Israel
BANNED
As mentioned I got stirred by another thread this morning...on what at first appeared "another" Friday morning. And being stirred, appearing as a sloppy cup, I then spilled. Nothing I am convinced anyone does not know...except perhaps for me, needing to know of those things claimed...but not yet "as I ought to know".
Thanks be to God for His unwearying Spirit! Something came up as "memory" from several years ago on another site (FB)...to which I was compelled to read words a fool had written. In His unwearying, our Lord is also relentless...to have what is His, no matter what measure of presumption may appear as hindrance. A man may find himself in double speaking, but he shall never find the Lord so.
How the Lord Himself...has made "strait the way of the Lord"...straitens us, so that we might first see Him in whom such straitening was accomplished "I have a baptism to undergo and how I am straitened till it be accomplished"...and there testify of it to the world, and also, recognize in the brethren (as our brother Peter has said) "such suffering is also being accomplished in our brothers in the world". 1 Peter 5:9. And there...in that knowing...offer any form of hope by which also, we ourselves have been made comforted as such straitening is being endured.
This met me on FB after gushing all over Art's thread.
Do you remember a guy named Marshall McLuhan?
Wrote a book called "The Medium is the Message"?
It was the rage for a little bit, you know how things get hold like "The Peter Principle", "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People", "I'm OK, You're OK", etc. I don't know how old everyone is, so if you lived through them you probably remember them, if not, you may have heard of them, and the more studious be even far more familiar with its contents than I.
But, to the disciple, the medium is the message...it's cannot be reduced to only do this, do that, believe this, don't believe that, attend this, talk this way, etc. Though we do have many many warnings...but all and only "in Him". (My poverty of expression does not diminish the Lord, only shows my desperate need of him)
But, what I aim for in simplest terms, is, Jesus is the message...the messenger himself, is the message. When I wag my finger piously quoting scripture, or pronounce from some seeming Olympian height a thing, not unlike Moses...to all "other" rebels in my self righteousness, it matters not a whit what I say, I am a laughingstock (rightly) to you, and also to heaven.
Yes, Jesus attracts many with his power, his confidence, his overwhelming security in his authority...and men, generally, when perceiving that, like that, even adore that, in this place of shifting sands.
But he himself, of all brokenness in delivering this "message" ultimately makes plain to the believer...(at least to the some I have seen, heard, believed)...that this place is not for parading ones righteousness, nor delivering of great and opulent oratory...but of learning of being one with THE one who, not only warned and entreated as need be, but allowed for himself to be so consumed of the truth of it, he gladly gave of himself, and then gladly gave himself (itself) in exchange. The one who could say, who did say, who does say "I delight to do thy will..."
It's one thing to warn a man, running away from him, "don't go around that corner, I just looked and there's a lion loose. You'll be torn to shreds" It's quite another for a man (unlike me) to come and say "I have seen something of the gravest peril, it's a hungry lion, it's not good for you to face it alone"...and that man, there staying with you, shows his honor by tackling it when it appears.
And, you are spared.
I know my language is poverty stricken, my examples childish and infantile.
But that is the difference, at least to me.
Many have, I don't doubt, as I have and perhaps still do, find it easier to "holler" at others from afar, fleeing from you...leaving you as a kind of welcome buffer (gee, if the lion gets him, at least it will slow him down enough to give me an even better head start)...which in a very particular way puts the lie to my "warning of you...out of "love"...in a very particular light. And so I can run through the streets, congratulating myself of my "great commitment" to delivering the message..."be saved!"...all the while putting myself as much (or so I think) out of harm's way...leaving all others for fodder. Yeah, that's pretty much me...a self serving coward. Rightly would one laugh at me.
But Him? Not him.
If one cares to, mock me for my inconsistency, my selfishness, my pusillanimity, and craven self aggrandizing...yes, you are "not wrong". Not wrong at all. But, it also shows...you have discernment! (Do we see how this "works"?)
But Him? No, not him. He is all I am not, could yet have some hope to be in whatever measure I am allowed...but in all, not him. (Of course silly boy! You need not even mention that!)
I suppose I could tell you of my "brush" with a lion, but, if I have no scars, why, how, with garments arranged so neatly, a sly smirk and condescending attitude, could you, would you, ever believe me?
Sure, I can throw dust on myself (and have), try to look the disheveled part (and have) put on the sincerest face (and have) affect the most endearing tone (and have)...yet all of these give way when you see the Nikes on my feet, prepared to run from you....as the "one" (you) I refuse to get too near...for fear of knowing the lightnings possible strike, or lion's coming, and it would be so much the better for me...if only one of us "bought the farm"...and that...not me. Arm's length is what the world would breed into us, in all contracts.
These things are strange to discuss, stranger still that I could expect you to even read these words, stranger still that through a vessel such as the one typing I would say...despite what you think or believe of me...I have seen one who sticks closer than a brother in these things.
You would rightly ask..."then why aren't you more like him...christian?"
I am still learning how to play fair, it's something I have never been good at. But, really, I have no excuse.
I only have a plea of guilty, at which I am constantly surprised at who I am given to see.
