tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29034001846108833472024-02-19T00:53:01.370-06:00To Him Who Loves UsListening to the spirit of God and responding.<br> Interacting primarily with the Jewish scriptures to find meaning in Christianity.<br><a href="https://twitter.com/tohimwholovesus">Follow on Twitter</a>Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-65805770854349152762017-05-01T20:18:00.000-05:002017-05-02T08:16:04.315-05:00Growing in silence and finding questions in the Haggadah<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0svvWNQDEAPIFUkA8xFgoxhRKJ2gZN44RokFCG2BrrGN7Z-75y4imkUVQp0t6IVSVyJT57fTYLGBqmurb4wZ0RgZCcF66OgB2qe62woC5qwbdDi_EyIbwuxh3_dlXU0YBtrcufM20nmRD/s1600/peaches.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0svvWNQDEAPIFUkA8xFgoxhRKJ2gZN44RokFCG2BrrGN7Z-75y4imkUVQp0t6IVSVyJT57fTYLGBqmurb4wZ0RgZCcF66OgB2qe62woC5qwbdDi_EyIbwuxh3_dlXU0YBtrcufM20nmRD/s320/peaches.png" width="320" /></a></div>
When I was young, I had a sense of direction that could only be explained as drifting. Events appeared on my horizon and as I watched they disappeared into other people's lives. I wasn't involved as much as perplexed and had few moral anchors to help me make sense of my travels. But, God had his hand on me and I had a peace that I was taken care of. That's what <b>growing up in farm country</b> can do for you where everything changes season to season but always stays the same.<br />
<h3>
Silence</h3>
The <b>country world is mostly silent</b>. And I know that God is reflected in his world. So, I believe that God is OK with not answering all my questions when I'm perplexed and instead, showing off his handiwork. He took care of the land, and he took care of me. The modern urban world, though, is orchestrated with noise. I know man is reflected in that world, full of amplification, alarms, music, video, and large engines. We have to flee to silence to find the right answers and not turn to another distracting program, a YouTube video, or a pop group song. Those types of media usually ask good questions but don't engage me with any useful answers.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And I, don't want to die<br />
I want to see the flowers bloom<br />
Don't wanna go capoot ka-boom<br />
And I, don't wanna cry<br />
I wanna have a lot of fun<br />
Just sitting in the sun<br />
(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyiLSZavS4U">Teapacks - Push The Button</a>)</blockquote>
So, as a result of drifting around spiritually, I ended up in places that didn't make much sense. It seemed like an awful lot of wasted time. Maybe, it was just a time of growth without fruit. You can't tell peach trees they're wasting their time growing branches and leaves, and not creating peaches. If <b>God's world makes sense</b>, then the time I spent, made sense in preparation for what was to come based on what I had given to me.<br />
<br />
It was a time of waiting and listening, even though there wasn't much to listen to. <b>Silence is an awkward companion</b> for many. For me, it was an expectation. The world God made, full of majesty and color, is mostly silent. But as you listen, the soothing ripple of the wind passing by, the distant birds and insects create a background to give you a sense of security. Loud noises were just danger signs. I was waiting for those meaningful threads that whispered to me from my world. Television was a loud noise that didn't fit in.<br />
<h3>
Questions</h3>
Part of living with silence is knowing <b>how to start a conversation</b>. You have to make a statement or ask a question. It's easy to state the obvious. It's hot, it's dry, my dog is tired. But questions go from basic to refined. You ask why it gets so hot or why animals are different than humans. Why does it take so much work to make a living? Why isn't everything as easy as it looks on TV? Why do people not like each other? So many questions don't have good answers and take living a while to get a glimmer of understanding. Silence becomes an answer until the question can be answered by a wiser person.<br />
<br />
A question is a creative seed. It start a process of meditation, of sorting out ideas that don't fit, and keeping those that do fit. It creates tests that can be used to prove the value of the question. Too many possibilities that don't matter and the question is thrown out. A few that lead to life or death and the question is pursued. Once the seed starts growing, it becomes a rich concept and then eventually it produces fruit. The <b>fruit are the answers that we use to take action</b>, knowing with assurance that we have probed the mind of God and have come away with the best we can carry.<br />
<br />
After asking the basic questions, I turned towards spiritual things and asked questions that were worth more to pursue. Who is the creator of the universe? How can I get closer to God? How will the creator of everything speak to me? Will I have a life after I die? These basic questions are met with silence but at least I've started the process of creation of my fruit which starts with asking. I know I'll find those answers because I've heard some remarkable answers already.<br />
<h3>
Doing good</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I know that <b>there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good</b> while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. (Eccl 3:12-13)</blockquote>
I remember planting a seed in myself by meditating on a verse about doing good. I asked why it was that some people don't do good when they can and have a choice. That became personal. I was working out an answer and found I had an inclination to not do good. So, I tried to change that and I asked myself how to do good when I had the choice. Today, I still am asking that question. There's still silence for the answer, but in the doing of the good deed, the assurance of the truth of that verse becomes strong.<br />
<br />
The creation of that good inspires me to keep asking. Maybe words aren't necessary because God needs no more words in the commandments he's already left us with. Too many words would just confuse us more. And then we'd think to understand the words better, we could just read more books about them. The words are left somewhat sparse so that we can live out the commandment in our life and harvest the benefit of faith in knowing God has given us the right amount of direction. Each one of <b>the 613 commandments are just touch points </b>of our Lord God's way. And as we ask how to understand and live out our lives, we prove his righteousness in every one.<br />
<h3>
Finding righteousness before the answer</h3>
It's in asking for God to change us, sometimes to remake us, so that we can follow his ways and find the righteousness that is the way out of this world that seems like it is drifting by. The righteousness we find will bring meaning and light to our world with answers that can be trusted to keep us.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. <b>Seek righteousness, seek humility</b>; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD's anger. (Zeph 2:3)</blockquote>
The silence <b>between asking and finding answers is a time of strengthening</b>. The strength we find is the confidence we gain as we trust in God's commands. It's not about getting the answer and the righteousness at the same time. The growing period after asking the question is the time of preparing the fruit that has its roots in the righteousness of the good deeds of the commandments.<br />
<br />
The words of God's commandments, having been spoken once, need no more sound except that of our repeating them to each other for encouragement and training. The silence in between is for reinforcement and meditation. Now, it is up to us to apply his words. Action is the way to communicate what we know of our answers now.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
God is not human, that he should lie,<br />
not a human being, that he should change his mind.<br />
Does he speak and then not act?<br />
Does he promise and not fulfill? (Num 23:19)</blockquote>
<b>Silence lets us make our actions a permanent part of us.</b> It creates a space in us where actions are internalized. It's not an external presentation or a music festival where we go away with good feeling for the moment. No, God's commandments persist in our heads much longer than a snappy performance because we know them like we know how to sing a song, always remembered in the background until the music starts.<br />
<br />
It was this Pesach that I learned that <a href="http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/3636186/jewish/If-the-Haggadah-Is-Right-Weve-Got-Education-All-Wrong.htm">the Haggadah is designed to incite questions</a>. And questions come from a teachable person. A teachable person is one who knows correction and finds favor in the Lord. So, the Pesach is also about teaching questions to one who loves the Lord.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,<br />
but whoever hates correction is stupid. (Prov 12:1)</blockquote>
After the Pesach, we have silence for 49 days in which to think about our questions and let the seed grow like planted barley fields maturing to a harvest. During that growing season, the fruit is being prepared. And, so, <b>in a few days we can celebrate the <a href="http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3434818/jewish/All-About-Bikkurim-First-Fruits.htm">first fruits</a></b> of that harvest and how God gave answers to Moses, through questions about life that made asking questions worth asking.<br />
<br />
Let us ask questions without knowing where an answer will come from so that you, Lord God, can delight us with your response. And may we thank you in praises and thanksgiving, with offerings as we can manage, to put action behind the words that we find. Your world is magnificent in its glory and in the quiet appreciation of it, we ask that you bring us wisdom through obedience with your commandments and correction as we humble ourselves for not knowing.Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-90282957749986348832017-01-02T00:10:00.001-06:002017-01-02T00:22:37.490-06:00Sharing thoughts of faith: God's social media addiction solution #3<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1483336073288!6m8!1m7!1sacu_6e2Abizbk1Mca4AgIA!2m2!1d32.05959933324705!2d34.77289112918595!3f311.9345698873402!4f-10.544539334663668!5f1.7840498497702089" style="border: 0; float: right;" width="300;"></iframe>
As I mentioned in <a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/11/social-media-promotes-fear-by-not.html">my introductory post on social media addiction</a> inspired by <a href="http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/spirituality_and_faith/spiritual_growth/the_fear_of_missing_out.aspx?id=29851&language=english">an article on Breslev Israel's site</a> by Lori Steiner, I believe our individual identity is firmly rooted in our relationship with God. Her article identified the recent social app driven surge of fear in youth stemming from being part of the wrong social crowd and its confirmed influence towards a general state of unhappiness. Ms. Steiner recommended <b>three Judaic solutions for combating social dissatisfaction</b> for these disaffected souls including sharing thoughts of faith in God.<br />
<h3>
Finding a relationship</h3>
I'm pretty sure that at one time <b>I was one of those disaffected souls</b> of an unhappy demeanor mentioned above. Instead of checking my Facebook account, I was more likely semi-lifelessly staring at other people's lives from a dedicated TV sofa or scouting out my next important film to watch. My disconnection to life was a goal since it wasn't fulfilling the need. If there was still one more thing to watch, I felt I had more goals. The internet feeds that. It always has one more thing to read for those news junkies, or one more game to play for the gamers.<br />
<br />
But it's an emptiness that is like coming off vacation. The goal always is achieved in quarter-hour segments unless you have cable. That <b>drug called escape</b> keeps you up in a fantasy for a limited time but when you come home you have to deal with the part of you that wants to be in that other place.<br />
<br />
The escape feelings can be with other things than TV. I'll spend hours walking in <b>the virtual reality of Google Maps</b>. I was at <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@32.4972659,34.8901168,3a,75y,55.96h,76.92t/data=!3m11!1e1!3m9!1s-EdlaiR4H5Zk%2FVvnRDc7Vm0I%2FAAAAAAAAA1c%2FDvDmSe_Br04y8-DAU756TVHe_pEQPZMZACLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-EdlaiR4H5Zk%2FVvnRDc7Vm0I%2FAAAAAAAAA1c%2FDvDmSe_Br04y8-DAU756TVHe_pEQPZMZACLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya338.1666-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i9728!8i4046!9m2!1b1!2i38">the Hippodrome in Caesarea </a>today with a tour group. Then my wife called and I came back to my house. Then I decided to visit <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@32.0595993,34.7728911,3a,90y,44.7h,82.31t/data=!3m9!1e1!3m7!1sacu_6e2Abizbk1Mca4AgIA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i28">the Levinsky market area in Tel Aviv </a>but I came back again because had to check on the pot on my stove. And because it was the last day of Hanukkah, I wanted to see a panorama of the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@31.9641923,34.9508636,3a,75y,315.97h,84.05t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sYO0vImFhJ3kRZhuBpKGQhw!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656">Tel Hadid Maccabean fortress site</a> just outside Tel Aviv which is off in the distance over the coastal plain.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But Simon pitched his tents at Adida, over against the plain. (1 Maccabees 13:13)</blockquote>
I could spend hours walking around in Google Maps street view and it would be just the same without the sounds, smells, and tastes, had I visited there and never met anyone. Google has taken all the photos I'll ever need for my vacation, so it spoils the hunting instinct I have for photography that used to give me something to do while I ignored the tourists.<br />
<br />
Instead of that never-ending viewing,<b> I needed to find out about God</b> and develop a real relationship with him. And people that knew about God were the people I needed to talk to. Not just asking the enterprising people that made a living off of us people who ask questions and then handing over some cash to them. I had to get educated and that meant studying Torah and the prophets.<br />
<br />
It means putting together the pieces of a God-driven life instead of a Google-driven one full of <b>technological distractions which are bad actions</b>. The results of doing that, make me take action -- good actions that are found in the other two solutions of this series (see below). I can expect changes and less anxiety about life in general when I do those more commandment driven behaviors.<br />
<br />
But it doesn't mean a divestment of integrated chip run devices, but more of a sanity check on making sure the digital version doesn't become your reality. So you also are called to be introspective for that constant checking. Some might want to call it doubt, but not when it comes to disputing things about God's character that have not been wrong for thousands of years. It's only the people who lack living that life that are able to doubt. I don't doubt myself, but I've had some interesting conversations before I've agreed with me.<br />
<h3>
Knowing about God creates a need to share him</h3>
<div>
So start walking. What are the commandments that you know you are not following? Those are the first things to change. God will start changing things around you. You'll start understanding his character as you open up to let our Lord God back into a relationship with you. <b>Sure it takes time</b>. It was at least 40 years of marriage and earning a living by tending sheep for Moses before the Exodus. And then it was another 40 wandering in the desert.<br />
<br />
It <b>may not be the right time </b>to start sharing if you haven't felt comfortable about it. Maybe that's because there's not enough knowledge about God in your soul. Let him teach you. Study. Go help others and see what you discover in the mitzvah. Encourage one another and find out how the God of Israel is holding people together both here and in Israel where there's more reason to abandon hope than anywhere else Jews live.<br />
<br />
Once you know about God and there's a place in your heart that holds on tight to that, the knowledge will want to spread. Tell a person what God did for you recently. It could be a very positive thing or a correction that set you back on a better path. Offer a tidbit of insight from your weekly readings. Start a blog and write about it. The love of God through <a href="http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/2756/jewish/Love-According-to-the-Rebbe.htm">knowing him will make you learn to love what he loves</a>. He loves those who love him and keep his commandments.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exod 20:5-6) (Deut 5:9-10)</blockquote>
And there you have <b>the reason that I </b>write. I don't write to please others or to compete with other better bloggers on sites that have so much better content. I don't even write knowing Torah as well as I'd like and use as many tools as I can find. I only write because I feel that need to share because I've found an awesome God and found my identity in him.<br />
<br />
Our awesome and holy God, let us reflect every day to make sure that we can please you by our obedience and be humbled by how much we fall short of the mark. Give us that next chance and a lesson to learn or some encouragement from another so that we can grow strong in your righteousness. We seek to love you more and the people you love so that our love will help reveal your glory to all the earth.<br />
<ul>
<li>Original article: <a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/11/social-media-promotes-fear-by-not.html">Social media promotes fear by not basing an identity in God</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/12/helping-others-social-media-addiction.html">Helping others: God's social media addiction solution #1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/12/encouraging-one-another-social-media.html">Encouraging one another: God's social media addiction solution #2</a></li>
</ul>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-40503202369086816882016-12-26T00:13:00.000-06:002016-12-26T00:37:03.469-06:00Encouraging one another: God's social media addiction solution #2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Zanchi_-_Sisyphus.jpg/1123px-Zanchi_-_Sisyphus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Zanchi_-_Sisyphus.jpg/1123px-Zanchi_-_Sisyphus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As I mentioned in <a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/11/social-media-promotes-fear-by-not.html">my introductory post on social media addiction</a> inspired by <a href="http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/spirituality_and_faith/spiritual_growth/the_fear_of_missing_out.aspx?id=29851&language=english">an article on Breslev Israel's site</a> by Lori Steiner, I believe our individual identity is firmly rooted in our relationship with God. Her article identified the recent social app driven surge of fear in youth stemming from being part of the wrong social crowd and its confirmed influence towards a general state of unhappiness. Ms. Steiner recommended <b>three Judaic solutions for combating social dissatisfaction</b> for these disaffected souls including encouraging one another through inspiring or educational words.<br />
<h3>
Educating others</h3>
As an educator I know that it's more important to <b>give a student encouragement for effort</b> than to give an assessment on their quality of work. Anyone can get someone these days to tell them what they think is wrong with the world, your life, or the president. I think it may be a too common habit learned from the educational process to find flaws and set yourself up as an expert in a logical experiment to find a new premise and support it even if you're not very good at it and it's really just a pedantic style of complaining.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. Pro 12:25</blockquote>
Students need the self-confidence that it takes to keep grinding away at the same problem or topic for years without losing hope that it will be wasted. Even students who are not looking for a degree have the same need to come to terms with the complexities of business theories as they work their way through life and their career. <b>Sometimes that</b> <b>difficult day is just improved by a smile</b> and a recognition that doing a mundane process is being noticed and appreciated.<br />
<br />
<h3>
When God encourages</h3>
A critical spirit will sap the life from a creative spirit and turn an idea into an impossible journey when it's the journey that is the joy. To bring an inspiring word to someone who is on the path to a seemingly unobtainable goal is to <b>dispel the despair of existentialism</b> by letting the light of our Lord God who shines in us into the shadows of life.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Pro 17:22</blockquote>
Sisyphus forever pushing a boulder up the hill represents the Greek standard we are bound to that excludes any hope and creates a crushed spirit. But in this season of Hanukkah, <b>the Greeks are the defeated ones</b>, and our Lord God, who encouraged Zechariah through a vision for <a href="http://thetorah.com/identifying-the-building-blocks-of-chanukah/">the rebuilding of the second temple begun also on 25 Kislev</a>, brought encouragement through the miracle of purified oil on that same day.<br />
<h3>
Inspiring others</h3>
<div>
Family members and friends need that support also for trying to do things the right way even though they may be using bad tactics or old habits that irritate you. But <b>I would always choose a kind heart </b>over a unfriendly demeanor to be with. And if they need some reinforcement, there's nothing like recognizing a good trait in them.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Even <b>our leaders need a good word</b> even when they seem like they are doing just fine. But the tasks of leadership can be overwhelming and hidden from the people they are responsible for. I think it's important to take a minute and let your boss know that you like a particular decision or bring a small gift at an appropriate time.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.” Deut 3:28</blockquote>
