Psalm 34:2 teaches that the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Hear what? Hear the Word and keep it. “The meek will He teach.” “The meek will He guide in judgment,” Psalm 25:9. Sounds like humility and meekness open some doors to a real God and His living Word? Yes. Humility comes from living in the effects of a crucified self life with its’ old consciousness removed, while meekness is a devotion to the newly opened God-consciousness in resurrection. These are two functions experienced in soul and spirit. They alter the mind, breaking will, emotions and conscience. In essence, humility relates to the process of death; meekness with the life following. So, as we take baby steps with our God in Micah 6:8, our steps are firmed up in faith-meekness in which we condition ourselves to “see as good” the perfect plan of God and receive and apply the…
Category: <span>God’s Psychology</span>
The old story factored relevant, as pig pens are pig pens no matter how a person gets there. I certainly found myself in the same disgusting state as the wayward son, barely surviving with only scraps of nourishment fit for swine. The thing that I and the prodigal shared was the ineptness that took us into our groveling conditions but also the ham-fisted incompetence toward getting out. For the out of control youth, the face in slop was preceded by the low-paying hog-feeding job, and prior to that was a kind of hysteria. Yes, the Bible teaches that the boy’s waste of substance with riotous living caused an emotional trauma for him. His unfortified ability to control things was lost and the bottom was dropping out of his big strategy. In his soul’s lowest of the low, nothing of his self-made mess was faceable for him now. For me, the…
“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…
We would spend a week with my aunt Anna every summer in Greenfield. She was kinda rich we thought, and she took us everywhere on our visit including baseball games, the museum, the aviary, and the flower show. You could see old Forbes field from her back porch, where the Pirates played ball. At night we would walk to McGee field to watch the Soft-ball games as my ruddy complexioned aunt sold concessions in the bleachers, salty pretzel sticks and pop. The lights and warm air, fans and players remain in my memory today. Pittsburgh was a sports town back in the days when John Henry Johnson ran touchdowns for the Steelers. He was an upright runner but had a lot of leg movement and was hard to corral and bring down. I remember that in spite of J.H.J. the team stunk up the field weekly and my Father said…
We must be built up continually. We must be seeing the world from a finished work perspective and not from the perspective of the natural universe. Eternity must be in our hearts. Ezra the Scribe knew of this idea and wrote Psalm 119. His was a continual prayer; “turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken me O Lord. My soul cleaves to the dust, quicken Thou me O Lord according to thy Word. My soul melts for heaviness, strengthen me O Lord. Stablish the Word to thy servant who am devoted to thy fear. Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me thy Law graciously. Incline my heart unto thy commandments. Let thy mercies come unto me…” Then comes many verses of meditative origin. See, we must pray to build ourselves up but then allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in the meditation of…
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…
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…
Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great High Priest, whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me, my name is graven on His hands, my name is written on His heart, I know that while in heaven He stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart, no tongue can bid me thence depart. Selah “When Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there, who made an end to all my sin, because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the Just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me, to look on Him and pardon me.” The song continues. David feared to bring the ark of God into the city of David, having watched as that Holy Presence smote…
2Co 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: 2Co 9:9 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. 2Co 9:10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) 2Co 9:11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. The allusion is to the act of sowing seed. The idea is, that when a man scatters seed in his field God provides him with the means of sowing again. He not only gives him a harvest to supply his needs, but he blesses him also in giving him the ability to sow again. Such was…