Holiness

 Romans 12:1 says, "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service."  What does it mean to be a living sacrifice?  I have always heard this passage used to encourage me to do acts of service for others or for the Church.  There are other passages that fit that idea but I am getting a different impression here.  

Let's start with the "Therefore" this passage is summing up something from before.  The end of Romans 11 talks of how God gave grace and made room for the Gentiles to be brought into His covenant.  It is all about grace.  So, Since God has shown such mercy... to welcome you into His family... Sacrifice it all to be holy.

I'm not sure I understand what the word holiness means.  I've been told it means being "set apart"  Perhaps like not picking a few of the best beans because they are set apart to become seed?  I think the word has a sense of purpose.  I'm set apart for something.  So if our bodies are set apart for something, what is that something?

I'm not sure that I can know that question for you.  I think I can only know the answer for me.  And then only as I learn to hear God's leading and purpose for me.  I wonder though, if we understood that we have great purpose, that we need to sacrifice ourselves to live out that purpose,  and stand ready to be all God intends for us to be, what would happen next?

Locust plagues, God's art and chickens

I am starting to hear the word plague in connection to the locust swarms in various parts of the world right now.  Many are fighting for their lives and livelihoods as we speak.  I wonder, are locusts a part of God's art too?  Is it that they are tiny little demons that must be wiped out?  Is this God's wrath poured out?  Or is it a normal consequence of?

Locusts are an interesting, hit you when your down, sort of insect.  We don't have locust swarms here in the North but we do have grasshoppers.  A few years back, we had a severe seven year drought.  It wiped out the wheat crops and livestock were sold to avoid them all starving to death.  Ranchers wept openly in the Church we attended.  They were being crushed by their staggering losses.  Many talked of the grasshoppers which seemed to relish the conditions.  Mostly the bugs added to the overall feeling of hopelessness. 

It was a rough time.  Who could afford the to be spaying and what would be the point?  But the grasshopper comments got me thinking.  If we were agile enough, couldn't we take advantage of the bugs instead of fighting those as well?

My efforts in gardening have been to avoid any kind of chemical intervention.  I have an autoimmune disease called MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities).  That basically means my body attacks itself when it encounters synthetics.  Paint, carpet, garden chemicals... you name it, if God didn't make it, I react to it.  That gives me extra incentive to learn alternatives to chemical fertilizers or pesticides.  So is there are non chemical solution to a locusts and grasshoppers?

YES!! Chickens!! I use chickens all the time to wipe out the latest bug bloom in my garden.  Did you know that one chicken can eat 600 locusts a day?  When you are facing billions that might not seem like a lot, but if in mass, locusts don't stand a chance.  What if instead of raising crops when locusts storms are looming, we raised birds?  far fetched?  China is finding great success using chickens to control their own locust infestations.  

But back again to God's art.  I believe in the world that God created, it is all about balance.  In gardening holistically, balance is everything.  It's really about bringing your land back to God's original intent.  If we move in harmony with His art, we are blessed with wonderful bounty.  When we move against it, eventually our house of cards will fall.  When we tip the scales and bring the world out of balance, the ripples spread far and wide.  Hmmm balance, what does it take to find it?  

Politically correct?

We are working so hard to be "Politically" correct.  But what is the fruit of it?  It feels like I'm wearing a wool suit that was stuck in the drier!  I don't even know from one day to the next what is or isn't "O.K."  Mostly, I feel frightened and intimidated.  I'm sure one day I will cross some invisible line and become the victim of the cruelty that comes when you are thought to be politically incorrect.  One thing is for sure. with all the emphasis on inclusion, I feel less included than I ever have.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that we should be color blind, that women should be paid the same as anyone would be paid for the work they accomplish.  I don't care what sexual persuasion you are, if you did the job, you should get the pay.  That just makes sense.  But color blind, is color blind.  It needs to go both ways.  And be based not on equality... but compassion. 

Women should be paid their worth because we as a people understand that the weight of the world is on their shoulders or simply because all people are people, and people are worth it.  Period, no exception.  I choose to include you because I care about you!  What good is "equality" if, at it's core, there is a sense of compunction or fear?  Fear fosters resentment... not equality!

A basic law of physics: "If you want my respect.  Treat me with respect".  Doesn't that go without saying?  We live in a country that has paid dearly for the right to say freely, and without fear, what is on our hearts.  

How does all this fit into freedom?  I'm thinking of Galatians 5:13  "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love."  What about the demand to be "politically correct" fosters love?  

At the end of the day, I figure if I focus on "correctness", I have taken my eyes off of Jesus and that never ends well.  But if I focus on HimnGalatians 5:22-23 says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."  Isn't that a better goal?

Thoughts while outside

Well, when you went outside to look at God's art... what did you see?  

I am a perfectionist at times.  This week I have been working on an old shed.  We insulated it and put up sheet rock.  We used some bits and pieces of sheet rock which are a nightmare to tape and mud and get smooth enough to paint. At least it is a nightmare for a perfectionist.

