“Man is pushed by drives but pulled by meaning, and this implies that it is always up to him to decide whether or not he wishes to fulfill the later. Frankl “Man, which thinks and perceives, could not be called in Scripture, “heart,” unless the will were the peculiar central feature in a man, which precedes perception,” Franz Delitzsch. “The thing in the abstract, or the final sub-stratum in every phenomenon, is the will.” Arthur Schopenhauer. “choice is will where knowledge enlightens it.” “Meaning-fulfillment always implies decision making.” “The effort which goes into the exercise of the will is really effort of attention; the strain in willing is the effort to keep the consciousness clear, i.e., the strain of keeping the attention focused.” Rollo May, “Intension is a stretching toward something.” “Meaning has no meaning apart from intention.” “Each act of consciousness tends toward something, is a turning of a person toward…
Category: <span>Healing Cross</span>
I watched two moms, one my own, the other my wife. A third would be my wife’s mom. All these have a common thing – close ties with their offspring. The children love mom not because she is perfect or even for her giving, but this – she is always in their corner, no matter what. Moms forgive their children — at least the ones I have known. They so never lose hope that their son or daughter will be great or at least be OK. They pray for the kids and worry. Most worry is sin, but not for moms; it becomes sanctified worry. The kids know about this worry and it guides, even restrains them away from certain paths of sure destruction. In order for a kid to go wild he has to find a way around his mom. He has to disregard her. No matter, mom will visit sons in county jail, or…
Peter was acquainted with suffering in a few categories; one sort was “reproach.” He speaks of the particulars in his first epistle, chapter 4. In verse 14 we read, “If ye be reproached (defamed) for the name of Christ, happy (extremely blessed) are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth (continues to repose), upon you. Alford says, “There being nothing so much as breaks noble minds.” He is referring to reprimand of character. Peter was a character and a strong-willed one. He was boisterous and proud. As pride precedes a fall, Peter demonstrated this principle by his walk-on-water spill, his rebuke by Jesus in Matthew 16, and eventually by his three-time denial. Unbeknownst to Peter, beforehand was God’s mighty hand of resistance. Why? Because private reputation retention is not popular with; well, it’s hated by The Father in heaven, is why. Nevertheless, years later Peter writes epistles as…
streetcar When it doesn’t go well in life, where do you go? Disappointed, humiliated, do you sulk? Some rebound here and bounce back into the fight. Some quit altogether. Whatever the case, these letdown times become occasions for rational people to do irrational things. Good folks turn bad now, loyal friends betray, and competent people display incompetence in a struggle to save the day. What is happening? Well, an over-riding power, an incredible hulk, takes the ball and begins to run just inside the sidelines; and with such a rambunct, there is no stopping it. Folks is plain nuts now, and liable to do anything. Why? The answer to that needs interpretation, but, frankly, they hit the point where a principle of self-preservation begins. Pushed to the limit, their identity is threatened. Because of self-love, they must now get riled. Something happens to push persons out of normal soul function…
Parliament on the River On Easter comes Resurrection, although, the day may bring to a close an unimaginable period of pain in hardship, dying, burial. These are the extremes, the unexpected, the unexplained which lead up; the stuff which perplexes, shames, incapacitates. These take the limelight away from all former challenges of any sort; they ravage the mind, annihilate the soul, blow out of the proverbial water, and throw for a total loop. Have we seen them? They are not every day occurrences but may have found us. Our prayer is for God’s delicate help when it happens. Speaking hypothetically, prior to undergoing deep present distresses, life for most had a certain capacity, a confident bent, a sure system, a reliable set of rules, and a precise level of weightiness. This private, methodical, safety-network involved and normalized our coping with stress, our adapting to situations, our equilibrium protecting, our buoyancy…
When a loved one dies, immediately impressed upon the survivors are many things. awakened is the sense that life can be interrupted abruptly . the awakening of a higher truth is divulged. awakened to resentment at the crassness of people’s handling of your loved one’s passing. More than just superficially acknowledged, these new awakenings are circulated in the collection of soul depth. In every man exists a repository for the efficient operation of simple believing. Impulse, impression, and projection are ideas associated with this place. Things are conceived here and thoughts take on form from what is in there. This area of the brain operates involuntarily and has no moral filters. It can be called “unconscious.” Notion, perception, conception, modeling and theory work here. They fight to exist as one hypothesis may contradict another. What dominates in this belief emporium are those concepts that combine to form a system, a harmony, a…
Church in Hungary “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Is this the cross of your life or some other? If this one frames us, we know with the mind a once and forever done-by-another-for-me deal, (perfect passive indicative tense). The present tense “knowing” practically effects the destroying of the “The body of which sin has taken possession.” All of it enables me to not be a slave to sin. Jamison, Faucet, and Brown cite our new relationship with Christ and says: “The apostle now grows more definite and vivid in expressing the sin-destroying effectiveness of our union with the crucified Savior.” So that “all that we were in our old unregenerate condition, before union with Christ,” “was” crucified with Him. Henceforth, we are not in bondage to sin. So, we have…
On the Danube River Create? Imagination and what else? Materials are necessary but so is glue. Thoughts and words must meld in a way that has continuity and also sensible relatedness. There needs to be permanence, stability, link, no interruption. Abstractions? Unless somehow connected to sanity, these are illegitimate in my opinion. Why? Because any idiot can build oblivion by non-thinking, but true creativity requires a mind applied, inspired, with vision. It is constructive and not destructive. Reflections are interesting as they expose the negative side of a positive. For example, wholesomeness reflects as decadence on the pessimistic side, decency becomes immodesty, integrity becomes fragmentation, and benevolence becomes offensiveness. Cmon, friends, you want to uglify beauty and call that art? Instead, let’s turn it around and beautify something hideous; now that’s creativity! See, true creativity requires some givens, namely love. The higher the degree of love involved and understood, the…
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: “Holy and without blame” is more than conduct, but relates here to an identity, a self worth, a dignity and ultimate nobility. “Without blame” defines a self image which does not impute sin or trespasses to itself and this person is blessed as in Psalm 32:1-2. Sin was originally imputed or “reckoned” to the whole human race, from Romans 3, 4 and 5, then the very same sin was transferred onto Jesus in Isaiah 53.6, 1Peter 2:24, and in 2 Corinthians 5:21 He became sin that we would become the righteousness of God in Him. This refers to His righteousness being imputed to us at the point of salvation. Following this? So, “holiness” becomes not an issue of conduct, but a setting-apart…
I and the Holy Spirit become inseparable when we two walk together agreed, for it is in Psalm 36:9 that “in thy, (His), light we see light.” In 2 Corinthians 4:6 we find these words; “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In Proverbs 4:18 this light progresses in its illumination, and the succession sanctifies us as we go. Now, light and forward movement both, take the “one time” sanctification of our soul, and unfold the glory of it to us in a process. So, we are set apart unto God, once and for all at salvation and the unfolding revelation to us of this fact takes us closer to its truth in a practical realization. We walk in a moment by moment…