Category: <span>Walk, for Christians</span>

Wonderment, bewilderment, elation, happiness, joviality, dreaming, wishing and hoping; 1. sleepy and groggy 2. excitement 3. pure joy 4. especially nice 5. tipsy and giggly. 6. arguments 7.  happy 8.  gluttony 9. impatience 10. Absolute delight 11. fit to burst. 12. competitive 13. Laughter and cringing 14. Uncomfortably full 15. Sleepy but proud 16. Delirious 17. dozy but content.  From housebeautiful: Feelings happen Yule-tide but then there’s a unique one to the season: “The holidays can bring nostalgia, an emotion with important benefits, according to a nostalgia expert.” “Holidays bring holiday memories, and, often a sense of nostalgia for good times long gone, perhaps even loved ones long gone.” “This bittersweet nostalgia helps us feel connected, both around the holidays and at other times. And, it can be a salve to those suffering through hard times, according to nostalgia expert Krystine Batcho, a professor of psychology at Le Moyne College in New York. it was originally coined in 1688 by a medical physician as a term to indicate homesickness in young soldiers. He viewed homesickness as a physical illness…

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,  Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Job 38:1-2 “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?” Psalm 13:2 “O my God, my soul is cast down within me:” Psalm 42:6 “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?” Psalm 42:6 “lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death — hope thou in God.” There are four characteristics of a person who hides in their self counsel. First, they live in self-preservation. Secondly, a person who is hiding in Adam lives in self-defense mechanisms. The third characteristic  is self-absorption. Fourth, self-occupation According  to Dr. Carl H. Stevens, founder of Greater Grace Church in  Baltimore Md. these 4 characteristics progress in the self-counseled soul. The self-absorbed become distracted and blinded to God’s viewpoint and…

    “The most likely theory is that Christmas trees started with medieval plays. Dramas depicting biblical themes began as part of the church’s worship, but by the late Middle Ages, they had become rowdy, imaginative performances dominated by laypeople and taking place in the open air. The plays celebrating the Nativity were linked to the story of creation—in part because Christmas Eve was also considered the feast day of Adam and Eve. Thus, as part of the play for that day, the Garden of Eden was symbolized by a “paradise tree” hung with fruit.” “These plays were banned in many places in the 16th century, and people perhaps began to set up “paradise trees” in their homes to compensate for the public celebration they could no longer enjoy. The earliest Christmas trees (or evergreen branches) used in homes were referred to as “paradises.” They were often hung with round…

    “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Timothy 1:5 “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” 1 Timothy 3:9 “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.” 1 Timothy 1:19 Faith seems to depend on conscience, but what about these; purity, love? Faith grasps a mystery, a secret. Faith holds function in a (katheros) conscience. our English derivative is katharsis which is a cleansing. The blood of Christ, applied by the Spirit,  cleanses our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God, simply put. Conscience accuses or excuses the owner.  A good conscience has good constitution or nature, is useful, good, pleasant, agreeable, and joyful..” A good conscience functions right. What else does it do?  It bears witness, producing a “knowledge by the side of the original consciousness…

  The Book of Job teaches us some interesting phenomena about the ways of men. “The tendency to conflate, (blend),  poverty with other social issues such as unemployment, welfare receipt or substance abuse, or to uncritically cite these conditions as explanations of poverty, is tied up with the tendency to portray poverty as a problem created by those experiencing it. .” From  jrf.org.uk “… those who deviate are seen as the source of trouble. The obvious question observers ask is, why do these people deviate from norms? Because most people view themselves as law abiding, they feel those who deviate do so because of some kind of unusual circumstances: accidents, illness, personal defect, character flaw, or maladjustment… In other words, the deviant is the cause of his or her own problem.”  Borrowed from  “the sociological approach to social problems—Russ Long” I guess we must talk of this phenomena. If a person falls to chance or…

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. Luke_7:39 What kind of prophet? An ethics policeman? Greg Boyd makes an insightful observation in His article on “The Point of the Book of Job.” “Most of us do not like ambiguity. Life is generally easier if we convince ourselves that everything is clear and simple. This, I believe, is part of our legacy of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:1-7). In our fallen delusion, we feel it our rightphet, and within our capacity, to declare unambiguously who and what is “good” and who and what is “evil.” We are not omniscient, but having eaten from the forbidden tree, we have a fallen misguided…

  Routine means: conventional, regular, unremarkable, usual, familiar, general and like words. Routine’s opposite means: abnormal, different, eccentric, extraordinary, irregular, special, strange, uncommon, unconventional, unusual, variable, breaking, original, untraditional. ”     Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus,  The Christian life carries both elements, but, too much “routine” becomes unchristian. Frankly the idea of “special” was added to our routine existence at the point of salvation. Unusual events began, untraditional acts exhilarated us, extraordinary gifts were being discovered, and unconventional wisdom began to rule over our familiar and general existence. Christ entered our heart and mind! Paul taught us: “When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Collosians 3:4 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  Philippians 1:21 “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we…

  “In consequence of the first sin, the internal nature of man became possessed by death. How? …by the (decomposing) of the previous unity of the (many human) powers (complimenting one another) … in the life of the spirit and of the soul, and of the disappearance of the spiritual life in God’s image, and its reflection in the soul.” from Delitzsch and Wallis “A System of Biblical Psychology” paraphrase “…when Satanic thoughts of a loveless God found entrance into man’s mind, then entered enmity (an enemy) into the place of love … soul, at peace in God, fell into confusion, and kindled in passionate eagerness opposed to God.” Same source. “The tree of knowledge was to lead man to the knowledge of good and evil; and, according to the divine intention, this was to be attained through his not eating of its fruit. This end was to be accomplished… through obedience to the…

  “As your fathers did, so do ye. “ A shattered and battered friend builds a barricade — outside goes the streets, parties, men, women — no challenges, no frank conversations, no vulnerable places; nothing gets in! — nothing but a safe little bungalow with a few other cocoon-spinning associates; — they are veiling their secrets together. Left out are also secret memories of raped or violated. God also is forfeited. Some add a convenient god to their project, but the True God gets the stiff arm; He represents unconcealed truth is why, and truth stings. Can God ever get in? He can if these self-shelters can be penetrated. We got a problem. God wants to preserve rights; rights of free will, rights to want, rights to self-government, as far as it goes. God doesn’t overrule the one created in His image or He violates their being, by becoming an antagonist God. So, how can it…

  “Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.” Luke 5:4 “Finally he measured a thousand, and it was a river I couldn’t cross on foot, because the water was so deep one would have to swim across; it was a river that could not be waded through.” Ezekiel 47:5 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Psalm 42:7 Deep waters must be floated on or swam — They go over our head — but in these we find God. What does it mean? Waters to the ankles slow us down, waters to the knees make life challenging, waters to the waist make life serious, but waters over our head carry us away. The purpose? Proving our faith. All conventional cures; get-tough…