We finally found some remote work that will allow us to put food on the table while still socially distancing.  The problem is, we have no room for an office in our house.  So we are repurposing our shed. It is coming along, but it will take at least three days of mudding to bury the lines and holes and streaks and imperfections and make it "perfect".  Perfection... hmmm

Looking outside in God's art there is none of what I am striving to create.  There are no even corners or straight lines of any kind!  Every tree has branches going every which way few trunks are even close to straight the leaves are all different shapes and yet God called it good when He made it.  

Hmmm, Matthew 5:48 says, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."  What is perfect?  I'm pretty sure His call to perfection has nothing to do with our understanding of the word.

What could have been

 I have been pondering the exodus story.  Actually, I was thinking about the food.  When the Israelites left Egypt they were rushed out the door,  they had just cleansed their houses of all yeast so all they could make on the road was flat bread.  They didn't have much, but they had some.  

The journey they took could have been a two week journey, even with the many excursions that God had planned it might have been a month or more.  But it is less than 400 miles from Egypt to Israel.  A trip that would take us less than a day by car.  They wandered the wilderness because they lacked the courage to go home.

Back to the food.  I have no clue what manna tasted like but imagine the idea of not having to plant, gather, grind or maybe even bake?  I'm wondering what it tasted like.  Was it boring?  Or full of flavor?  They missed leeks and onions so I'm guessing it was mild in flavor.  But what if there was more to it than just taste?  What if the point was to cleanse and strengthen their bodies.  They had been slaves, undernourished and overworked.  Perhaps there was more to this manna than we think.  Perhaps it was a superfood!

I'm thinking of herbs.  Having struggled with autoimmune disease for many years, I use herbal remedies more because there were no medical solutions.  Often it is recommended to take a "course" of some herb.  That would be 30 days and then rest from that particular herb rather than to take something continually.  What if manna was intended for healing?  And what if adding meat (the quail) might have slowed or even stopped the healing?  I wonder...

God's Art

 Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse"  

Wow, God's invisible attributes are clearly seen.  Is that saying that the core of who God is can be clearly seen?  Isn't this saying we have the opportunity to know God? Even His eternal power and Godhead.  Wow, what an amazing opportunity... and we are missing it!

Can we really know Him at the core of who He is?  I'm thinking of a song we used to sing, "I want to know You, I want to hear Your voice, I want to Know you Lord."  I'm thinking of the many times I have put myself out there with the hope that someone will take the time to understand.  Has God done that for us?  Have we been given the poetry that pours forth from the very depths of God's being and not read it?

So where are His attributes clearly seen? Romans says, The things that God created give us opportunity to understand Him.  His art reveals His heart.  His art is everywhere!  His mediums are diverse.  He uses wind, and birdsong, and texture and power.  

Go outside!  Turn off your computer and go!!!  Find a space where what He has made is visible and seek to understand it's maker.   In our world packed with our own creations, look for what we can not duplicate and have not ruined.  Look at the one little flower that braves it's way through a crack in the pavement.  We made the pavement.... He made the flower.  Are we covering up more than just the ground?  Are we smudging a master piece?  

Perhaps if we understood the earth as God's amazing masterpiece, we would tread more lightly on the things that He has made.  Certainly we are without excuse.

Humanness

 What is it to be really human?  Luke 10:25-37 says this, 

"And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Perhaps the question is... how do we go and do likewise?  How would the world change if we all went and did likewise?  How can we become merciful?  How do we show this level of compassion, concern and dedication?  Can we all agree on this... that this Samaritan man was human in a way we all want to be?  Can we start with kindness even on social media?  Can we see... really see the pain of others and choose to offer compassion instead of condemnation?  I'm thinking of a song by Brandon Heath "Give me Your Eyes" God, open our eyes and teach us to show mercy!

Cancel or Kindness?

I watched a movie last night called "Not Cinderella's type".  Check it out here.  I'm a sucker for a good chick flick... but it has to be a good chick flick.  That means it doesn't twist my truth.  There aren't these instant bed scenes that make sex the object.  They have to have some depth of meaning.  I know,  that is a  high standard these days.  But I found this movie to touch something deeply inside.  Not because there was a little romance running through it, and the the happy-ever-after ending was unrealistic, but it was pretty ideal.

I was struck by the contrast and the kindness.  "Not Cinderella's type"  The contrast was between two boys who wanted the attentions of "Indy"(the Cinderella character in the story) One was a very good friend who loved Indy in her circumstance.  He loved being with her, but never really defended her. The other saw her circumstance and was moved to offer kindness and rescue.  Ultimately the story was of a girl learning to have her own voice.

I found myself playing back the part where she was treated with kindness.  She is overwhelmed by the littlest acts of kindness.  It touched my soul just to see such goodness.  Funny, we see many things in movies but goodness is rare.  

I wasn't raised with much kindness so I can, in some ways, relate to Indy.  As our society turns more from kindness to hostility, I have felt the same dread as when I was younger.  My question is why?  Or maybe why not?  Why do we choose a mean spirit instead of a kind one?  And why not choose to go against the flow and pick one good thing about the people you encounter to dwell on today?  Perhaps, if we focus on the good, kindness will come of it.

Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."