I don't think Joshua would have been so willing to take over the leadership role to lead the children of Israel had Moses told him that he'd never live up to his standards but it was still God's will for him to follow in his footsteps.<br />
<h3>
Your inspiration</h3>
Words about God are words that will inspire you. The mere existence of the world and its wonders should inspire you. Sunrises and sunsets are worth paying attention to just because <b>it's a divine art gallery</b> that you can visit twice a day. Let's look for where our Lord God has put a canvas painted with life and practice to finds words to appreciate that. I can suggest a chapter if you need one.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;<br />
where morning dawns, where evening fades,<br />
you call forth songs of joy. Psalm 65:8</blockquote>
So, with all this encouragement and inspiration, the glamour of social media should lessen. The words on the Facebook posts should look weaker and the followers should turn into just numbers that can't become a person you confide in. The weak links of relationships in social media can't become strong because it isn't built that way. The only way to <b>get a meaningful relationship</b> is through the power of God and following his commandments.<br />
<br />
May the Lord God of the universe give us the eyes to see the abundance of examples of encouragement in the world and the amount of detail that exists in harmony to inspire us. Let us give back in worship and praise to the creator who has seen that all parts of our physical world encourage and maintain all the other parts of these perfectly aligned systems. And let Him who has allowed us to live and toil in this creation be blessed by our praise and our encouragement to others to praise him.<br />
<ul>
<li>Original article: <a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/11/social-media-promotes-fear-by-not.html">Social media promotes fear by not basing an identity in God</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/12/helping-others-social-media-addiction.html">Helping others: God's social media addiction solution #1</a></li>
</ul>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-22657612777112752632016-12-19T22:33:00.002-06:002016-12-26T00:14:59.649-06:00Helping others: God's social media addiction solution #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/The_Goose_That_Laid_the_Golden_Eggs_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_19994.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/The_Goose_That_Laid_the_Golden_Eggs_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_19994.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
As I mentioned in <a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/11/social-media-promotes-fear-by-not.html">my introductory post on social media addiction</a> inspired by <a href="http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/spirituality_and_faith/spiritual_growth/the_fear_of_missing_out.aspx?id=29851&language=english">an article on Breslev Israel's site</a> by Lori Steiner, I think that our individual identity is firmly rooted in our relationship with God. The point of her article was to identify the recent social app driven surge of fear in youth stemming from not being a part of the right social crowd and its confirmed influence towards a general state of unhappiness. Ms. Steiner recommended <b>three Judaic solutions for combating social dissatisfaction</b> for these disaffected souls one of which was helping others.<br />
<h3>
A sacrifice of our time</h3>
Helping others requires a sacrifice of our personal life resources whether it be the time we are unable to recover or the money which we use our time to replace. This sacrifice of time might be thought of as a loss but because of the reversing nature of this simple mystery, <b>the one who sacrifices is the one who gains</b>. Out of a true sacrifice, a person will discover that they are the one who receives the blessing.<br />
<br />
There are many examples of this kind of blessing through sacrifice. The one example that caught my interest recently was when the Israelites came out of bondage into freedom into the desert. The life jeopardizing commandment given from God was to not do work of the kind that creates resalable value on one day during the week so that they inwardly turned to God regularly, and externally puzzled the rest of the ancient world who had no precedent for not working except in the royal classes. <b>The God of Moses asked him to sacrifice a day per week</b> as part of the covenant between them<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. (Exodus 31:14)</blockquote>
The type of work that creates value is my modern interpretation of this word work (<i>melakah</i>), where doing something that creates value is like God creating a universe that has become our elegant home. It is in direct opposition to a priceless act of work (<i>avodah</i>) or selfless servitude that turns us to rescue another or to worship God and the result can not be bought for any price. Of course, my Hebrew needs a lot of work so I'm open to influence and correction here.<br />
<h3>
An altar all alone</h3>
The social media <b>emptiness accumulating through shallow communications</b> we have with people online is creating our loneliness. We interact with messages, false messages, and ads but never a whole person. Honor has been downgraded to a number of likes and not praise. Influence is counted in fickle followers and not obedience. People hide behind their avatars.<br />
<br />
There's a spot inside of us where that loneliness is like a vacuum, waiting to be filled. It's an altar for sacrifices where we can find the history of our life much <b>like blood sprinkled on the sides of the temple altar</b> left for the observers to remember. If our sacrifice is a true one, then the life of that sacrifice turns into a blessing of life for us, in a mystery of atonement. Sacrifices when made from real value create lasting memories. And if there is such a thing as the blood of our spirit, it has to be flowing with the memories of those sacrifices.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. (Deut 12:16) </blockquote>
We all have an internal altar or at least a psychological representation of one where <b>we try to fulfill our rite of atonement </b>in other ways. Magazines create sensational headlines calling our seeking for this acceptable sacrifice, the quest for happiness or other flavors of pabulum just to sell issues for the ad revenue. But it's just emptiness on an unused altar.<br />
<br />
What if there's nothing on our altar to atone for our sin and we long to find something? Then we find a powerful foreign god to put there. And since there is no life in that idol, then there will be no life in us. So we find another idol and another until the altar is filled with <b>useless distractions of technological power</b> creating the excess of activity seen with keeping up with trying to be popular on social media. Our power pantheon of apps and high-tech devices has grown out of a need to find life, but these bloodless substitutes leave us with memories lacking in meaning.<br />
<br />
Our smart phones have a memory of our lives by taking photos and storing thousands of images. But what sense is it to let the phone stand between you and the life that is taking place waiting for you to step into the dance that you find yourself dutifully recording? Will your memory be richer because you can replay one of a hundred different events you didn't participate in or will be you changed because you connected with another human being and it forever impressed you?<br />
<h3>
A powerless idol</h3>
You tell yourself that if I just had something that made me happy, I'd be closer to God. So instead of listening to Hashem tell you about the ways of his righteousness, you run off and try to put something on the altar that makes you <b>feel more like you have the power of a god</b>. The symbols of power are just symbols of the misguided's attempt to be happy. The need to get closer to a source of the power is the same reason they killed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goose_That_Laid_the_Golden_Eggs">goose that laid the golden eggs</a>.<br />
<br />
When you place a power symbol on your altar, it becomes a hope of what god should want. But does God seek any power? He has all authority and power. Looking at another's altar can tell you a lot about a person's hopes. <b>It's a mystery that our God seeks to be in a helpful relationship with us</b>, this very jealous God who found it pleasing to create more suns in more intergalactic miles that we could ever count, to keep us forever humble. <br />
<br />
That place of attention always feels empty because it is the place reserved for a gift of life. And unless God takes that life and returns it to you, there will always be a void. I know when I longed to have something that was extremely hard to get and was so valuable in many others' eyes, that when I finally got it, the pleasure lasted just a short moment. I could feel the life I expected to revive me dissipate as <b>it lost all its sheen in the light on God's altar</b>. It's been various things such as a well prepared plate of food, a piece of unique clothing, or a mystical foreign film I "needed" to watch. I felt that vacuum again when I swept that inadequate idol off of my altar and went searching for a replacement.<br />
<h3>
Emptiness</h3>
The call of that emptiness to be filled by the things of the world, which is <b>our evil inclination</b> (<i>yetzer hara</i>), never stops. We fill our minds with music, listening for hours and then having our own minds play it from the echoes it leaves in our minds for days. We fill it with distracting people who move on a large glass panel and talk through small boxes in our houses so we think someone is there. Or we fill it with work activities that occupy us with menial tasks to make the day pass until we see the clock release us from the prison of our unachievable goals.<br />
<br />
We were at one time complete with God in the garden. When there was no shame, there was no disconnection between our world and God's world. But now we use the earth to bless the Lord God by building an altar or a house of worship. <b>Our own personal altar is still separated from God</b> and wants to find that reconnection to him. And out of the sacrifices we make by helping others, the connection can be made stronger again.<br />
<br />
<b>Let us remember our sacrifices</b> we make out of love where the blessing is to each of us. Let us continue to search for opportunities to give into others' lives as God gives in to ours. In that release of our attachment on the time we use, we find freedom. In the freedom we gain, we are able to worship God more fully. And in that worship amidst this fearful world, we are able to find peace.<br />
<br />
Lord God of our fathers who made sacrifices that brought life to our generation, let us give thanks to you that returns that gift of life. We thank you for being patient and merciful while we try so many lifeless idols in our age of social media technology. Forgive us the blindness we have when we don't see how an imitation of your richly expressive universe can't be contained in a handheld computer because we are enamored with our creative efforts. And may you always help us find the peaceful, simple life, that is worth sharing in a real relationship bound by your love.Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-88085375010530196172016-11-21T19:16:00.000-06:002016-12-26T22:33:38.815-06:00Social media promotes fear by not basing an identity in God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div>
<span id="goog_1722035256"></span>Did we miss anything on cable last night? No, I didn't see your last Facebook post about your dog. I'll get to it soon. What's Twitter say about the music awards show on TV now? Did I reserve the right restaurant tomorrow? Let me check the reviews. I want to try that new gluten free hummus, they say it's better for you but I need to check my reddit feed to see what they say about their political views.</div>
<h3>
The New Fear</h3>
<div>
<b>Social media addiction</b> has acquired a new name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out">The Fear of Missing Out</a> and I thank Lori Steiner for her <a href="http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/spirituality_and_faith/spiritual_growth/the_fear_of_missing_out.aspx?id=29851&language=english">article in Breslev Israel</a> article pointing that out to me via <a href="https://twitter.com/TorahLectures">Torah Lectures</a> who quoted it. I've been heavily invested time-wise in social media over the last five years after writing a large curriculum for mostly business purposes. But I've seen it more as an experiment and really wouldn't mind if Facebook went the way of AOL or MySpace and kept going.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To the youth of today, it's not an experiment but<b> a mainstay of cool communication</b>. They need to stand out, to be noticed, stay on the move, and know the latest happenings that puts them at a higher social status above the crowd. My background in music tells me staying on the move chasing after the next best thing isn't the best way to raise a family. Appropriately enough, it's more of a temptation.</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJV2pWFyfn4">Papa was a rolling stone</a>, my son.<br />
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.<br />
And when he died, all he left us was alone.</blockquote>
<h3>
Fighting loss of identity</h3>
The point of Ms. Steiner 's article is to identify the recent social app driven surge of fear in youth about not being a part of the right crowd (social not moral) and its <b>confirmed influence towards unhappiness</b>. She counters positively with Judaism's teaching in that happy people strive to be humble, content, service-oriented and not focused so much on themselves. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ms. Steiner points out <b>three solutions for combating social dissatisfaction</b> for these repeat offenders: </div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>sharing thoughts of faith in God</li>
<li><a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/12/encouraging-one-another-social-media.html">encouraging one another through inspiring or educational words</a>, and </li>
<li><a href="http://www.tohimwholoves.us/2016/12/helping-others-social-media-addiction.html">helping others</a></li>
</ol>
I plan to follow up on the three different solutions in later blogs. But as a whole for now, I pondered that they must share a common bond. Because they are either about our relationship with God or our relationship with each other, they must have to do with a component of how we enter in to and maintain a relationship.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
They all seem to <b>center around identity</b>. When you are young, you try on various personas to see how they fit you and make your life choices for an adult. If I don't know who I am, I'll try to be anyone as long as it has some value to the world. You want to be successful and prosperous. How much more that you, one of their parents, should show your faith in God so that he blesses you with that success. The strongest life value and identity that you can have presented to your child is the one that you teach by the way that you live.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,<br />
turning a person from the snares of death. (Prov 13:14)</blockquote>
<h3>
Be that identity for someone</h3>
<div>
I know who I am, if I know who I am in God's eyes, and then I can share that knowledge of faith with others. Knowing our Lord God's love for me and what relationship I stand in with him, compels me to share that love and knowledge of him. And when I see another human being as an image of God, I cannot help but offer to pay back some of the riches that our infinitely merciful Lord has allowed me to receive.</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,<br />
human beings that you care for them?<br />
You have made them a little lower than the angels<br />
and crowned them with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:4-5)</blockquote>
<b>It's the identity of youth that is at risk</b>. They are losing their glory from God and using people pleasing skills to gain another disingenuous like. They have left the values of their fathers who've disappointed them and tried to find new values that shine and gleam on their cell phone screens. They look to a life controlled by a lonely programmer's decisions fueled by aimless electrons and yet ignore the love that surrounds the creator's mysteries waiting for someone to follow after his ways.<br />
<br />
Lord God, let us find our path to you through the insincere noise of the world that you did not create us to live in. Help us to know the glory that you gave us, to shine for your glory so that you may be the one who gains honor. Let us measure our random posts and tweets against your grains of sand on all the beaches that stand in testament to your amazing craftsmanship and leave us speechless for the vastness of the oceans that holds treasures beyond any retailer on the internet. And strengthen us in that identity that keeps us from losing the protective cover under your wings as we confront the fear of the future for us and for our children.Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-16738111100150119392016-11-06T08:32:00.000-06:002016-11-06T08:37:00.377-06:00The light of the commandments in your tevah - a protected place for God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Are we but dark vessels seeking to follow the light of God so that we may have meaning and value in this life? Or do we have a way to capture that light in us? Should we be seekers of truth which no one has agreed on, or should we <b>seek to become the vessels of truth</b> and let it shine forth from us?<br />
<b><br /></b>
Is our search for God like meeting a stranger because we know little about his nature? We know little about a person on the street when we first meet, getting clues from dress, manner, diction, and values. There's little to confirm a relationship in those moments.<br />
<br />
But if we connect to this stranger, by the grace of God, through what life he has put in us, then it is God who brings us closer together. So that relationship of us through <b>God binds us together</b> and blesses each other.<br />
<h3>
A dark soul</h3>
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a tormented Romantic Unitarian academic, wrote about our lonely plight.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,<br />
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;<br />
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,<br />
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.</blockquote>
<div>
So we go to and from Longfellow's isolated place if we silence the voice of the one who has created us.<b> It is darkness when we don't talk of HaShem</b> in this world. It's a place that has no destination or even a port to dock in. But when there is a ray of enlightenment that allows us to see the direction to the ways of righteousness, we must never fail to follow. By taking that path, we create a meaningful and joyous life.<br />
<br />
The commandments from God are those rays of light that allow us to know more of his kingdom. His mitzvot, which joins us to him and each other, are what brings him in to our lives instead of just a chance meeting which may introduce us, but fails to bring us closer to him. So many mystics have had encounters but have little motivation to follow believing that their knowledge is enough. It is our following and seeking His ways and in rejecting the world through repentance that cleanses us. And as we are cleansed, God comes closer to us.<br />
<h3>
The seal of protection</h3>
We need to seal in those words of unity so we never forget them. We must always remember how God has blessed us. We protect the commandments and the memories of our blessings by keeping the world from entering in and polluting them. The assimilation of any unholy way will dilute the richness of His words where they dwell and this taint on the purity of HaShem who is without fault, will cause him to withdraw. We need to <b>seal in those words with a thick coating of pitch</b>, a barrier of willpower strengthened by an understanding of God's instruction found in the Torah, to keep all the worldly water outside our ship from seeping in.<br />
<br />
Even though we float on the unpredictable surface of the world, we are potentially protected by the words that God has spoken to us through the prophets. Through our trust of the truth of these words, God provides a place of refuge where as the worldly waters roil and rage, we can find the peace of an eternal promise that will keep us safe within our pitch-coated vessel. The torrential sin of the world will try to leak in through any little crack and seep in to our inner calm displacing the truth that God has shown us. But <b>we are not removed from this world, just separated from it.</b> We are often warned to maintain that layer of pitch to protect the Law in our lives while we are yet not fully in His kingdom.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Josh 1:8)</blockquote>
The waters we navigate through is as uncharted as the events in our lives. Chaos exists in both elements. We certainly try to erase all the risk associated with sailing but winds and currents are never going to announce their intentions the same way that God hides his activities. So as the waves crash in on our vessels, we have to fasten our eyes on the ways of our Lord God and <b>seal out the temptation that pushes in </b>on our willpower.<br />
<h3>
The tevah and the special place</h3>
There are many uses of a Hebrew word that indicate a vessel that seals out the outside world. In general, the word <b>ark </b>is used to translate the Hebrew word <b>tevah </b>(תבה). The word occurs in the Torah to describe the little vessel that carried Moses down the river covered in tar and pitch (Exodus 2:3).<br />
<br />