He is not at arm's length.
Being "that guy" is such a small price to pay. And I see others so formed. Bless you for your irresistible non resistance.To being straitened.
Thanks be to God for His unwearying Spirit! Something came up as "memory" from several years ago on another site (FB)...to which I was compelled to read words a fool had written. In His unwearying, our Lord is also relentless...to have what is His, no matter what measure of presumption may appear as hindrance. A man may find himself in double speaking, but he shall never find the Lord so.
How the Lord Himself...has made "strait the way of the Lord"...straitens us, so that we might first see Him in whom such straitening was accomplished "I have a baptism to undergo and how I am straitened till it be accomplished"...and there testify of it to the world, and also, recognize in the brethren (as our brother Peter has said) "such suffering is also being accomplished in our brothers in the world". 1 Peter 5:9. And there...in that knowing...offer any form of hope by which also, we ourselves have been made comforted as such straitening is being endured.
This met me on FB after gushing all over Art's thread.
Do you remember a guy named Marshall McLuhan?
Wrote a book called "The Medium is the Message"?
It was the rage for a little bit, you know how things get hold like "The Peter Principle", "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People", "I'm OK, You're OK", etc. I don't know how old everyone is, so if you lived through them you probably remember them, if not, you may have heard of them, and the more studious be even far more familiar with its contents than I.
But, to the disciple, the medium is the message...it's cannot be reduced to only do this, do that, believe this, don't believe that, attend this, talk this way, etc. Though we do have many many warnings...but all and only "in Him". (My poverty of expression does not diminish the Lord, only shows my desperate need of him)
But, what I aim for in simplest terms, is, Jesus is the message...the messenger himself, is the message. When I wag my finger piously quoting scripture, or pronounce from some seeming Olympian height a thing, not unlike Moses...to all "other" rebels in my self righteousness, it matters not a whit what I say, I am a laughingstock (rightly) to you, and also to heaven.
Yes, Jesus attracts many with his power, his confidence, his overwhelming security in his authority...and men, generally, when perceiving that, like that, even adore that, in this place of shifting sands.
But he himself, of all brokenness in delivering this "message" ultimately makes plain to the believer...(at least to the some I have seen, heard, believed)...that this place is not for parading ones righteousness, nor delivering of great and opulent oratory...but of learning of being one with THE one who, not only warned and entreated as need be, but allowed for himself to be so consumed of the truth of it, he gladly gave of himself, and then gladly gave himself (itself) in exchange. The one who could say, who did say, who does say "I delight to do thy will..."
It's one thing to warn a man, running away from him, "don't go around that corner, I just looked and there's a lion loose. You'll be torn to shreds" It's quite another for a man (unlike me) to come and say "I have seen something of the gravest peril, it's a hungry lion, it's not good for you to face it alone"...and that man, there staying with you, shows his honor by tackling it when it appears.
And, you are spared.
I know my language is poverty stricken, my examples childish and infantile.
But that is the difference, at least to me.
Many have, I don't doubt, as I have and perhaps still do, find it easier to "holler" at others from afar, fleeing from you...leaving you as a kind of welcome buffer (gee, if the lion gets him, at least it will slow him down enough to give me an even better head start)...which in a very particular way puts the lie to my "warning of you...out of "love"...in a very particular light. And so I can run through the streets, congratulating myself of my "great commitment" to delivering the message..."be saved!"...all the while putting myself as much (or so I think) out of harm's way...leaving all others for fodder. Yeah, that's pretty much me...a self serving coward. Rightly would one laugh at me.
But Him? Not him.
If one cares to, mock me for my inconsistency, my selfishness, my pusillanimity, and craven self aggrandizing...yes, you are "not wrong". Not wrong at all. But, it also shows...you have discernment! (Do we see how this "works"?)
But Him? No, not him. He is all I am not, could yet have some hope to be in whatever measure I am allowed...but in all, not him. (Of course silly boy! You need not even mention that!)
I suppose I could tell you of my "brush" with a lion, but, if I have no scars, why, how, with garments arranged so neatly, a sly smirk and condescending attitude, could you, would you, ever believe me?
Sure, I can throw dust on myself (and have), try to look the disheveled part (and have) put on the sincerest face (and have) affect the most endearing tone (and have)...yet all of these give way when you see the Nikes on my feet, prepared to run from you....as the "one" (you) I refuse to get too near...for fear of knowing the lightnings possible strike, or lion's coming, and it would be so much the better for me...if only one of us "bought the farm"...and that...not me. Arm's length is what the world would breed into us, in all contracts.
These things are strange to discuss, stranger still that I could expect you to even read these words, stranger still that through a vessel such as the one typing I would say...despite what you think or believe of me...I have seen one who sticks closer than a brother in these things.
You would rightly ask..."then why aren't you more like him...christian?"
I am still learning how to play fair, it's something I have never been good at. But, really, I have no excuse.
I only have a plea of guilty, at which I am constantly surprised at who I am given to see.
He is not at arm's length.
Being "that guy" is such a small price to pay. And I see others so formed. Bless you for your irresistible non resistance.To being straitened.