reflection, especially in light of the overseas attacks in the very land of Jesus's ancestry today =
"To the Jews the Son of Man stood for the undefeatable world conqueror sent by God. So Jesus says: "The hour has come when the Son of Man must be glorified." When He said that, the listeners would catch their breath. They would believe that the trumpet call of eternity had sounded, that the might of heaven was on the march, and that the campaign of victory was on the move. But Jesus did not mean by 'glorified' what they understood. They meant that the subjected kingdoms of the earth would grovel before the conqueror's feet; by glorified He meant crucified. When the Son of Man was mentioned they thought of the conquest of the armies of God; He meant the conquest of the Cross.
The first sentence which Jesus spoke would excite the hearts of those who heard it; then began a succession of sayings which must have left them staggered and bewildered by their sheer incredibility, for they spoke not in terms of conquest, but in terms of sacrifice and death. We will never understand Jesus nor the attitude of the Jews to him, until we understand how He turned their ideas upside down, replacing a dream of conquest with a vision of a Cross. No wonder they did not understand Him; the tragedy is that they refused to try."
My immediate thoughts =
-Jesus IS STILL ACTUALLY the "undefeatable world conqueror sent by God," EVEN in the utter lowliness of His humanity on earth, ALREADY possessing all possible glory.
-The Cross IS the glory that subjects all to God, AND the conquest THROUGH sacrifice. Through it, ALL kingdoms DO "grovel before Him," but in WORSHIP at the foot of the Cross. There they are made aware of their sin, their mortality, and their need for mercy, recognizing the hinge of existence that the Cross truly is-- the glory of God proven there is the eternal standard of judgment for all existence.
- The trumpet call HAS sounded, declaring eternity to be imminent, for Christ brought eternal life in Himself?
- The might of heaven IS now on the march, but against sin, and through the lives of the people of God?
- The campaign of victory IS on the move, IN the Cross and His Passion?
- The real "armies of God" are those who "fight the good fight of FAITH"; their motherland is the Kingdom of God, which CANNOT be conquered.
- Ironically, the expected "conquest" of an army and the true "conquest" of the Cross BOTH INVOLVE WAR & DEATH, BUT IN COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAYS. In the world, it is military warfare and the death of multitudes, the violent slaughter of innocent people for the sake of gaining their land. There is no salvation there, no mercy, only national pride and temporal gain. Perhaps I'm bring too crude. But... Jesus completely redefines both the victory and the opposition. The war is against sin, and He has won by His death-- a death that means no one else would be killed.
...
God wanted to save the WORLD, not just the Jews. This revealed a global oppressor of mankind at large,
...
I'm babbling. I'm too nervous. I apologize.



"...Only by spending life do we retain it. The man who loves his life is moved by two aims: by selfishness and by the desire for security. [Repeatedly] Jesus insisted that the man who hoarded his life must in the end lose it, and the man who spent his life must in the end gain it.
There was a famous evangelist called Christmas Evans who was always on the move preaching for Christ. His friends besought him to take things easier but his answer always was: "It is better to burn out than to rust out." When Joan of Arc knew that her enemies were strong and her time was short, she prayed to God: "I shall only last a year, use me as you can."...
We have only to think of what this world would have lost if there had not been men prepared to forget their personal safety, security, selfish gain and selfish advancement. The world owes everything to people who recklessly spent their strength and gave themselves to God and to others. No doubt we will exist longer if we take things easily, if we avoid all strain, if we sit at the fire and husband life, if we look after ourselves as a hypochondriac looks after his health. No doubt we will exist longer-- but we will never live."
...This is a bullet to the gut. Again. Thank You God, thank you Sorrowful Mother, I needed this blunt-force conviction.
Since UPMC, and especially since Mimic showed up, I've been made sharply & shamefully aware of my instinct of cowardice. It's humiliating to admit, but that's the whole point-- fearing humiliation is cowardice too.
...


This story example struck me.
"...only by service comes greatness. The people whom the world remembers with love are the people who serve others. A certain Mrs. Berwick had been very active in Salvation Army work in Liverpool. She retired to London. There came the war and the air raids... the idea got about that somehow Mrs. Berwick's poor house and her shelter were specially safe. She was old now; her Liverpool days of social service were long behind her; but she felt she must do something about it. So she got together a simple first-aid box and she put a notice on her window: "If you need help, knock here." That is the Christian attitude to our fellow men."
She didn't even flinch. She didn't "correct" the claims or insist on her retired status. She didn't protest that she had no experience, no room, no time, no means-- no, she saw the need and met it head-on with everything she had and could do, however small. And then she INVITED THE NEED into her own home to BE met. No running or hiding. She stood up and embraced the call to serve. She saw an opportunity to love and took it without waiting for someone "better" to step in instead. She offered herself willingly for love. THAT is Christian charity. THAT is imitating our Savior.