The other instance of <b>tevah </b>occurs in the more famous ark of Noah, God instructed Noah to seal out the world with a generous coating of pitch on both the inside and outside (Gen 6:14). I like that picture. It's necessary to put up defenses against the world by both an internal fight to keep thoughts at bay capable of defiling the organized man. It's also necessary to create external processes and redefine traditions to keep you on track. You then teach others the habits of these good works to help bring families and friends closer to our Lord God.<br />
<div>
<br />
It is the commandments of the Lord that bring us through the vast chaos of life, floating in a sea of iniquity, we still survive by God's mercy. The commandments deserve a special place in a special container internally in us. To symbolize this externally, we put them in a container that can be called an <b>tevah</b>. This is the Ark of the Covenant. This is the Holy Ark where Torah Scrolls are kept in the front of the synagogue. <b>This is the holiest place </b>where we seal out the world and let God reign. This is in us also. And it is in the one who takes his place on the bimah where the Torah is read. Even in Sephardic synagogues, the reader's stand is called a <b>tevah</b> and the origin of that tradition is mixed but surrounded with ship metaphors.<br />
<h3>
The final imprint</h3>
</div>
<div>
We await the time when those commandments will be sealed permanently in our minds and hearts as the world presses inward. Pitch is very viscous but still liquid which causes our vessel to leak eventually. In that day of the coming kingdom, God will transform Jews from people stepping up to the bimah to guide others to people continually getting true direction leading to a full life and success. It is <b>the unbreakable promise of the Lord of Israel that the law will be affixed to each Jew </b>in a covenant of God. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. (Jer 31:33-34)</blockquote>
Lord God of the holy places, where the Law reigns in perfect light, shine in to our inner vessel, to bring the commandments of life to our hearts and minds. And let us learn how to seal them in and to do all that is written in these laws so that we can follow your ways that have kept the universe in perfect order. Bless you Lord God of the pitch and the tar for keeping us from straying too far, having unrighteous ways, and staying in your eternal safety.</div>
</div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-2011683714429932992016-10-06T16:12:00.001-05:002016-10-07T17:19:59.006-05:00Secrets - Is God Hiding Something?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You wanna know a secret? Sure you do.<br />
<br />
It hasn't been told to hardly anyone and it's never going to told again, but just this time, I'll let you know, as long as you promise not to tell everyone else. This secret has been <b>locked up forever in the dark halls</b> of the world's history archives, but was recently told to me by a Ukrainian arms merchant's son who studied Sanskrit as a blind child and had a vision of the future of America, who will be elected and the <b>terrible events</b> that would happen afterwards.<br />
<h3>
Knowing secrets is not knowing God</h3>
Gnostics and other holders of secret knowledge don't tell stories like myths so we understand ourselves. They don't have moral tales to edify anyone. And it's like they aren't telling you the whole story when they tell you what they know. It's like <b>a sales pitch</b>. The first secret is free. But you know there's a secret behind the secret. The one they make you pay money for.<br />
<br />
Or instead of the money you might lose, you have to waste immense amounts of time to understand it because it takes effort to unravel the secrets of the universe by yourself. And then when you get to the next level, you feel like a fool because there's five more levels to learn to attain even higher knowledge. You can boast that <b>you spent years in learning</b> these esoteric teachings. But are you any better in your relationship with God at that point?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Causing the omens of boasters to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw back And turning their knowledge into foolishness, (Is 44:25)</blockquote>
The stories that gnostics spin are made up of conclusions from random pieces of information that seem valuable to them and as they weave their web of coincidence and universe propelled eventualities, the result is never how we can achieve peace by trying to follow God's ways. Usually the result is <b>a Rube Goldbergian explanation</b> of the reason that a non-personal god has a relationship with us and we have to just understand it.<br />
<h3>
The value in a secret is that it protects you</h3>
The knowledge that gnostics have seems valuable and attractive, only because it's secret and not because it has any intrinsic value. Nobody would spend that much time writing down dumb thoughts so people would pay attention to it without a way to sell it. It's the first major marketing scam there was. <b>They're just selling themselves</b>. When you hear Rudolph Steiner wax romantically over simplistic wisdom like<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If I meet a man and blame him for his shortcomings, I rob myself of power to attain higher knowledge; but if I try to enter lovingly into his merits, I gather such power.</blockquote>
you wonder if anyone has ever told him not to spit into the wind before. Hey, Rudy, make sure you don't tug on Superman's cape either. And don't mess around with God.<br />
<br />
God's power and knowledge isn't wrapped up in a secret because it's a way for us to want to discover it. God doesn't need a marketing plan. The knowledge that God has is valuable in itself and <b>pleases God to make it unknown</b> to the foolish and unrighteous. If we can't find it, it's because we are looking in the wrong place.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I am the LORD, and there is none else. "I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, Seek Me in a waste place; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright. (Isaiah 45:18-19)</blockquote>
<h3>
God = 7 + 15 + 4 = 26 letters of the alphabet = all possible words!</h3>
Does it really matter how many characters are in a word to God who doesn't speak in any language but in all languages? People have imagined that numbers add up and, with some Babylonian or Greek originated sleight of math, turn into another number that has a meaning. <b>I don't see God counting anything</b>. He asked Abraham to count the stars knowing that he wouldn't be able to, as a sign of how many descendants he would have.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Gen 15:5-6)</blockquote>
So neither the numbers nor the alphabet communicates God's intent well. And trying to detect what the future holds by arranging the characters in different sequences puts the <b>spotlight on the wrong source of wisdom</b>. Listing all the earthquakes, weather related phenomena, or astronomical oddities in order to interpret when the next catastrophe is going to happen is like trying to solve a murder by reading the tea leaves instead of analyzing them for cyanide.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. (Deut 18:10-11)</blockquote>
<h3>
Don't sin and drive</h3>
<b>God doesn't have secrets</b>. That implies that there's a reason to have a lesser relationship on His part to not want to share all that He has with us. But His desire is to restore a relationship with us and wants us to feel the same way. But the problem is really with us in that we have unrighteousness, and have come up short with how HaShem would want us to be to know those things.<br />
<br />
Does a child think that knowing how to drive a car is a secret? It's for our protection that our Creator has limited our ability to understand these things. <b>We make enough of a mess</b> with what we do know. Why would you let your child drive a car just because they asked? It's not a secret. It's for their protection.<br />
<br />
All those gnostic people want to assume there are secrets so that they can be the proud revealers of those secrets to other men. Gnostics eliminate their source of truth from the equation and make a mess of the explanation. They <b>boast about their riches of knowledge</b> as the King of Tyre did and felt the ire of God.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“ ‘In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.” But you are a mere mortal and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god. Are you wiser than Daniel ? Is no secret hidden from you? (Ezek 28:2-3)</blockquote>
<b>Lord God of the universe</b>, how petty we can be when we focus on the meaningless parts of life when there is a way to see you through your creation and your history. Praise You for revealing the mysteries of life through your people in so many ways and help turn our eyes to you so that you may unveil even more truth to us as we humbly seek you. Though we be limited in ability, we cast our trust on you and in your faithfulness to always take care of us and bring us into a better relationship with you.Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-31023717990764491972016-09-20T21:18:00.001-05:002016-10-03T16:38:40.246-05:00Dirty stories without God - the closer altar isn't always better<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let's create a story. Let's leave out God. I'm walking down the street. Bad people do stuff I don't like. I use <b>my psychic powers</b> to bring a lightning bolt from the sky to destroy them. Or was it the turn-to-stone spell that I used? No matter, that's too easy.<br />
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I don't have a super power but maybe I control a powerful and magical computer that I tell I'm in need of help. Like my cell phone. Then people arrive, defeat the bad guys and I win. Now, when you tell that tall tale to others, they will like it because their essential need to believe that they are in control of their world has been validated. But <b>God has been invalidated</b>.<br />
<h3>
Misguided myths</h3>
Science fiction and its mythic precursors tend to seek out a familiar belief such as the ability of man to overcome adversity without God and validate it. These are the hero stories of Luke Skywalker and Peter Parker that then continue on through sequels to fight for justice. The moral or political aspects of this light fiction can then anchor a good plot so we find enjoyment and <b>cultural affirmation</b> from it.<br />
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Replacing a collective knowledge of God through the history of the scriptures with an independent set of pop cultural references eases us through the day. We don't live the lives of Moses or Joshua, don't have the visions of Obadiah and wouldn't know what to do with them if we did. We find comfortable lies talking about always <b>closely shaved Luke Skywalker</b>'s conquests in the name of The Force, but can't fathom that there will be future destruction and slaughter in Edom on a similar magnitude.<br />
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In times past, we would have been spinning the story about the coincidentally youthful and <b>whisker-less Perseus</b> and his almost impossible task set before him by crotchety old King Polydectes to slay the terrible snake-headed female monster, Medusa. And then we would gloat about how he won using his super powered shoes and helmet and brought back the super powered decapitated head to turn the king into stone. The happy ending is always better than judgement and exile.<br />
<h3>
The dirty story</h3>
It just doesn't seem right to take control of a story when you think it should turn out different because you believe that God wouldn't do such a thing. It's better to use the standard story line of how the hero did so many good deeds that he was able to overcome anything. He merits his good ends through his good means. This consequentialism is <b>void of any relationship</b> to each other and to our Lord God. It's a lie of rebelliousness to God and to anybody else. It's not the ends that matters, it's the dirt you don't pick up along the way.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. (2 Samuel 22:21)</blockquote>
Let's try some other lies in the picture. Let's say that the things our hero was overcoming just had to be conquered so that the world became a better place. Or maybe this was so important to our lives, we couldn't let it fail. We've believed that kind of lie before in the US. Talk to Bear Stearns, AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, General Motors, Bank of America, Citigroup, Chrysler, or other bailout recipients of government charity. There's lots of excuses to try. Excuses are dirt.<br />
<br />
Let's just take our sacrifice to the closer altar down the road and then we won't have to go to Jerusalem to worship the true almighty Lord God. The results are the same, right? Close is good enough. I don't have to get stressed out by preparing so much. Maybe it's not that important to use my best china for those out of state visitors. They won't know if I serve them the cheap cuts of meat.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So the king consulted, and <b>made two golden calves</b>, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. (1 Kings 12:25-33)</blockquote>
<h3>
Experiences are with God</h3>
I'm just not happy having my own experience without God. Leaving out <b>the light that shines in the darkness</b> leaves me in total darkness. I want to see when a child understands that giving their favorite part of their lunch to their friend has so much more power than accumulating toys in a corner. I find life in seeing gratitude for small things that take an awareness of God's presence. And when the bright sun shines in through my window to touch the basic wooden desk I work on, I want to remember that there's an amazing complex star millions of miles away ruled by the same creator that I seek to rule my heart.<br />
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Now when we start going off to other places to get experiences, that perturbation from God's course will be a false witness to what we trust in reality. Because God is a God of reality, anything that provides a fake experience is heading down that path and will produce its own idols eventually. Anything that imitates life in a way that is not God's true experience to the artist but is their desire to fulfill their own needs, will cause us to deviate from a path leading to Him.<br />
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It can start simply. It could be <b>just a flaw</b> that takes us away from God's protection and just requires Him to treat us as if we were a little superstitious. So what if we believe we have to walk backwards through our front door to leave the house? But what if our action directs us to look away from His direction? It could be a ruinous act of sin that takes our eyes off of God's power pushing us out of the protection that we need.<br />
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<b>Lord God,</b> let us find our way under your wings to stay in your shadow of protection. Your righteousness is like no other and your mercy is astounding. We have made little sacrifices in unworthy places when you have been pleased to give us the bounty of an overflowing earth and blessings of life each day. Your rich experience is enough, HaShem, and may you be praised in every creative thought that comes from us.<br />
<br />Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-73731628226575642832016-09-01T10:14:00.001-05:002016-09-01T19:46:24.589-05:00Knowing God through history and ancestors - turn away at your peril<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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How do we know God? I mean, how do we have an experience that means something to us about the creator of the universe, the creator of these raw materials that we've fashioned into things we like to take credit for, the creator that directed my brain to grow into the organ that is able to produce thoughts to fashion those raw materials into any usable thing I can think of? And then that same mind is able to ask a question like how do we know God?<br />
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I'm absolutely sure that my intricate mind, imagined and brought into existence by our eternal God's hand and created through His perfect ways should have the ability to know God. The mark of the artist through the recognizable strokes of His paintbrush are there for anyone to see. But for those who have seen thousands of sunset portraits and never wondered about His magnificent stage on which we perform, but only look to admire the imperfect work of their will, the mind is yet another mystery explained by an excuse of random atoms forming themselves into inexplicable patterns.<br />
<h3>
God is experienced in history</h3>
The experience of God starts with a telling of experiences of God from the past. It's the history of the way God has come into lives just like mine and changed them, begun them, or ended them. The collected recordings of those events are the most valuable writings in history since they provide value to our lives in order to give us meaning. We hope to see those historic interactions provide a little meaning in our lives.<br />
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Writings about or retelling the experience of God are, in my mind, an interpretation of the original and just as valid for the time and place they occur in. Artistic interpretations can take forms in visual as well as performing arts and the vocabulary of each much be a common language to everyone. This piece is just one of a series of short essays where I try to focus on my experience of God's spirit and interpret it for those who find it.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="color: #741b47;">God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.</span></b> (Psalm 53:2)</blockquote>
We find pieces of us in Moses' waiting in Midian for his calling while raising a family, King David's rebellious family problems, or Jonah stealing off on a cheap Costa Del Sol cruise to get away from it all. Each time we read a story reduced down to a verse, it has the capacity to be expanded into our lives and takes on the garments of the reader revealing details about how a past life is in relationship with God as is our lives.<br />
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But we must not sterilize the passage. It has to be captured in our minds the way it was captured in the author's mind. It has to be surrounded with all of God's rich elements of life, of emotions, of social conscience, of guilt and desiring to know God. Treating it as an observation to be compared instead of life to be understood is reducing the experience to a commodity and loses valuable meaning.<br />
<h3>
Other writings</h3>
All other writings are<br />
<ul>
<li>vanity, </li>
<li>observations, or </li>
<li>seeking after God hoping to know Him. </li>
</ul>
Focusing on ourselves and <b>ignoring God </b>is the easy road to vanity which doesn't mesh well with God's plans. Observations are what we call scientific or technical documents since we labor to <b>eliminate God </b>and look at the natural world as a closed system. God is always at work so that becomes a futile endeavor for a goal of understanding everything. And various schools have tried to <b>know God using only our mind</b> throughout history such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism">Gnosticism</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah">Kabbalah</a>, or Platonism and its various offshoots.<br />
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When we purposely <b>ignore God</b>, the way we talk ends up focusing on ourselves, expressing words of vanity and self-appreciation. And the pleasure of that deceit is addictive. Our words deceive us and create addictive fantasy worlds of people existing in ideal states. As artists create canvas worlds that distort the world into their idealized pieces, we can easily create digital film and interactive games with the same effect. The top-grossing 2016 film from a video game, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_(film)">Warcraft</a>, creates a magical world of demons, human sacrifice, and of course, endless battles. No God exists in that world.<br />
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Even if we try to remove our ego from the way we write, the willingness to <b>eliminate God</b> in our observations becomes a barrier to knowing how things work and behave. Things are controlled only by God's will and without that belief, we will spin tales of universe creation theories and the beginning of consciousness confusing all of us with a logical positivistic understanding of reality. There is no problem of sin, only the problem of not knowing. There is no repentance necessary, only the need to think more.<br />
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And the fallacy of creating an arrangement of words that capture God by expressing thoughts from <b>our own understanding</b> is like trying to count sand granules on a beach.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #741b47;"><b>How precious to me are your thoughts, God!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><b> How vast is the sum of them!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><b>Were I to count them,</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><b> they would outnumber the grains of sand—</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47;"><b> when I awake, I am still with you. </b></span>(Psalm 139:17-18)</blockquote>
<h3>
God is experienced in our life</h3>
The Tanakh certainly provides the trusted source of how God wants to interact in our lives, to come down and create an experience that involves people, create a relationship among them, and provide the certainty that we have trusted for thousands of years and even more into the future. We trust that experience because it has been the same and will be the same because God is always the same.<br />
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And that experience is defined in our lives. As the creator of all history now in living in our lives, creating an experience of life through joy and suffering with us, we can only stand in awe that this one unimaginably caring God fills us with life every day as much as He allows creation to continue in all the colorful glory it contains. We have the brushstrokes of the artist of the sunrises, painting our daily lives with hope. It's our choice of experience to filter out that wonder through sin and judgment. But if we follow his ways, He will guide us and bless us.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="color: #741b47;">But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."</span></b> (Joshua 22:5)</blockquote>
