Pain, Truth, Patterns

Patterns, like puzzle pieces, are predictable. If only we can find the edges....

Cling to your truth for what it is. Claim your exclusive rights to it. Clamor for the position of greatness among mortals. Clean the cobwebs of doubt from your opinions and let your own, brilliant, unparalleled, self-righteous, inattentive, other-shunning truth ring forth without opposition! All the while, hide your troubles from the unobservant glance. Set up your layers of fallacy as a shield against introspection.

A friend tells me that we establish our own patterns of hurt. I agree. Established; a tree planted by the rivers of water, bearing its fruit in due season. Envy, strife, discontent, discord, cacophony, malice, slander...produce of *my own* truth. My own and not yours. I am its source. From me issue the statutes of everything about which I am able to pontificate, however glibly. I am Right, if only for the sake of unearthing your wrongness. And I must do so in order that the threat of order, concerning which I find myself the head and (why not?) the center, would be averted.

So you know what I am, and thus what you are to me, being other than me.

Now, and only just now, I may smugly place myself with the illustrious Dr. King, calling down justice like many waters, "And righteousness like a mighty stream!" For when I am right, all is right. Never mind dissension or differing perspectives.

A bit much?

And this is the problem among the members of the Body of Christ: we treat each other like individual wholes, when we have actually been called as members of one body, and to live in peace. The arm must not employ the hand to harm the rib, lest the body fall short of breath. We believers, together, are the organs and limbs, held together only by the Almighty power of God in Jesus, WHO IS the ligaments of Word and love.

"Can't we all just get along?" Now we know at least one reason why it is not as easy as it seems. Realize this: your perceptions represent a fragmented fragment of the whole puzzle. Mine do too. Let us practice humility, therefore, in knowledge and power, understanding that we do not possess except that which is given to us. All for which we would grasp for ourselves becomes evil in our control.

Thanks Drey.


Allow a quick update on the goings-on in Nkwanta. I have met a grand total of three Youth leaders in the area. My next action is to meet more, then to develop relationships with them, inasmuch as my short time here will allow. There is a growing likelihood that I will be able to teach the basics of biblical study, or some spiritual disciplines, or the implications of Christian identity, or all of these. I have yet to decide on the format this will take, as I want to get to know the leaders' personalities and schedules. I am hoping for a teaching group of no more than 6, so that if I meet more leaders, I would break them up into two groups. I am looking forward to teaching in this way again.

That is the latest excitement for me. I hope you have some excitement of your own!
Life is such an adventure.

posted from Bloggeroid

Painful Gratitude

Psalm 50:23
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Sacrifice of thanksgiving. What does that look like?
Whatever it is, it's GIVING! Action is an essential characteristic of gratitude. If you're thankful and you know it, Do Something About It.

Today, we drove back to the house from Accra. My mom is hosting a women's conference beginning Monday, and the teachers are. coming from the U. S. A. That team of women (10 in all) arrived today at noon, and my bosses (still my in two senses) decided to make the normally 6 or so hour drive into 7 to 9 hours. The theme of the conference is Empowerment for Life and Godliness, taken from 2 Peter 1:3. It will last from Monday until Thursday, with sessions in the mornings and evenings.

Many women in the area lack the very concept of self-worth. Society has instilled within them a mindset of deserved, inherent subordination, such that many women here do not know to make a stand for their own identity. My mom, together with this team of women, will address that need with God's Word.

I'm writing this from my phone, stayed up way past my bedtime for the last two nights, and can already feel the pangs of incoherence at 6:15 p.m. With that, I bid you Adieu. Do pray for the lasting impact of the program, that God might be glorified in the lives of all who attend.

posted from Bloggeroid

Ponder Suffering

In the past couple of weeks, I have come to believe that suffering is not only a possible piece of the Christian life, but an essential one.  Reflection upon John 13:16 and John 16:33, in conjunction with new insights into the Trinity, have all had the effect of a deeper understanding of Romans 8:17.  "Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them." "I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!" "it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."  Therefore, it seems to me, to suffer and to share in the glory of Jesus are not two pieces of a whole, but rather one unified requisite.  Like the whole fruit of God's Spirit mentioned in Galatians 2, participating in the suffering of Christ and in his glory are one process.  One does not reach its fullness without the other.  Somehow, both are cause and caused interdependently.  Thus my life, being meant for complete transformation into the fullness of Jesus-likeness, is supposed to have experiences of suffering and of glory.  Both are part of the reality and process of my being made whole in God.  There is no dichotomy of choice; I should expect to share in these, if indeed I am a child of God.