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<b>How magnificent you are Lord God</b> of the universe, architect of all that is built and maker of all the materials that is in the earth! The designs of the heavens are your achievements and humble the man that draws lines to mark the constellations and takes pictures to capture what we barely can see. We can not be anything but amazed that you continue to seek us in a relationship that we can only respond to with gratitude. Thank you, HaShem, for the continued grace you show in revealing yourself through history in our lives every day.</div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-91523529674882796942016-08-07T18:55:00.001-05:002016-08-08T13:45:26.091-05:00The puzzle of God's name finds no solution in the letters<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Tetragrammaton_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Tetragrammaton_a.jpg" width="281" /></a>Of all the concepts in the Jewish scriptures, I am always drawn to the ones that pose a puzzle. The best kind of puzzles are the ones that look simple but have a unlimited depth of wisdom or application in them. They can create the illusion of an easy solution but frustrate the unaware novice. I've learned that <b>simple is not easy</b>.<br />
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I began as a novice in puzzles being sucked in to the elegance of the proposition. But then the frustration of not finding the easy solution to match an "easy" problem has stuck with me since then. I feel it serves some justice to solve any kind of difficult problem when it arrives in my lap to be able to say that it didn't get the better of me again.<br />
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There's the problem in Genesis of where Cain and Seth got their wives. I think <b>that's not the point of the story</b>. The author certainly didn't care. You really can't apply that to your life easily. What about that part where Cain is driven from the land to wander the earth and is afraid? He was afraid of who would kill him. So what other person not in this early tribe was going to kill him? That's not really the point either. I wouldn't be talking to anyone at work about that part. The part about sin and judgment is more important though and does deserve a conversation when it's appropriate.<br />
<h3>
That four letter word</h3>
Another problem that seemed worth some investigation was when Moses asked God for His name.<br />
They didn't have much in the way of physics terminology back then so the answer of "I'm called the sum total of gravitational potential energy plus internal energy of masses plus electromagnetic radiation" wouldn't have meant much. How do you tell a curious and respectful guy what your basic way to be addressed is if you don't have words for that, especially when you might be mixed up with some pop Egyptian gods?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14)</blockquote>
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I don't think Moses would have cared for the scientific description even if he knew his physics. I don't think that was the point. There's something that Moses wanted to know that wasn't about a definition. In physics, the point of that formula that describes the way things are has to do with conservation of energy where nothing is lost and nothing is gained because we live in a closed system according to the guys who count the beans that control the universe. Not a bad concept for an eternal God. Still not the point.<br />
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The tetragrammaton that serves to describe the name of HaShem in the story is a puzzle. People like to go mystical on it with finding gender and creative energy in the letters themselves. <b>People go crazy over </b>not saying the name out of holiness, never using anything but that name out of law abiding third commandment following adherents, to using other pronunciations which is a good compromise hoping that by following both they won't sin. I don't think that's the point.<br />
<h3>
Avoidance of an answer</h3>
Does a person <b>trying to be humble</b> about his nature come off as mysterious because he withholds information? Sometimes, but maybe out of misinterpretation. If the president of a business that isn't recognized by some of the warehouse workers, like on Undercover Boss, gets asked what he does, would it be seen as mysterious for him to describe it as "I get work done occasionally" ? There's a humorous side to the vagueness there. Was God being coy also then by being vague?<br />
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God's description of His name was purposely <b>avoiding any relationship to the gods of the day</b> by not giving a name. You have to find a way to set yourself apart and yet still be approachable. That's a tough problem. But then God explains. He sets out a name vaguely associated with the conservation of energy by saying that He's always been the same amount of God and will never lose His status there. In fact, it's all that there is. Always has been, always will be. It's physics in a nutshell.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (Exodus 3:15)</blockquote>
<h3>
The relationship is the point</h3>
Then he tells Moses that this divine force has intent. The intent is to make a relationship with His people. He also backs it up with credentials from the meaningful tapestry of their tribal memories. He's hitting all cylinders here. God has a relationship with this new guy, Moses, and it's <b>the same relationship that has protected and prospered His people throughout generations</b>. This is His name. The name of their successes past, the name of a call to action now, and the name of their deliverance to a promised land in the future. This is the point.<br />
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The point is not to analyze the four letters and their relationship to each other, the relationship to unknown sounds, or the relationship to the entire Kabbalistic cosmological body of knowledge. It's not about the what you see, but about what you don't see. It's what you remember and know in your heart.<br />
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Why would you think that after your spouse goes to the store and gets some GE light bulbs which light up the house that you can then go write big GE letters with a Sharpie on anything and it will light up? Is there anything special to the letters? You know it's not about the letters because it wasn't about a name. It was about what God represented to the Hebrews and also what God didn't want to be associated with. They had that problem with the golden calf very soon after which showed that the concept wasn't too clear about how different God was from the Egyptian thinking of gods.<br />
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So it's also about <b>honor, humbleness</b>, and not emptying God's titles of any of His true nature. It's about not profaning another divine description which doesn't do God justice. It's a tricky problem with an elegant solution that isn't about hiding anything inside the numerical equivalents of the letters but about hiding the true meaning of God's name throughout history in your heart. Keep it secure. Keep it holy. And keep the covenant.<br />
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<b>May you Lord God always be holy in our hearts</b> when we seek to call your name, the name that has always existed and will always exists. Burden our hearts to call your name, to help us walk straight through a mass of complex problems and in Your powerful ways, find a simple solution by relying on you to take us there. Shame and correct us if we fail to remember that you are the God that kept His hand on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And bring us joy as we follow you in solving life's most difficult problems.Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-9806480314569568142016-08-04T20:34:00.000-05:002016-08-05T13:53:14.090-05:00Dreaming to eliminate God when we are bound in a covenant to Him<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Have a nice day, God bless. [Now God waits on who or what you want Him to bless]<br />
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What's on TV? Whatever. Let's see how Jimmy or Stephen is doing tonight. And Corden is my buddy, we'll watch him. [Now God is waiting to grow relationships between you and people connected by your shared experiences]<br />
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Check the weather and see if it's going to rain. Turn on the sprinkler system if it isn't. Is there a soda in the fridge? I could use a cool drink. Do you think they'll catch those guys that robbed the bank tonight? Let's watch the news and see what they think. [God waits to see if anyone will ask for His intervention]<br />
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Should I call my mom or wait until she calls? I'm tired so I don't want to think about it. [God waits to have you ask for His help to guide you.]<br />
<h3>
We dream to eliminate God</h3>
God's influence in our lives is taking a hit. We control more of getting our desires and slowly reduce His impact in our lives because we have less need. <b>We're really dreaming</b>. Everything can be automated somehow, where in times past, to get some results of any kind, people had to sacrifice a perfectly good livestock animal. But in building this edifice of satisfaction, we block the voice of the Creator and can easily be crushed by the reality of His strong arm leaving us in embarrassment.<br />
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I was looking at the sky yesterday. It was different than the day before when it was clear. It was menacing dark layers of rain carrying streamers, blue and gray, moving contrary to each other. Could we control that? Is there one app I could download that would make any difference at all? When I'm feeling depressed, is there anything besides distraction to numb the awareness to make me feel better?<br />
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This dream world that results by shutting out the light of our creator is a world of our making. Not God's. We control our house temperature, flow of water, lights, answers to questions via the internet, entertainment, and our sleeping environment. We can work hundreds of feet up in an office building, not contact anything God created including the food we eat for lunch, and communicate with anyone in the world real-time. We fly sheltered from storms, sail in boats that rarely sink, and take chariots of steel that require no stable or hay. And we make nations fear us by the nuclear weaponry we stockpile. But it's only<b> a dream that we have control</b> over it.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God. (Eccl 5:7)</blockquote>
I hate augmented reality. That's just <b>a digital dream</b>. If you want to augment something for me, don't make me carry around a piece of metal that talks to me. I want a relationship with someone who has a relationship with the living God. God has taught me that I get the most out of life when I have a real relationship with Him. Augment my life with care, understanding, appreciation, support. Tell me a story that expands my reality.<br />
<h3>
Our non-godly perception</h3>
When we live in our world, God has little chance at making us see physical things except in terms of our filters. Removing a filter, like a pair of gloves, means letting your hands get dirty. We look at another's life through their eyes and see the grungy family of angry kids or the dark depression of an unhappy spouse. <b>There's life going on there</b> in emotions and needs. So much life is occurring all around us at every second, but filters are so easily applied. Shutting the door, turning to work, ignoring a phone call, or finding a distraction making it too late to respond all are filters which drain the vibrant life from our everyday travels.<br />
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The peer pressure to ignore God is increasing. As more people depend on science to fulfill their needs and dreams, there's more at stake to defend the right to do as we please. We have businesses to keep afloat to support people and keep us financially secure. We have accustomed ourselves to a less active lifestyle. This dichotomy of life tears us between the easy road of commercialism and the dusty trail of an ethical and moral justice.<br />
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As <b>God's mercy lets us travel down that road</b>, we intimidate others into believing that we are doing the right thing and it's those religious people that have the old-fashioned ideas about God's power to change that is the less powerful option. Well, of course, it used to be that way, but now we have figured out why we are right and God was just a minor character in a play that has no relevance to our modern lives today. We're so much more civilized now.<br />
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We lie to ourselves because others do also. Just do a search for "the only ? you'll ever need" and fill in the question mark with anything you want. You'll find investments, beauty products, cleaning products, diet books, kitchen equipment and more. It's easy to let advertising teach us how to talk to ourselves. Then we start lying to God.<br />
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Is it not God that has the full control of life outside of our personal little realm? We just don't encounter His realm often enough to know it. We could pray more often or maybe just start to pray. Occasionally a person will step into a puddle of spirituality and it becomes a mystical image framed with a godless world view put into a picture album for posterity. But <b>our spiritual lives should be more</b> than that. We should be able to sense the divine in the clouds and lightning and wonder how it all works as one awesome unified system that we are invited to be a part of.<br />
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For I know that the LORD is great<br />
And that our Lord is above all gods.<br />
Whatever the LORD pleases, He does,<br />
In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.<br />
He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;<br />
Who makes lightnings for the rain,<br />
Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries. (Psalm 135: 5-7)</blockquote>
<h3>
Our need to relate to God</h3>
Seeing life represented in a film lets us escape the responsibility of a reply. That's why it's called an escape. But God expects us to reply because <b>we are in a covenant relationship</b> with Him, He tells us to act like we mean it by treating each other the same way. A cartoon character will never come back to apologize that they made you think the wrong way. Are you still wearing your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Mighty Mouse t-shirt? Enough already. What is the meaning of a friend who God has put in your path, if it's not in someone to turn to and talk with?<br />
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We have a need to be in covenant with God. His conversation and actions always plead "<b>Return to me</b>." It was after many weeks of living in paved and groomed apartments and working around too much unfriendly technology that my hands craved the gritty soil that I grew up around as a farmer. When I saw a cornfield one evening walking out of my structured environment, the need to connect was so strong that I went over, stood in the head-high rows, and knelt down to just rub a handful of dirt between my hands. There was life there. It revived me.<br />
<br />
<b>Hear our prayers, Lord God</b>, king of the dirt, the corn, the clouds and the rain. How awesome is your power that both brings hurricanes and tornadoes, but still is merciful enough to wait for us to come back to your call in a conversation that has been going on for millennia. Direct our hearts to please you and provide for each other in what we need right now whether a simple conversation or a small meal. Forgive us for hiding from you or putting our hope in technology and our own ways. You will find a way to convince us, I know it.<br />
<br />Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-63760052062099299802016-08-02T21:42:00.000-05:002016-08-03T16:26:16.952-05:00Call - listen - act, the prophetic cycle of Elijah reveals mercy and a covenant relationship<div>
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Prophets get a call when things are bad and are going to get worse. That was the situation in Elijah's time when the message came through to make things worse and start a three and a half year drought. The trouble was that King Ahab didn't know things were bad.<br />
<br />
The king married a bossy idolatrous wife and learned how to rule from a rebellious apostate dad. He had 450 stubborn misguided priests that were responsible for irrigation of the food crops by placating the mean ol' Baal idol. Another 400 were probably interested in a bountiful crop harvest by adoring his business associate idol Asherah. But, it was bad because <b>Ahab broke the Sinai covenant</b> between the one true living God and the people who followed Baal in his footsteps.<br />
<br />
Elijah and God had an understanding. God asked him to do stuff and he did it. Maybe that's why he was the last prophet standing in the Northern Kingdom. He heard, he did. No hesitation. I like that. No back talk, no whining. I imagine a motorcycle-riding leather bomber jacket wearing long-hair that could intimidate you with his stare from fifty feet. <b>Elijah was tough</b>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Now it happened after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.” So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. (1 Kings 18:1-2)</blockquote>
<h3>
Why do prayers not get answered?</h3>
I'm sure Obadiah, the king's assistant and devout follower of God, was feeling the results of the drought. If he was praying for rain which I'm sure crossed his mind, why wasn't God answering his prayers? What made God wait so long that the normal water sources had run dry and the royal family was in danger of losing their livestock? Wouldn't God bless the house of Ahab for the sake of this man's prayer? Wouldn't God want this for someone that special?<br />
<br />
Maybe there was a reason. The reason might be <b>to teach us a lesson about patience</b>. My position isn't high enough in the kingdom of God to gain that kind of approval because I'm impatient. Elijah is much more patient than me so I should learn to be more like him. If I had a mantle to wear like him, I could be more patient. If God would just speak to me, I would be more satisfied. Maybe if he took my annoying neighbors away or got me a new house in Florida, I could be more patient. I think all the important prophets are moving to Florida nowadays. I'll just move there now.<br />
<br />
Maybe it's a different reason. God is certainly compassionate. If after dealing with the bad, maybe <b>this time is a time of healing</b>. But nothing changed for three and half years. Maybe Elijah needed time to heal and hide out while King Ahab was being dealt with. So the point then is a drought that affects the whole country just for one man to heal because he started a fight with the king? That's certainly looking at it from a prophet's perspective who isn't bringing a message of repentance. But Elijah was a true prophet who asked for repentance. God was fed up with idol worshiping royals and a nation that drifted into apostasy who needed some good swift kicks to get them to pay attention.<br />
<br />
Maybe it's a another reason. The reason might be that <b>I'm not as holy as Elijah</b> so God must not be listening to me. If you are holy, you have a whole bunch of faith because I've heard that if you just get enough faith, you can do anything. Oh wait, I'm not supposed to that, it's God that's supposed to do anything. Wait, I should have faith that I can do anything because God uses me. But what if I'm doing that with the wrong motive? But I should have faith that I have the right motive. But how do I get that? Oh, yeah, God has control of that also I think. Is there something I can take for this spiritual blockage?<br />
<h3>
It's not about you</h3>
Unfortunately, the blockage I've put in the way is me. All these reasons are about me. I've taken away God's compassion, mercy, or power and made it my responsibility. <b>Didn't Elijah get the call, listen and then act? </b>He didn't plan, do, check, and act like business teaches us. My responsibility is not to get in the way of God when He wants to act. If the action is not to do something for some reason, then the worst thing I can do is use my will to act against God. You start doing things on your own, ignoring God's quiet voice and it's downhill from there. You go from bad to worse.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. (1 Kings 17:31-33)</blockquote>
<h3>
It's about Him</h3>
Reasons that put the spotlight on one person or another are too narrowly focused. Reasons that work are centered around HaShem and get his nation and those in charge of it returning to worship Him through repentance and obedience. He wants a relationship restored. And it's His patience that is tested and his holiness that is impugned. When the one who created our hearing calls, we should listen and act in faith like Elijah.</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word. “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again. (1 Kings 18:36-37)</blockquote>
It's about the covenant relationship with God's people. <b>He shows tremendous mercy</b> to wait patiently before he answers hoping to let his people make a better decision and allows them to take action to confirm their eventual judgment. Even King Ahab, after being humiliated by God by answering Elijah's call for a fiery sacrifice and the slaughter of his priests, came around by repenting some and gained some favor in God's eyes.<br />
<br />
O Lord God of the universe who keeps us and waits patiently for our slightest move in the right direction so that you have something to work with to encourage us and develop our best behavior, teach us how to listen to your call. Teach us how to be like a willow in the wind that bends towards your will though the wind be harsh, when others see it as a disturbance of their shallow and selfish world. And let us know how to then act in wisdom to be like You in mercy and kindness.</div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-76490378035881801022016-07-09T21:17:00.000-05:002016-07-09T21:37:43.488-05:00Choose God's virtuous reality by turning away from the harlot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A man’s eyes are fatally attracted to temporary and immediate pleasures if his heart is not fixed on obeying God. The immeasurable and infinite ability to reach out and give from the hands of the creator of the universe is never found in any premise of selfish sound thinking when the desires of people's hearts are leading the innocents astray. Wisdom cannot direct the steps of a fool that ignores HaShem’s spirit.<br />
<h3>
The fool and his money</h3>
Where there’s a market, there’s a seller. The business of evil is to market despair and hopelessness and then prepare a feast that will satisfy enough for one day until you hunger for more. It’s never able to fully satisfy. You try to fill up with as much as possible knowing that it isn't enough but the greed of the moment creates dissatisfaction as soon as reality sets in. The <b>over stimulation of virtual reality</b> has promised to bring that wealth of pleasure to us through a small screen surrounded reality gone dark. Expect it to be popular.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And I saw among the naive,<br />
And discerned among the youths<br />
A young man lacking sense,<br />
Passing through the street near her corner;<br />
And he takes the way to her house,<br />
In the twilight, in the evening,<br />
In the middle of the night and in the darkness. [Proverbs 7:7-9]</blockquote>
<h3>
The temptress without a last name</h3>
A harlot is a woman that imitates a wife. She is more glamorous, sexier, and has no association to your world so there’s no personal responsibility to her. Part of her attraction is the isolation of her world from yours. You only use first names. You should find out more about her family. But she is always beckoning to come to her, sitting in full view of your life, waiting for you to think of her as a solution to your problems. She lies about how satisfied she is when you go to her, how you are one of the best men in the land, and looks only to take your money.<br />
<br />
In the harlot’s heart, whether web site or woman, <b>the call of rebellion is forever being broadcast</b> from that tower of desirability. You forget God’s simple blessings and seek to please her so she comes to you. The call is made in all corners of the world, from the business board room to advertising campaigns, from the life of the conquering athlete to the life of demi-gods of entertainment screens.<br />
<br />
And those same sirens are now members in our congregation leading people to worship in any format with any words, rebelling against the commandments, and putting the entertainment value of holiness above that of the rewards of a righteous man. <b>No</b>, I will not have a discussion of the latest religious film with you in place of prayer. <b>Yes</b>, I will discuss what God has done for you as a praise for his goodness.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And behold, a woman comes to meet him,<br />
Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.<br />
She is boisterous and rebellious,<br />
Her feet do not remain at home;<br />
She is now in the streets, now in the squares,<br />
And lurks by every corner.<br />
So she seizes him and kisses him<br />
And with a brazen face she says to him:<br />
“I was due to offer peace offerings;<br />
Today I have paid my vows. [Proverbs 7:10-14]</blockquote>
<h3>
The temporary fix</h3>
The harlot of religion replaces mere faith with a more desirous outcome for the one praying in their seats. It’s sexier to have entertainment and sudden flashes of supernatural events only when you are in her presence. She tantalizes you with fashionable clothes, silken phrases and a house made of jeweled lights and expensive paneling. Yes, she’ll listen to your prayer and promise you that your satisfaction is near, but wants to make sure that your money is here today.<br />
<br />
She deceives you with promises to love and requires you to show your faith so you return to her when your problems need solving. “You really are a good person. <b>God loves you.</b>” she says and thinks nothing of you as you drive off from the parking lot knowing that it’s but a trick to put a hook in your gill with a long line only to grow taut next week. When will you help me fix my family?<br />
<h3>
Advertising the lie</h3>
How sad it is for the fate of the modest wife whose worth and beauty is not appreciated because the sparkle of the cheap and easy becomes the only thing we recognize as valuable. She puts on expensive pearls only to be outdone by bright ethnic colored jewelry in attention demanding shapes. She wears a modest handmade lace and linen white dress only to be outdone by the ruffled yards of lavish red satin wrapped around and cut away to reel in a customer making a quick glance.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Therefore I have come out to meet you,<br />
To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.<br />
“I have spread my couch with coverings,<br />
With colored linens of Egypt.<br />
“I have sprinkled my bed<br />
With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.<br />
“Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning;<br />
Let us delight ourselves with caresses. [Proverbs 7:15-18]</blockquote>
<h3>
Less is more</h3>
The more you stay in the presence of the harlot, the less you can appreciate the simple and deep qualities of the gifts of God. The more <b>you look at other women</b> to find a more pleasurable image to admire, the less you are able to enjoy one with a spirit from God who is a real gift from God. The brighter light you stand in, the more blinded you are to color and shading. Aren't the small blessings of life under God's wing each day with their enormous variety better than one giant miracle of rising to heaven and returning to a gray world?<br />
<br />
The more you want colorful fireworks lasting but several seconds, the less you try to comprehend the amazing almost hidden miracle of a barely tinted star that is one of 70 billion trillion burning hydrogen into helium over billions of years. The more you see films and read books of unworthy people satisfied by coincidental fulfillment of their base desires, the more you want to believe it’s your right and privilege to be rewarded with riches and fame. Who’s writing those scripts and books? People who have believed the lies and serve to keep them alive by often changing the costume of the harlot. They seek the payment of the harlot and will come to no good end like the one who is their customer.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
With her many persuasions she entices him;<br />
With her flattering lips she seduces him.<br />
Suddenly he follows her<br />
As an ox goes to the slaughter,<br />
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,<br />
Until an arrow pierces through his liver;<br />
As a bird hastens to the snare,<br />
So he does not know that it will cost him his life. [Proverbs 7:21-23]</blockquote>
<b>Blessed is He</b> who has taken my life from the mire of the world and brought it out from the marketplace of the harlot. <b>May God be pleased</b> by how we seek to find the mysteries of His world and prepare a clean place in our heart that He might be welcome. The penniless victims of the harlot’s accounts have fallen silent and I will lift a voice to the heavens to bring justice to them. May we lead as many as we can away from the chambers of death while we can speak a word of life to each other to follow God’s commandments.<br />
<div>
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Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-53475299017380415522016-06-28T21:19:00.000-05:002016-07-30T15:29:16.013-05:00Remembering the God of Abraham's deeds and finding meaning in entropy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I understand why a person wouldn’t believe in God. When
I’m sitting by myself, with no distractive force of media removing me from my
own thoughts, I get worried that I’m alone. The world is moving along at the
same speed as it has since it was put in motion at a second I have no
memory of. The world in all probability will continue to move around that same lazy
ellipse without fail until I leave this place. My parents and my friends didn’t
tell stories about where we go so I have no real belief about an afterlife.<o:p></o:p><br />
<h3>
Entropy sucks</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout my schooling, I did get some feedback from the
science teachers. They weren’t too encouraging since all they told me about was
entropy. That’s a great way for a kid to grow up. Tell them as they get older, things will have less energy and will all go haywire. The values they then start forming are all about getting what you can as soon as you can because, well,
you know, it’s all deteriorating.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maybe that’s why I enjoyed deconstructing things. I’d take
apart clocks, toys, plants, even poke a little at a dead animal to see what it
was made of. Explosions were a more dramatic way to take things apart. A
destructive bent seemed to be the emotional state that resounded with my lack of a cultural story to build things. I felt like I was at least helping to further
the way of the universe which was one existential crumbling reality.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The shell of the inability to reach out and be something or
find a meaning in pleasure was limiting my life. I blamed life for not giving
me life. I couldn’t blame God because I really didn’t believe in something that
wasn’t a participant in my life or had been a participant in lives that I grew
up around. Other people didn't promise much. Those that did were telling acceptable fibs for a career.<br />
<h3>
You don't have a real god</h3>
I heard what the religious folks would say about how to act and what
to do, but why should I believe that they had anything of value and meaning?
They don’t really testify to a God who has any power so it must just be a
traditionally repeated set of phrases and not a real God. Real gods enter in to
our lives and create awe and wonder. Real gods command respect. Real gods are
not measurable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the
testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God
commanded you?’ Deut 6:20</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How do you reply to that question “Do you believe in God?”
It’s a tricky one when you’re asked in polite company. You can say you do and what you do,
meaning that you traditionally have been told stories about God and how to act. You remember
the stories from seeing the movies. You probably think that those
other almost fictional ancient people had a real belief. You can distance yourself from them enough to be able to
say that you believe what they did and not get into a deep discussion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
Remember what God did</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You notice what the first thing you think about when you try
to figure out what you believe? It’s what experiences you had that make you
remember. A great movie effect will stay in your mind for a while until the
next impressive digital effect makes it look like a stuffed gorilla on a scale
model of the Empire State Building. Then every effect after that takes away
from any meaningful experience that you are having because they become less
memorable when compared side by side.<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh
in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. ‘Moreover, the
LORD showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against
Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household;
Deut 6:21-22</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what if the effect is not just an effect but an action with
meaning? When a simple action of giving up your seat on a bus for a person that
should have it when you could ignore the moment, or when you look a person in
the eye and shake their hand with a firm grip, it stays in their head. The
importance is the context of the situation with a determination to create a
stronger relationship. I remember a generous warmth from an understanding
manager allowing a passionate high school kid, who should have been home instead, to see their second theater’s foreign film without paying. I don’t remember the
films.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to
give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ “So the LORD commanded us
to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for our good always and
for our survival, as it is today. Deut 6:23-24</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it is with a simple gesture, it is with a sweep of a
historic meaning. A relationship is strengthened and therefore remembered. But
the story needs to be told and the participants recognized and celebrated. From
one person to the next when a personal kindness is offered, and from one
generation to the next when a nation is affected, the meaning is carried
on. The memories are created, the symbols are significant. We respect them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
God always has meaningful results</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can understand why a person wouldn’t believe in God, but I
cannot understand why a person who knows what God did through a nation's history and then can see in
their life a guiding hand to be able to read these words, would not believe that
our Lord God has power beyond what science can put in a formula. A film is but
a powerless idea that has found a way to trick your mind for the 90 minutes it
has your attention. It leaves a hollow memory that movie fans try to extend
through appropriate fashion branding and toy icons.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The interactions with God's hand you want on your life are memories of encounters so real that you don’t say “it
was like I was in a movie.” You've seen too many movies and not enough reality if that happens. When His compassionate hand has directed your steps as you obey Him and you see the positive
results, you know that it can’t be a special effect. He is completely reliable
and just in his rule as a real God. His result is always meaningful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“It will be therefore to our merit before the Lord our God
to observe faithfully this whole Instruction, as He has commanded us.” Deut 6:25</blockquote>
So, let us leave our youthful shallow understanding of this
world driven by godless facts and superficial meanings. Teach us, Lord God, to
serve you so that you deliver our vindication in blessings. Help us to learn to
bless others with stories of your strength and goodness from times past and
from the present. And may the path of our feet always follow the light you
shine.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-81220621016353794162016-06-19T21:48:00.000-05:002016-06-20T06:40:56.165-05:00Orlando, Omars, and what God hides in Jewish festivals about the End of Days<br />
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I tweeted a comment about the mass shooting in Orlando on <a href="https://twitter.com/tohimwholovesus">my Twitter account</a> on Tuesday after I had thought about some coincidences that were bound up in a little mysticism, a little YomTov, and a little ray of sunshine for hope that there would be some real light that would come from it. It was as if the few odd names and events were brought together in a divine calendar, something not new to the people predicting the end of days.<br />
<br />
There's a hesitancy for me to to extrapolate beyond the bounds of what people are willing to logically believe and attract a following by a personal agenda based on the belief that Noah's Ark was really powered by an Alpha Centauri planet being's higher technology bequeathed to the Nephilim. When allowing that blended pop cultural spiritualism to enter my soul, my heart usually feels like I'm participating in an old sci-fi movie instead of praising God for the perfection of creation that I live in each day. My creator doesn't do fantasy.<br />
<h3>
End of Days</h3>
The only info on the alien-powered Internet with similar but better thoughts on Tuesday was <a href="http://yearsofawe.blogspot.com/2016/06/shaar-hanun-gateway-to-50th-50th.html">Dov Bar-Leib's End of Days blog</a>, in a detailed explanation of the counting of the Omer from Moses on to today. Unlike other half-baked self-anointed prophets, I found the explanation genuinely worth exploring but requiring my inexperienced mind to study more Torah. He proposes three aliyah time periods of 49 years each leading up to an end event. The first emigration of Jews to Israel begins in his account in 1918 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration">Balfour Declaration</a>) peaking in 1967 with the downfall of U.S. leadership's moral standards.<br />
<br />
Then in 1967, in the second 49 year period, there's the adoption of that immorality through the majority of the U.S. culture while the emigration this time in Israel was into Jerusalem after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War">Six-Day War.</a> This second period ended on Shavuot this year. And to mark this transition in the U.S. on the 50th day of the Counting of the Omer, a twisted soul took 50 lives at an Orlando gay night club.<br />
<br />
Is it just a coincidence that the shooter at the Orlando scene was a man named Omar? And one of the Orlando police first responders was Omar Delgado. Really, another Omar. OK, so it's not Omer. To me, this is just bait that can get me going in the wrong direction leaving the big picture in the dust. Or maybe it's just eye candy for the real fruit of digging out the meaning that Dov has done in his post. He comes up with a few more very Jewish connections which I don't squabble about. I'm an idiot about that stuff.<br />
<h3>
Entering The Golden Gate</h3>
This final 49 year period of Dov's is one where we will have an aliyah of a spiritual nature, where HaShem will place His name on our hearts, or at least the hearts of observant Jews. I will keep my eyes turned towards Jerusalem to see this change of heart, to see the zealousness for God, and to see signs of the coming of the Messiah.<br />
<br />
So like Phinehas turned away the wrath of God from Israel by being jealous with God's jealousy (Num 25:11-12), a new peace will develop when Jews in Israel will unite to see the rightful place of God's name upon their hearts. And in the U.S., our fate is left to how we repent and seek after God to forgive us how we've strayed from the commandments that were historically the very reason for Shavuot.<br />
<br />
May we seek your face, Lord God, to believe that we can find shelter from the consequences of our sin, and in asking for your forgiveness, find that we can forgive our neighbors for theirs. And in this, we seek your kingdom of the final days.Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-1060486487815182016-05-11T22:16:00.001-05:002016-05-12T15:41:52.968-05:00Living within God's laws and becoming trapeze artists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Trapeze_artists_1890.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Trapeze_artists_1890.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The Jewish lyricist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Evans">Ray Evans</a> romanticized a godless fate in 1956 with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Que_Sera,_Sera_(Whatever_Will_Be,_Will_Be)">Que Sera, Sera</a>, a song that explores life’s big questions while finding individual attempts of action useless. At the opposite end of the control spectrum is an individual making all the decisions while establishing dominion over the earth and ruling as one of God’s chosen. Some conservative Christians believing they are the chosen, want to adopt a politically targeted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Theology">theology movement</a> that answers government’s big questions while finding God useless.<br />
<br />
The power dynamic in these is about our all or nothing activity without the involvement of the God of the universe who created all from nothing. That would mean that when you push into life, there's nothing or no one that responds back. In my world, there's always a response with God's spirit. I see it in every relationship I have. Sometimes it's a correction, sometimes it gives me great joy. It could be a ray of sunshine that hits the back of my neck or it could just be a warm response to a often repeated "Good morning" to a stranger.<br />
<h3>
The rope</h3>
Our involvement in life is like holding on to one end of a rope where the other side is tied to the unalterable laws of God’s universe. Do we pull until we wear out or drop the rope entirely? This struggle with reality will persist as long as we want to be involved in the present and with God. We have the life responsibility of at least taking up the slack and holding on. Anything less is fatalism. Any more creates battles. The tension keeps us sharp, hones our muscles, and readies us for anything that might try to change our status quo.<br />
<br />
Pulling on this rope that is tied to the foundations of the world is not in vain, because it pulls us into a relationship with life itself. When we understand the bounds and rules of that rope, it allows us to create a dance that we can flow with and move to. The thread of the spider’s web is tied to its world’s boundaries creating a life, a lair, and a purpose. Tension suspends the almost invisible net across a sea of flying prey and when it snares an unlucky aviator, sends a signal to the hungry spider. The dance begins as the spider moves along the threads to his next meal.<br />
<br />
The give and take of repeated attempts to pull the ropes taut and strain to go past the rope’s limits is an exercise in learning about what keeps a balance in life. With practice, the relationship becomes an effortless artistic creation of its own where like a trapeze artist, the sleek fluid movements are a joy to watch and for the performer to perform. But the skills were learned through flying too high or too low until the performer found the right altitude that connected with the fly bar at the right time.<br />
<h3>
The team of you and the rope</h3>
Somewhere in this living tug of war of making decisions is a middle ground. It might be thought of a compromise if the contest of life had a winner. But this is more of a team effort. This agreement to work together is not based on the rules that one follows but on how those rules are applied. There is no winner or loser. To the flying trapeze artists, the rules are not rules that they obey. It’s impossible to disobey the law of gravity. The performers have built into their muscles the knowledge of their motions’ limits where by moving against the constraints, they allow the perfection of the turns, catches and dismounts to exist. They have become team players with gravity.<br />
<br />
How can the laws of the God of the universe who governs life be broken? They are laws just like gravity. You can’t disobey the laws because they can’t be broken but you can try to disobey them. If you try to disobey gravity, you will find yourself bouncing around the safety net below. You can’t negate a law. That would be making your own law. Our Lord God does not allow for another god to rule. Be a team player with the law and fly through the air with the greatest of ease. But try something funny and you’re now cursing the suddenly encountered ground (like it had anything to do with your poor judgment).<br />
<br />
Moses was commanded to teach the laws of life to the Hebrews and they came in the form of what always to do, what to do during certain seasons, and things that needed more explicit details. The more you understood, the better you trained your mind and body to survive and prosper. It was a team performance that brought life to your body and allowed God to shine into your soul and through it.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. “O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deu 6:1-3)</blockquote>
<h3>
Punishment or inevitable result</h3>
What is it about ourselves that when we bump our head or hurt our foot that we would rather blame the low ceiling or rock in the road? The universe isn't changing. We are moving and navigate the course that takes us into a collision path with the world. The limits that we encounter are not our fault and there is no agenda to hurt us. I’m certain that having a map of all the obstacles in our path still wouldn’t keep us from reading the map and walking straight into a wall. We have to use our common sense.<br />
<br />
The type of common sense that we use in our spiritual lives comes from the heart. Yes, we have laws transmitted orally verbatim over centuries, but survival also depends on using our heart to navigate the places when the map becomes harder to read. It's when the light gets low, the words get dim, and the ability to walk a straight line is difficult. But holding your head up, and focusing on a light in the distance, allows us to plot that exact course without a detour.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deu 6:4-9)</blockquote>
Our wrath rises after falling down or making a bad mistake because we tried to move beyond the limits of a law. We call our actions justified even though flawed, and therefore call the actions of an eternal unchangeable God one of judgement. You know that kind of driver. They angrily talk of the accident without taking responsibility for driving it. “The other car came out of nowhere and plowed into me.” It has no bearing that the driver was texting at the time. It was the judgment of God that they should suffer.<br />
<br />
Maybe it’s because we want think we control our environment. We want to have no limitations. We want to control anything except ourselves. That’s what we tend to call freedom. It’s more like we want to be a god that makes up laws when you want. The more we try to create an ideal world in our image, the more the constraints of reality set in. When we finally admit that it was our opinion that didn’t match the reality of the world that we start to be humble. And then we start to realize that punishment is God's inability to do anything but follow his own laws about wanting to bless us.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,<br />
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.<br />
For by me your days will be multiplied,<br />
And years of life will be added to you. (Pro 9:10-11)</blockquote>
May you, Lord God of all creation, be the ruler of the world and of our lives so that we learn to prosper by following your rules. May we be humble enough to think you have anything but love for us to learn about those laws so that we don’t fall and cause ourselves pain. Help us understand and give us wisdom so that we may praise your sovereignty and Kingdom here and now and forever more.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-47249511297383132462016-04-16T21:03:00.001-05:002016-04-18T10:30:15.980-05:00 Passover's search and destroy mission for fermented grain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/146/741/1600/Pyramid%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/146/741/1600/Pyramid%203.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></a></div>
In Jewish culture, <b>chametz </b>is any food or beverage that, because it contains grain and water, may have been allowed to ferment while making it. Bread, cereal, cakes, cookies, and pasta are all suspect and therefore chametz. <b>Even beer and pizza</b> contain the right ingredients to cause the injunction against it during Passover (Exodus 12:15-20).<br />
<br />
The cleansing of the home of chametz in orthodox families is part of the rituals that create a rich symbolism during this season of the Pesach and the following <b>Feast of Unleavened Bread</b>.<br />
<h3>
Why do you want it back?</h3>
The removal of yeasty foods is part of the Festival of Freedom where not only do the family members separate the items from the house, but they are disowned as well. There are processes for cleaning, selling, searching, burning and nullifying this loathsome substance. My question is "<b>why is the old chametz allowed to return?</b>"<br />
<br />
It’s not quite like Lent, where observants tend to get raucous before the deadline approaches as they party with much of the forbidden ingredients. In terms of the Catholics, that usually involves alcohol and meat. I don’t think the chassidim have cake and cookie parties or even pizza and beer all-nighters.<br />
<br />
Jewish orthodox tradition is to <b>sell the food and serving items that have leavening in them</b> to a non-Jew creating a clean home for the duration of Passover. Then after the observance, the rabbi or the person who took care of the items acquires it back for them. Utensils should be stored in a locked or taped shut area. Now, with computers, you can even <a href="https://chabadorg.clhosting.org/holidays/passover/sell_chometz.htm">sell your offending items online</a>. Here's a sample.<br />
<h3>
Delegation of Power to Sell Chametz</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I the undersigned, fully empower and permit Rabbi <designated authority> to act in my place and stead, and on my behalf, to sell all chametz possessed by me, knowingly or unknowingly, as defined by the Torah and rabbinic law (e.g. chametz, possible chametz, and all kind of chametz mixtures).<br />
Also chametz that tends to harden and adhere to surfaces of pans, pots, or cooking utensils, the utensils themselves, as well as pet food that contain chametz and mixtures thereof.<br />
Rabbi <designated authority> is also empowered to lease all places wherein the chametz may be found, particularly at <this location> and elsewhere.<br />
Rabbi <designated authority> has full right to appoint any agent or substitute in his stead, and said substitute shall have full right to sell and lease as provided herein.<br />
Rabbi <designated authority> also has the full power and right to act as he deems fit and proper in accordance with all the details of the Bill of Sale used in the transaction to sell all my chametz, chametz mixtures, etc., as provided herein. This power is in conformity with all Torah, rabbinic and civil laws.</blockquote>
Isn’t this like the Hebrews rushing out of Egypt without the ability to make leavened food being pursued by the Egyptians across the Red Sea and then sneaking back in to Egypt for a late night beer run?<br />
<h3>
Burning the chametz</h3>
This chametz vacation lasts from two hours before midday the day before Passover until the evening after the Feast of Unleavened Bread ends. That’s about nine days. And after the search where in order to be fully satisfied that the house is cleansed, decoy chametz of ten pieces of bread are left around and then burned with this orthodox prayer:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
May it be Your will, Lord, our G‑d and G‑d of our fathers, that just as I remove the chametz from my house and from my possession, so shall You remove all the extraneous forces.<br />
Remove the spirit of impurity from the earth, remove our evil inclination from us, and grant us a heart of flesh to serve You in truth.<br />
Make all the sitra achara, all the kelipot, and all wickedness be consumed in smoke, and remove the dominion of evil from the earth. Remove with a spirit of destruction and a spirit of judgment all that distress the Shechina, just as You destroyed Egypt and its idols in those days, at this time. Amen, Selah.</blockquote>
The solemn processes to collect and burn the bread are a time to reflect about what that little bit of yeast meant. It’s an agent of change that slowly turns a piece of food into a different piece of food entirely. In a negative way, the life we live can be leavened by our pride and egotism that slowly turns our heart away from our Lord God and our own family. In this way, we become a loathsome person that will be separated from God’s protection.<br />
<h3>
Returning to your past</h3>
Then after the holiday you get to retrieve your <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qliphoth">kelipot </a>(Kabbalistic evil, a peel or shell) and put it back on to hide the light of God from the world again. Or is it symbolically correct to say that once you were freed from slavery, you get to reclaim that right to be a slave again to that sin?<br />
<br />
So now there is no sacrifice, just a search at the start of the holiday. And maybe because of this lack of sacrifice, the completion of redemption of that sin is missing. And without redemption of sin, the guilt of everyday life sets back in and we run to buy back our impurities without the power of God to provide the security of not having our familiar dirty habits.<br />
<br />
The <b>taste of the afikoman</b> that is the last taste of the Seder dinner then is a longing for the missing purity of sinless bread. And the final taste of the afikomen will be that of the Mashiach who will purify the Jews once and for all when He gathers all the righteous, rebuilds Jerusalem and the temple, and restores the law of God back on the earth.<br />
<br />
May we strive to <b>eliminate the temptation that leads us to bring the </b>sin from the world back to our lives once God has brought us close enough to remove it from his presence. The yeasty world is constantly influencing us like bread dough left outside to collect yeast particles from the air. So we turn to the Feast of Unleavened Bread yearly to remind us about keeping a clean heart. May the Lord God grant us an understanding that lets us release old hurtful words and actions and burn them in a fire of holy forgiveness this year and forever after.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-82193588796232025312016-03-27T19:36:00.003-05:002016-04-07T02:32:31.588-05:00The cost of a supernatural experience learned from comic books<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.dcentertainment.com/sites/default/files/GalleryChar_1900x900_zod_52ab8f2ee8b4a0.92496615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://media.dcentertainment.com/sites/default/files/GalleryChar_1900x900_zod_52ab8f2ee8b4a0.92496615.jpg" height="151" title="General Zod (DC Comics)" width="320" /></a></div>
People are hungry for an experience of the supernatural. I was, too, until I found out what the cost was.<br />
<br />
I grew up reading about UFOs, alien encounters, psychic séances, ghost hunting and anything that wasn’t what normal life offered me. Edgar Allen. Poe was my spirit guide and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort">Charles Fort</a> was my prophet.<br />
<h3>
Super powers</h3>
Bored with the reality I knew, I consumed science fiction and fantasy from Asimov to Zelazny and comics from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z45ZkISJXU4">Atom Ant</a> to to <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/characters/zod">Zod</a>. My innocent personality believed <b>a world of apparitions</b> built by people's minds with false gods which didn't understand the world I was in. As I understood the literary purpose, these super heroes were supposed to teach us about ourselves but they ended up creating a new ideal world.<br />
<br />
We crave these stories of comic book heroes with a super power. <b>Supernatural power is alluring</b>. But it is better tolerated in our unsupernatural life when we believe in innate energy instead of something supernaturally bestowed. So you see characters empowered by nuclear accidents and mutants by birth rather than average people used by God for unbelievable events. And the mysteriously protected spy/secret agent/military good guy never seems to miss a shot with his superhuman skill. But real heroes, like David (1 Samuel 17), are mixtures of skill and defending the honor of God.<br />
<br />
The popularity of <b>the comic book character</b> brought to life in film is the result of my generation taking our child role models and putting them in adult stories. Stories have gotten less innocent and more emotionally complex just like growing up does to your life. Gods and religion are showing up more often as ways to relate to the aging audience that is coming to grips with a life ending soon. The X-Men are certainly a modern pantheon of gods now with the semi-religious film, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3385516/">Apocalypse</a>, releasing this May.<br />
<h3>
The risk</h3>
The seduction is not so fun when you think there’s a never-ending price to pay or a lender never satisfied. The price to pay seems like it should be the limited struggle or pain that you, the protagonist, had to endure. Then the <b>power is the reward for what this life has put you through</b>. After all, the labors of one of the original mythological heroes, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/bio.html">Hercules</a>, made him a virtuous man so famous that he achieved god status.<br />
<br />
<b>We are willing to risk much</b> for a supernatural experience. Even risk that might not be the right kind of supernatural, if we even know what that means. A risk is easier taken when the cost is not fully known but could have a few obvious side effects. For superior power, we can tolerate the occasional unglamorous body transformation or energy sapping like many comic book heroes.<br />
<br />
The way we prevent too much risk is not to have to think about whether there is an ulterior motive to this supernatural intelligence. When we don’t worry about our lives being influenced by that kind of controlling force, the risk is minimal. If it requires us to follow another set of rules, then there is a controlling factor that is contrary to why we want to have that power.<br />
<h3>
Having control</h3>
The ability of doing something significant with a super power is the ability to be in control. We want to <b>ignore any kind of authority</b> of an outside force. What good is having a power that is not going to succeed because someone else fails you? That wouldn’t be a super power. Super implies dominance and winning. I can have the power to wash dishes. But that doesn’t allow me to win at anything.<br />
<br />
Is it pride that keeps us believing that there is a power in our virtuous selves that can win over anything? Do we display this kind of dominance by establishing our position over other people without asking their help? Do we feel that if it is possible to attain that position of power, we have earned the right to be the masters of our own life? If we can live life as a super hero in a movie or book then can we believe we can live life as masters of our own lives?<br />
<br />
A touch from the supernatural can help us feel good about ourselves when we reach out for that world. Feeling good like that is just another way to say we are controlling our life without any help from an outside force. We <b>tap in to a universal power source</b> for our energy. The miscalculation comes when people touch that world and find out that it comes with a price.<br />
<h3>
The cost</h3>
I know in my life there has been no time whatsoever that when I desired to contact the occult world that there wasn’t a reply back from that “<a href="http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Phantom_Zone">Phantom Zone</a>” that altered my life. When I asked for any kind of experience I got it. It was stimulating, interesting, unique and real. But in most cases, <b>I also lost part of my life</b> in the process. That life was the part of me that was able to get out of bed and live the day. I felt like a backwater filled with sediment. It led me into various escapes from that loss of life and worsened the spiral into frustration at not being able to control my life.<br />
<br />
At some point, you have to give up when it's obvious there’s a better way. I found that the Lord God is the supernatural force to give you back life. You stop wanting to have your own supernatural experience and <b>the God of Abraham provides you with life</b> that is supernaturally real just like his life was. The price is giving up control and being obedient.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Come now, and let us reason together,”<br />
Says the LORD,<br />
“Though your sins are as scarlet,<br />
They will be as white as snow;<br />
Though they are red like crimson,<br />
They will be like wool.<br />
“If you consent and obey,<br />
You will eat the best of the land;<br />
“But if you refuse and rebel,<br />
You will be devoured by the sword.”<br />
Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.<br />
<b>Isaiah 1:18-20</b>
</blockquote>
<h3>
Power and anointing</h3>
So no, you can’t have a super power. Not in the real world at least. <b>There is no super power except where God is able to provide it </b>because it is His power that will bring Him glory and we don't get to mess it up. Do you want a permanent anointing or a mantle? What kind of super power from God are you asking for? Do you want a gift of God’s Spirit to bring honor to His works, or are you just wanting a scripturally correct super power? How do you think you are able to distinguish the difference?<br />
<br />
The super power person is one who wants glory and does what they want with the ability. Do you want the power to call down the vengeance of the Lord God from heaven because you know that certain people deserve punishment? Or maybe to speak in tongues because you’ve heard that this is a power to pray in the language of heaven which gives you a way to ask God for what you want? <b>What more is there that the God of this universe loves you</b>, hears your plea for creating a clean heart in you, and when He finds an obedient and repentant follower, is able to ignore the amazing stupidity of your mouth up to now?<br />
<br />
The super power you desire is God’s privilege to provide and use in you as a witness for His power. The service you to desire to give, is an office of our Lord, who will give it to whoever will be His choice for the best witness to Him and to His glory.<br />
<br />
Don’t cheapen the gift. It comes with a price of obedience and waiting. <b>Don't make it an idol. </b>The power of God in my life through my obedience is greater than any super power that the world can offer. No relationship is more fulfilling that my day to day knowing how to walk side by side with God in this life. Your relationship is not with the super power.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols. ‘I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and observe them. Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’ <b>Ezekiel 20:18-20</b></blockquote>
<h3>
Alternate super powers</h3>
Many kinds of super powers are available to replace the obedience serving to witness God’s power in this life. <b>You can be a god yourself</b>. Why be obedient when if you are acting as your own god, you can have whatever you want? The world can show you how to get anything you desire, you just have to follow the 12-step plan to success. If you aren't a god yet, get some more training.<br />
<br />
Maybe you’d just like the power to read other people’s minds so that you can tell them what they already know. Then you are seen as a person who can find out secrets and be feared that you might reveal something you shouldn’t. <b>God already knows those secrets</b> so I’m not sure what favor you are doing God. It's just a demonstration of a super power and asserting your status as a demigod.<br />
<br />
Maybe the power is foretelling the future or interpreting visions. Both reveal information that hasn’t been told before and can be useful as warnings to protect us. The motive can be good because many people would listen to you testify to God's greatness. But you could be seen as a visionary seer with a super power and people would come to have their fortunes told. That's the business of asking the supernatural world to give up secrets which <b>could be wrong messages</b> from spirits taking your life in a completely wrong direction.<br />
<br />
We must have our life aligned to God in total obedience because a crack of the vessel that allows sin to enter in and spoil the contents will change the people that eat or drink from that vessel. So if you are an influential congregation leader, you have to be absolutely sure that you have committed your life to be without any obstacle of sin.<br />
<br />
<div>
“When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you.<br />
But the wind will carry all of them up,<br />
And a breath will take them away.<br />
But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land<br />
And will possess My holy mountain.”
And it will be said,<br />
“Build up, build up, prepare the way,<br />
Remove every obstacle out of the way of My people.”<br />
For thus says the high and exalted One<br />
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,<br />
“I dwell on a high and holy place,<br />
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit<br />
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly<br />
And to revive the heart of the contrite.</div>
<div>
<b>Isaiah 57:13-15</b></div>
<h3>
Prayer</h3>
Soften our hearts, Lord God of the universe, so that we can become Your chosen testament to Your power. Let us not think of any of our ability to exalt ourselves with any power other than the power that will give glory to You, HaShem. For in this power, You have given us life, and life with a full enjoyment that comes through being with You in this world. We celebrate this day for all the blessing you have given us.Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-31432935185693021552016-03-06T00:01:00.000-06:002016-03-06T09:42:59.324-06:00Worshiping God at the Golden Calf nightclub<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2015/02/09/00/02/party-629240_960_720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2015/02/09/00/02/party-629240_960_720.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Nightclubs and music are partners in <b>escapism</b>. Worshipers of God and music are partners in <b>praise</b>.<br />
<br />
Nightclubs represent a congregation of believers in themselves escaping the life they now have looking to find something better for the evening. Houses of worship and prayer are people praising God and lifting prayers of blessing for the life that they are living now.<br />
<h3>
The need for clubbing</h3>
Bars and clubs are a way to bring a personal relationship to a needy soul wanting to escape the day filled with a lonely impersonal meetings and endless data that means nothing to them. They are worn out making choices about things with little relevance to them. The nightclub forms a commune of lonely souls made stronger by real emotions and opinions more easily communicated through the drug of choice whether alcoholic or chemical. They encounter meaning here when daily life seems to have none.<br />
<br />
People want to escape to <b>an alternate experience in the darkness</b>, to shape their life through a new acquaintance, perhaps meet a lifelong mate, and forget the meaningless rat race that is outside the mesmerizing repeated refrains on the dance floor. Maybe a rave, maybe a club or bar, but these venues become significant because like-minded people can have a life changing experience there enhanced with intense feelings.<br />
<br />
That excitement and effervescence of the music propels you into a shrine of people who wage a battle against the quiet mechanical daily grind. It's a release that <b>attracts emotionally drained people</b>. For many, they easily call the nightclub their church as they look to find an emotional connection. It’s not hard to understand why the extended metaphor was used in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hozier_(musician)">Hozier</a>’s “Take Me To Church” for a love that was like religion.<br />
<br />
The nightly music scene is about <b>rebellion against the weekday</b>. The weekend becomes the release. Even the anxious <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weeknd">The Weeknd</a>, that Grammy award winning singer with an Eastern Orthodox background and Ethiopian parents, identifies with the needy hurting masses of people much like one of his major influences, Prince, who converted to a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001. Musicians are in constant struggle to pull down the veil of a counterfeit life and sing about what they see. Much of it is painful, however, like in The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face", his love song to drugs.<br />
<br />
The dance floor is welcome to all walks of life. Nobody kicks you out because you dress wrong. You can do almost any activity short of a major crime and people tolerate it. People understand a culture of grace here. Add in the specialized reason for the club’s existence, whether a style of music or a style of culture, and you have a powerful reason to feel like you belong with a strong loyalty.<br />
<h3>
God’s nightclub</h3>
So, what’s the difference between that mix of humanity and the place where we should be worshiping? <b>The club has no values</b> limiting what you can do. You bring your own. God’s values are found in His people coming together to worship Him. It should be a place to welcome all people, a place to get excited about worship, and a place to find refuge.<br />
<br />
So should a house of worship take on the club atmosphere because it has the club’s equality of membership, the desire to be there, and a feeling of protection from the world? Darken the room, flash the lights, turn up the sound and it's hard to tell a difference.<br />
<br />
The priest or rabbi is a role model for their community of believers. Many have taken on the role of educator as well, so much so that in some congregations, study notes are handed out before the sermon. They set the values for the believers and if you don’t like their music you go elsewhere. Some have traditional ceremonies and vestments, others find a connection by talking like one of the gang and wearing their wrinkled shirt untucked like a twenty-something. All are there to provide a place where God is honored.<br />
<br />
It’s the role of the congregation to provide the flora and fauna of a unique multitude of ways God can be worshiped. It is out of the context of our lives that <b>we find ways to recognize a blessing</b>. It is out of the context of our life where we see God working in our behalf that we find reasons to praise Him in song. We hear the blues in a bar where people gather to find solace in each other’s stories of misery. But we are lifted not through the shared struggles of each other but through our victories that the Lord has won, our personal blessings.<br />
<br />
The weekdays provide us the groundwork for having blessings. Our worship is not our blessing but a praise to the one who has brought us out of our turmoil and into a better place. Ceremonies help provide a meaningful way to help us relate back to our life experiences, those of our family, and to blessings we've all received.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The singers went on, the musicians after them,<br />
In the midst of the maidens beating tambourines.<br />
Bless God in the congregations,<br />
Even the LORD, you who are of the fountain of Israel. - Psalm 68:25-26</blockquote>
<h3>
The experience</h3>
In the nightclub, we follow our own desires and other’s hearts but in the house of God, <b>we follow one voice</b>. We come knowing it is our Lord calling us to come together so we can agree together and be a part of all the other people He has granted His salvation to.<br />
<br />
The music is not our salvation and the experience is not our salvation but in the nightclub it will do for the evening. We don’t assemble for the music. We assemble for our Lord God who has created and put the universe in harmony. <b>We don’t assemble for the experience</b>. The experience is in Him who is righteous and will be a part of our lives every day.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Serve the LORD with gladness;<br />
Come before Him with joyful singing.<br />
Know that the LORD Himself is God;<br />
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;<br />
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.<br />
Enter His gates with thanksgiving<br />
And His courts with praise.<br />
Give thanks to Him, bless His name - Psalm 100:2-4</blockquote>
We come to our assembly place to worship the God that made our life possible and not through a portal of heaven. It could be a pile of rocks, a tent, or an office meeting room. <b>We come with praise to give</b> and don’t expect to have to be encouraged to praise and swept up into a wave of revelers by music too loud to talk over. Our place of worship is a portal of God’s awareness. We share life’s struggles with each other and find the release when we understand who is in control.<br />
<h3>
A golden calf</h3>
We don't follow a golden calf that leads us to our promised land we visit every week. We have a leader who gives us the assurance of a salvation if we but follow God’s very particular advice. We have His words of truth which by living them out every day, we stay under the shadow of His wings and bring a blessing on us. And we have people who build relationships to holiness where the battles we endure and sufferings that befall us are but bridges to their understanding of why God can be so good and why He asks us to find His goodness in our lives also.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And You did not forsake them.<br />
Even when they made for themselves<br />
A calf of molten metal<br />
And said, ‘This is your God<br />
Who brought you up from Egypt,’<br />
And committed great blasphemies,<br />
You, in Your great compassion,<br />
Did not forsake them in the wilderness; Nehemiah 9:17-19</blockquote>
<b>The golden calf was a placeholder for the Lord God</b> that the sons of Israel worshiped. They knew who had brought them through the plagues and finally to Mount Horeb. But it was hardly enough to admire for the party people following their own desires to eat, drink, and sing during a new holiday. Those kinds of festivities devoted to an idol, even one representing the Lord God of Israel, made His anger burn.<br />
<br />
Let us give up our idols of God, those things which are necessary in order to have a proper festival or ceremony for God that we take pride in (Ezekiel 7:20). He needs none of that. Let’s find God through the daily goodness of His mercy in each bite of bread and each breath of air. For when we take that for granted, we lose the sovereignty of God and His ability to transform those simple things into life that brings meaning into every day. And let us find Him in the praise that we bring to our gathering place as well as in the brethren alive in Him we meet each day.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-567530387304292512016-02-20T09:06:00.000-06:002016-08-08T13:50:16.061-05:00The pleasure of purpose and not having a plan in God's kingdom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the United States and countries influenced by the US, any kind of communal activity is <b>seen through the lens of business</b>. We see religion, art, sports, entertainment, and politics just as much as a business as the traditional means to earning a living by producing consumable products.<br />
<br />
We apply brainstorming sessions, action plans, and goal setting to our social get-togethers. We project manage our family vacations and <b>choose friends based on returned value</b>.<br />
<h3>
His purpose in our plans</h3>
Our processes and plans seem infallible in the focused spotlight of a lecture backed with projected slides. But God's reality has a way of shining a brighter light than those in the darkened auditorium. And reality, <b>the realization of God's purpose in our presence</b>, is much more than a divine plan.<br />
<br />
God has no project plan for His venture. He doesn’t have to confirm if His goal is valuable for us. He doesn’t have to take account of his corporate assets, <b>He has everything He needs</b>. He has no business constraints. He doesn’t have to ask any cosmic consultant the best way to do something. All His strategy, analysis, and design is finished.<br />
<br />
God has no plan for your life either. You're not one of His projects. God has a kingdom for you to live in. A plan would allow builders to create something on their own. But <b>He has called us to be witnesses for Him</b> into the remotest part of the world. Witnesses are more like the media who follow every step of the building. We see, we declare, and we praise Him for His perfect ways.<br />
<h3>
Partners in purpose</h3>
Can we devise a perfect methodology more powerful than Him? (2 Chronicles 20:6) God has always had His kingdom under his rule since the beginning. The end of his kingdom will never occur. There is nothing better than His complete reign for us and there is nothing in Him that is not good. His purpose is to be Him. And He wants to be with us This is HaShem’s pleasure.<br />
<br />
He has asked us to be <b>partners in the building of His kingdom</b>. The kingdom is being built through our obedience, repentance, and His work in us. It is not being built by donating 20% of our wages, speaking at conferences, or taking a trip to a faraway land to plant a tree for a person you don’t know. There are no metrics of our participation that can be accurately measured. A penitent heart that serves God’s purposes is only weighed by His balances.<br />
<h3>
Prophecy and plans</h3>
What of prophecy? Can you say the events foretold in scripture are God’s plan or instead the revealing of how it ends? Plans can be thwarted and derailed. Plan B is necessary after Plan A fails. How can God be sure things end up with a complete victory if He only has a plan? No, <b>it's more than a plan</b>, it's the only way it can be.<br />
<br />
If you have a perfect ship and drill a hole in the hull just above the waterline so that when the ship is loaded with cargo it will take on water slowly and eventually sink. There you have a devious plan. But an easier and faster plan would be just sawing a good chunk out of the bottom. Wouldn't it have been easier to have God just keep the angels and not have gone through all the trouble with us?<br />
<br />
But if you inspect the ship and find breaks in the outer hull plating, you can estimate just how long it will be before that ship will sink. You have a foreknowledge of the future because you know the laws of physics. You work with your special crew to convince them how to repair it and <b>your relationship gets stronger</b>. Prophecy is like letting them know details of how much time they have before they sink even though they don’t understand math or physics.<br />
<h3>
The relationship in laws</h3>
God is building relationships with us and tells us a few things and lets us work other things out, but <b>all things are ordered by His laws</b>. The first things He wanted us to know were about relationships. Then the rest of the commandments followed in the Torah. He has weighed us in His balance of righteousness today and knows our capabilities and our decisions as sure as we know what the rate of acceleration due to gravity is. We then respond and are judged by these laws.<br />
<br />
The laws of obedience and disobedience are as clear and unchangeable as the laws of science.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Does He not see my ways<br />
And number all my steps?<br />
“If I have walked with falsehood,<br />
And my foot has hastened after deceit,<br />
Let Him weigh me with accurate scales,<br />
And let God know my integrity. Job 31:4-6</blockquote>
God does not want to use you mightily in His plan. God wants a relationship. <b>Stop using people like they have a job to do</b>; they resent that. Jobs require payment. I don’t even like to say my payment is the joy of the experience I get by doing God’s tasks. It assumes the opposite in that I don’t get any joy if I don’t do my job. It even makes me think that if I do more good deeds, God will show more loving-kindness and blessing towards me.<br />
<h3>
The relationship in His house</h3>
God is not my boss. He doesn’t give me time off.<b> I live in His house</b> which is something I can’t improve in any way at all. I try not to break things as I live there and if I get kicked out, it’s because I would be messing it up for others which wouldn’t be good either. King Belshazzar was messing up God's kingdom during his reign and found out how clear the message can get to understand the proper order of the universe.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Now this is the inscription that was written out: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ “This is the interpretation of the message: ‘MENE’—God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. “ ‘TEKEL’—you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. “ ‘PERES’—your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians. Daniel 5:25-28</blockquote>
Whatever God does in His house will be good. There is no plan to be good. <b>He is good</b>. He is the source of goodness. Anything that I do that is good comes because He gave me that ability.<br />
<h3>
Responding to His purpose</h3>
When you respond to His goodness, there is no plan to put into action for the next step. The next step is good. You are living in His house of righteousness and the life that you live is good. It does not have a business goal, <b>there is no profit</b> and it can’t be measured so it can’t be managed. God will direct, we will be obedient. If we are obedient, then we are living in His house and what we do will be good.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Remember the former things long past,<br />
For I am God, and there is no other;<br />
I am God, and there is no one like Me,<br />
Declaring the end from the beginning,<br />
And from ancient times things which have not been done,<br />
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,<br />
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;<br />
Calling a bird of prey from the east,<br />
The man of My purpose from a far country.<br />
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.<br />
I have planned it, surely I will do it.<br />
Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded,<br />
Who are far from righteousness.<br />
I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;<br />
And My salvation will not delay.<br />
And I will grant salvation in Zion,<br />
And My glory for Israel. Is 46-9-12</blockquote>
<b>May you Lord God provide us with goodness throughout each day</b> and, like Jacob, the strength to struggle and prevail for that goodness. May we receive our salvation from You, the God of all righteousness. And may we shine with glory as witnesses to Your goodness for the entire world as we humble ourselves and obey Your commandments.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-41620059207880052202016-02-08T20:44:00.002-06:002016-08-08T13:54:06.939-05:00The writing on the doorposts - God's reminder for righteousness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
When God wants us to follow His commandments, He’s not shy
about what we should do. Also, I know is <b>He is not about taking over our
life</b> and running it for us. He has to remind us to do certain things and we have to remember what they are.</div>
<h3>
Participation, not abdication</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That the Lord isn't our personal chauffeur is evident by our freedom to make mistakes and then
calling us back to obedience through His commandments. We either read about them or
<b>remember the singes from His past rebukes</b>. He loves for us to be obedient but also wants us to enjoy our
life. In the right way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think <b>most people want to believe God wants us to enjoy our lives</b> also. I know the Puritan who strayed from the flock, <a href="http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/pa-heritage/religion-early-politics-benjamin-franklin.html">Benjamin Franklin</a>, has often been misquoted about beer being proof that God loves us when his French correspondence was really more about the wedding at Cana and the wine celebration there (John 2:1-11). It means about the same thing but centers on something too often abused.<br />
<br />
A better focus of pleasure is said more elegantly in Ecclesiastes 9:9 concerning how our life is to be enjoyed with the woman you love.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So at least we know that we have a loving God that gives us
the freedom to be a part of His physical world. The laws start out with general commandments of the heart
and mind. And then they get more specifically concerned with our activities which <b>can remind us of the most important laws</b> when we do them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3>
The mezuzah</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The one specific part of the Torah where Deut 6:9 talks
about having the <b>commandments written on the doorposts of your house</b> is the
source for the mezuzah placed diagonally on many observant Jews’ houses and
apartments. I especially cherish this law and its various customs of keeping it.<br />
<br />
It may be just a small container with some verses it in, but it represents more than that. It’s certainly not a talisman of the house to
protect you from an angel who comes to destroy anything. It has no magical ability to
guard against bill collectors or prevent disease. <b>God does not put any spiritual power in a physical object</b> so that someone can worship it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But as a symbol, it has the power to do
God’s duties in our world. That way, is when we pass through the door, read in our heads what is written on that little scroll inside the container, and have those words become a part of us. We then take those words into our house
and <b>live with them each day</b> as they become a part of our life. We eat with
them, we sleep with them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then when we leave in the morning, we take those select
verses with us to our job. They wait for us when we come home again. My
meditation on those basic and elemental thoughts about my relationship with God
is the way that <b>I am cleansed from the world</b> every day. They shield me from
the worldly desires to find an alternate god and seek another happy place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your
life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Psalms 121:7-8</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would decorate them on my doorposts in my home but since I’m
neither a sofer stam (qualified scribe) or a good painter, I would rather just
have the printed version and know what is contained in the distinctive vessel. The
mezuzah is the doorpost and the scripture is to be on them so we continually
refresh our priorities of our day while we are in transit from one activity to
the next.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why not inscribe all of the important scripture on all our
door jambs where we can read it daily? Well, that’s <b>the purpose of the study of
the Torah</b>. We do have to walk through those gates of study as a conscious
decision to understand what God is telling his children. The study times do
serve the same purpose.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3>
Slow holiness</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we take the commandments into our house, refreshed by the
kissing or viewing of that parchment holder, they blend with our activities
in the home. Our activities become more aligned to those laws and the
laws share themselves with us while we partake of them. <b>Our activities become slowly
cleansed</b> and made more acceptable to our God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the words in the mezuzah are the only truth about God
that we know, then we at least are being reinforced with the most basic knowledge
of all in Deut 6:4, the Shema, one common verse there. And through each repetition of that verse we
realize that <b>the Lord is the only one</b>. And who is He one with? He is one with
His creation. And that includes us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our uninterrupted feedback from seeing and hearing commandments in our
mind lead to the physical mitzvot of us doing acts of righteousness and becoming blameless, to
the certainty that <b>the Lord is one</b>. When a corrupt act breaks
that loop, there must be restoration in His world because
there can be no unity without a repair to that order. The Lord is not two.
There is only one way to come to know Him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>May you, our Lord God of holiness, be at our side in our daily household tasks</b>
so that Your blessing is rich for our family. May you, Lord of oneness, provide a shelter to
keep us protected when we go out to face the storms. And we ask that our ways are steadfast in obeying Your decrees so that we are not put to shame. Let us praise You with an upright
heart as we learn more of Your righteous laws.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-38731711814264666192016-01-31T19:02:00.001-06:002016-01-31T19:41:58.665-06:00Bubbles of empty meaning - connecting message and action<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At the core of the Torah, I believe, is the relationship between God and man based on <b>what God says and what we do</b> in response. We speak, we do art, we fight, we take action, all in response to God's spirit. Our response must have a meaningful message, a body, a core. It's not a bubble of air, it's fruit.<br />
<br />
Moses followed the <b>pattern of holy commandment to fruitful action</b> when he was given the law by God and then reflected the action giving the law to the people of Israel.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, "Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the LORD your God. Obey the LORD your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today." Deut 27:9-10</blockquote>
There in the camp of the Hebrews, it was important to get their attention, to tell them to stop making up their own instructions of holiness and focus on the real God of the moment instead of idols kept hidden just in case the unfamiliar didn't work out. There is a vague truth in the message of traditional words and in the distracted repetition of words in our heads that needs to be quiet. Both disregard the meaning God gives to us through an understanding of His spirit.<br />
<br />
We need the heart of the message, the message that is meant for the people who belong to HaShem. We have to listen so we hear the echoes of the still small voice that calls us to obedience. Like Elijah in a time of isolation (1 Kings 19:11), the commandment came, and the Lord showed His royal might to encourage him with stone shattering winds, an earthquake, and fire. But then the voice that showed His compassion and understanding for us in such a personal way, <b>a peace-filled whisper</b>, started the mission to anoint new kings and a prophet.<br />
<h3>
Words words words (but no meaning)</h3>
<div>
<b>Context is important</b>. Without it we lose meaning. As we look back on the message, the action that is associated with the words can retrieve the context, otherwise the interpretation is lost until maybe one day, we go through the same situation, the context becomes real, and the light bulb goes on. When I don't have that context, I feel forced to respond back with doubt and argument.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am speaking to you. (No I’m not. You're reading.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am writing to you. (Maybe. Maybe not. You get to decide.)</span><br />
<br />
So <b>the word of God demands action</b>. The people of the Book did what God commanded them. And when people didn’t do what was commanded, there was judgment. That complete responsibility to word and action represents what we do between each other also. When we speak something, we have a responsibility to back it up with action if it’s to be done. If it’s something that we did, we have a responsibility to stand up for what it was we did.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am blessing you. (Really? How? Did I hear you say you were thankful?)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I speak words over you. (Not really. It’s just talk.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I speak blessings of plenty over you. (No I’m not. More talk. Fancy grammar.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am declaring blessings over you. (No difference there.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am declaring financial blessings over this group of people. (Not even close. Unless you put $100 on all the chairs.)</span><br />
<br />
There’s got to be a full responsibility to make sure that when we say something, <b>it needs to say the complete story</b>. When the Lord God told Aaron to bless the Israelites in Numbers 6:22-23, there was a real set of actions that were put forth such as protection, favor, peace, and inclusion as His special people. By following the commandments, Israel was protected from being wiped out like many other tribes, and grew in numbers and in prosperity. God backed those blessings up throughout history. When He declared, it was the same as action.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">God has blessed me. (That’s just half the story.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">God has blessed me by giving me a good wife. (OK yes!)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am blessing God. (Just words.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am praising God. (Just more words.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I am praising God for my salvation. (Ok, as long as you know how God backed that up.)</span><br />
<br />
Every time I open my mouth, I have the opportunity to say something that will <b>shine a ray of life from the spirit of God to another person</b>. Some people just put out a lot of smoke and you never are sure what they mean. I don’t want shallow happy talk. That's smoke. I need talk that gets down to your glimmering soul and reflects your true spirit and feelings about life.<br />
<br />
Life isn’t an endless ride on a merry-go-round and shouldn’t be about staying on the musical horse until your ticket runs out. Life is more about being transparent to God's light and letting people live with you and you with them. <b>Joy feels like a light from heaven</b> when it streams in. God wants to be a part of His people and shine through them and not just have them watch reruns and remakes of Exodus. Zech 2:10<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">God is restoring me. (Just words.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">God is restoring my life by getting me out of a bad job. (Just a personal perspective.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">God is restoring my dignity by giving me a job to help my family. (Meaning to others.)</span><br />
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It certainly is the time for people to stop faking it with vague political phrases and give people a sense of security by backing up your words with actions. It takes some real thought to back up your words and that you put meaning to them. The <b>words have to be well chosen</b>, because without meaning, they become a torrent of trite phrases. When the thoughts are few, the words start repeating themselves as if the repetition makes the meaning more clear.<br />
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Think before speaking</h3>
Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. Eccles 5:2 May God bring patience to my mouth so that the words I choose have time to know whether they cause pain or real instruction by preparing a person to hear them. And may I not weary the Lord Almighty by saying that evil is good, using empty words like bubbles holding no value, or doing works without merit.<br />
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Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-51424909511650047612016-01-21T09:55:00.002-06:002016-01-21T10:06:35.510-06:00The heavy presence of the Lord - a clean heart and a weighty problem<a href="https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2016/01/08/11/30/fog-1127618_960_720.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2016/01/08/11/30/fog-1127618_960_720.jpg" width="320" /></a>
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Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. Ps 114:7</blockquote>
The presence of the Lord has been in my thoughts. <b>It represents the holiness </b>of the place I can be in where the option of leaving that presence of the Lord God won’t ever be even an inkling of a thought for fear of losing any amount of a complete relationship with Him. But being in the presence of the Lord is to be in the fullness, the complete awareness that God is unequaled in the universe and brings a complete order with a complete justice and goodness to all that enter this presence through an inner cleansing of their soul.<br />
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It is my obedience and repentance that puts me in touch with that position where I know that the Lord God has welcomed me. It’s <b>a position of responsibility</b> that the earth has to tremble at, knowing that following any other idle thought will bring calamity. And the earth must shudder to know that it would not be totally in submission to the ruler of the universe whose word brought it into creation. Expressed in more concrete language, the fabric of matter would no long be held together by sub-atomic particle relationships and chaos would rule with energy having no ability to order itself. <br />
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So, it’s perplexing to me when <b>I hear others speak of the presence of the Lord in a different way</b> like “I can feel the heavy presence of the Lord right here. Can you feel it?” And my mind sets to work on the problem to connect with the person and the relationship they have with God that somehow creates the need to share about a weight of an unweighable quality and ask me to confirm it.<br />
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What are they saying?</h3>
Certainly it’s not a question of needing to know in that a leader is asking about your ability to detect God because we all believe in the omnipresence of God, right? It’s more rhetorical and a way of declaring that there is a palpable sensation that the leader is trying be aware of for the congregation so that <b>it increases the value of the spiritual experience</b>. <br />
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And so the experience is then a display of God’s power of which we can partake in and confirm that we are in the kingdom of God here in this building. And the better the experience, the more that God is allowing us to be a part of that kingdom which is represented by the church and the people present. Then that would mean that the value of the gathering is in direct proportion to how dense God is making Himself available to these seekers. But then, we’re stuck for how to measure a sense of dense.<br />
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The easiest way to find a way out of the quagmire is to <b>equate density with emotional excitement</b> and be done with it. Then after a snappy song, we can say that “God was really touching me.” You get the ability to match your enjoyment of a catchy tune to an approved statement that shows you’re a part of the tribe and feel pretty good about it. Problem gone. But not everybody saying they really felt the Lord means it was a barnburner of a praise song and maybe it was all about something else.<br />
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Should we question the person?</h3>
It’s also <b>a question of authenticity</b> for the leader in whether they are actually spiritually sensitive or just trying to exude the piousness of an anointed appointee worthy of their position who ends up masking their lack of connection with God with the whitewash of a familiar phrase. And as a shepherd of the flock, it’s not appropriate for us sheep to question our protector’s authenticity just like it’s not appropriate to question our instructor or doctor’s directives since training effort translates into authority in their roles.<br />
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When the leader is establishing a cultural norm for the group and you aren’t in the groove with the way it’s being played out, you want to find another socially acceptable excuse to deal with that embarrassment should anyone find out it’s not what you connect with. So, second guessing becomes popular. So, maybe I did feel something. Or maybe I am just not praying enough. And maybe…<br />
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We should question the question</h3>
So instead of putting the praising congregant into an awkward position of questioning their own sensitivity, the better thing to do is for the leader not to shame them into following that lost path of a disputed feeling and not ask the question at all. It would be better for them to <b>express the result of that feeling</b> provoking the declaration and let the people enjoy the fruit of the experience. It could be a joyful dance, or a heartfelt hug, or just a personal moment of transparency when God calls us to be real.<br />
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Children aren’t easily guilted into feeling something from their peers and the effect would be about the same as if you were to say “Can’t you just feel this person’s amazing grasp on differential calculus?” We should be more childlike. They would just ignore it and share their cookie with you. <br />
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But we’ve learned how to please our peers so we are more socially accepted and gain the attention that we crave. We say some stumbling phrases of polite attempts to connect in some way and they hit the hard walls of disconnectedness we keep up. And we turn away from the humble attitude that is our inner weakling who is saying “But I really never understood anything past basic arithmetic.”<br />
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An admission of not feeling it, is an admission of not being fully trained or very talented and smacks of ignorance which is hard to admit. You’re more likely to pass off the declaration with minimization and fall into <b>another trap of disconnecting with the reality of that person</b> by saying to yourself “they’re feeling pretty good today.” We lose the connection with the spirit of God in that person that is either there or at war with something there and the relationship grows shallow.<br />
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Connect through a clean heart</h3>
May we understand our relationship with God so that, without doubt, we know His presence will stay with us unless we leave first. It is <b>in my clean heart where I know His presence</b> is always welcome to abide, no matter the hills or valleys I travel in life. And so my prayer is that for my creator to keep a relationship with me in creating my clean heart every day.<br />
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Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Ps 51:10-11</blockquote>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-18131012792094002692016-01-03T16:37:00.001-06:002016-06-30T08:06:12.953-05:00Can trees walk with the Lord?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Growing up in farm country and wooded areas with a purely Western mindset, I never really thought about our crops and the hedge apple trees doing much other than what we wanted them to do. We planted the crops, they grew, we harvested them, and we made a living from them. The Osage orange hedgerows protected the crops and homes from adverse weather and made for a cheap livestock fence.<br />
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Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;<br />
let them say among the nations, “The <span class="name" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> reigns!”<br />
Let the sea resound, and all that is in it;<br />
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them!<br />
Let the trees of the forest sing,<br />
let them sing for joy before the <span class="name" style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,<br />
for he comes to judge the earth.
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I Chr 16:31-33</div>
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<h3>
A shared purpose with a tree</h3>
But as I grow myself, it seems like the Lord has a purpose for the fields and the trees as well. Or David at least knew something about combining the total effort of all living things into a unity of praise. I like to think of my walk with the Lord being similar to the walk that each living thing also is doing in order to complete the purposes that we were made for including that of praise.<br />
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I think of trees having a walk the Lord. But one that is unimpeded by sin but bound to the constraints of this earth. And they have a walk much like the metaphorical walk with God that Enoch had. (Gen 5:24) They are continually showered with life sustaining rain and encouraged to grow with an unencumbered sun on the plains. They respond by bursting out of their seeds reaching out to the heavens to sing for joy. And the song is unique and harmonious with the rest of nature.<br />
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How can those lowly hedge trees be so grateful to produce so much fruit for making more trees, shelter for the wildlife, protection for the croplands, and so much more? They are valuable in craft circles for making archery bows, guitars, and harps. They just have a strong walk with the Lord reflecting His qualities.<br />
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<h3>
Joy in this moment of life</h3>
May we find our praise in a walk with God that puts Him first in our lives. If we have to find examples in the simplest of God's creations, His truth will not be less because of it, So like David, let's ask that all the creation will rejoice, whether it be sea, the fields, the trees, or us because we all find joy in the life we have been given in a walk with the Lord. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us and brought us to this moment!Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903400184610883347.post-39411709358559446112015-12-30T14:30:00.002-06:002016-01-03T17:44:35.228-06:00The Way We Were 2015: happy / not happy<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
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I’m always happy that someone puts together <a href="https://barna.org/research/culture-media/article/year-in-review-2015#.VoRudhUrJpg">a retrospective</a> at the end of the year so we can reflect on who we are and maybe even help guide us to who we’d like to be. The <a href="https://barna.org/">Barna Group</a> has polled everyone it seems in their 30 years on spiritual beliefs for all the big boys.<br />
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Same sex marriage</h4>
First up, they find that a reduced number of practicing Christians are not in favor of same sex marriage legalization showing to me that we are drifting away from the belief that we are or should be a Christian nation. You are less tolerant of things like that when <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/593957/Islamic-State-ISIS-gay-homosexual-man-killed-hundreds-gather">you rule by religious beliefs</a>.<br />
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Political issues</h4>
Money is what people worry about the most being the top political issue people want a presidential candidate to take a stand on. Then after being poor we’re worried about being sick. The lesser but significant concerns are about security. How to protect ourselves from others we don’t like becoming our neighbors, how to protect ourselves from other nations as a world power and how to protect ourselves from ourselves through gun control are all up there.<br />
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Discipleship</h4>
Church members and pastors do not communicate well it looks like. Pastors mostly think they don’t disciple their members. Half the flock thinks that’s just a good thing. We are sheep, you know. If you don’t tell us, we won’t know. Maybe we equate an improvement on personal spiritual progress with church attendance, hope in healing prayer, and church tithing. Those are the main messages I think I’ve heard. Wait a minute, our political issues were about money, health, and national identity. That could be relevant.<br />
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The church isn't relevant</h4>
The data from Scottish census data showing a major decline in Christian belief over the last few decades reflects America’s decline also. Here’s an excerpt about our beliefs.</div>
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While the United States remains shaped by Christianity, the faith’s influence—particularly as a force in American politics and culture—is waning. An increasing number of religiously unaffiliated people, a steady drop in church attendance and the growing tensions over religious liberty all point to a larger secularizing trend sweeping the nation.</blockquote>
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But I was interested in the spike of one survey question about people disagreeing with the church’s assertion that they are relevant to a person’s life. What the heck are you going to church for if it isn’t relevant? Oh, right, you aren’t trending towards going to church. So the message of money, health, and identifying as a church member isn’t important to you? Is there a relevant message out there? I know I'm not interested in a <a href="http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/disney-has-invented-remote-controlled-car-can-climb-walls">"relevant" Christian magazine</a> discussing new technology.<br />
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No support</h4>
And getting downright personal, it’s probably easier for women to find emotional support from any another group than at church. The survey result that found over half the women don’t feel supported at church or their synagogue. (I fudged a little here because I think the 17% of women saying “Not too” were just being polite). Only one out of eight could say their church made them feel very supported.<br />
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Thank you Barna Group for letting us know who we are. May you Lord, help us find someone out there who can help us become fulfilled in You so we are happy about it.</div>
Doug Hoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13575254944704650271noreply@blogger.com0