childlike ..

it recently occurred to me .. i could learn from my dog

besides, minds far greater than mine be like ..
"A dog can never tell you what she knows from the
smells of the world, but you know, watching her,
that you know
almost nothing."
(mary oliver)

his understanding of who i am, the 'mood' i'm in, what i'm about to do based on what clothes i'm putting-on, that he needs to simply hang-out till i'm ready .. those markers of his knowing me speak to a relationship i want with Jesus ..

but, that's not what this is about, although it's what this is about ..

this is about unlearning

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we live in this world, which makes demands of us

the goal of our parents/teachers is to educate us into those demands, perhaps point us in a direction that facilitates us to meet those demands ..

like career to make money to pay bills to own a house to reproduce other children on whom this world makes demands ..

and then we teach them to facilitate those demands .. and on

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smell kinda farmy to you ? ..

putting it that way, does it bring thoughts of a factory designed to output alikes ?

or a chicken farm that exists to produce as many 'chickens' as it can, of this size, this fat content, this ratio of breast to thigh to wing ..

and ........ .. if it does, how does that make you feel ?

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truth is 'we' all want to look like this or that movie star and sing like rihanna and play ball like the james hisself and make money like rihanna/james and live in a rihanna/james house

ok, so not all of us, but maybe 9 out of 10 ? .. 

why is that?

and is it cool?

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one wiseman said one time something about becoming like a child to enter heaven

in fact he said "unless .. we won't"

and that's scary

specially when you think about who said it

well, i had some things to say about that on another post i can't locate right now ..

but .. there's this

perhaps the problem with us adults is that we learned wrong

and we need to unlearn what we learned so we can relearn - and learn what we should have learned all along ..

perhaps the focus of our parents, and us as parents, is to prepare children to be a 'success' in this world, be the rihanna/james, when we should have been training them to live life to the fullest by discovering who they really are .. images of God

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we end-up dumbing down their imagination, stifling their energy, politically-correcting their honesty, telling them to head in this or that direction because there's money to be made over there ..

while all the while God just wants them, exactly as they are ..

in fact he wants us exactly as they are

we end-up teaching them out of their innocence, their natural inclination to trust, their innate ability to spot truth and pretense

so they can fit in

so they don't embarrass us

so we can hold our noses high and pull out the wallet-full-of-pics and smile and croon and be gushy-all-over

proud like ..

and the factory operates 24/7

the farm only gets better at pumping-out chickens, now with 2 breasts and 6 wings ..

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what happened to the Moses's

where are the Edmund Hillary's and the Galileo's and the daVinci's

where are the Paul's ..

and the Jesus's ..

where have all the flowers gone, after all ..

graveyards ?? ..

every one ?? ..

are there no flowers left to bloom ?

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so, perhaps it's easy for me to sit here on my computer at my rather mature age and point fingers and question motives and pretend like i'm some sagacious sage ..

while all the while i was and did those very same things

i buried my flowers

thing is, when someone like (and there ain't noone quite like) Jesus says dump the pretense and the fluff, and the waste-of-a-lifetime, and pick up that cross that belongs to you - was cut and shaped specifically to hang your body on - and come and follow me ... . . 

then i/we have a serious choice to make ..

a most sober decision ..

one that would change the core of my/your life .. .

and there it be ..

to do that i/we need childlike trust

the faith of a child

cause he did not say, leave some of it, keep the house ..

and now my/your life is in somebodyelse's hands

i/you am/are no longer in control

i no longer am in control

lt

childlike

unless you become like a little child

"anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven " ..

think about it

peace

my path ..

Foss penned wisewords to preachers
like a century ago
words that many'd do well to heed
this a century since

copycats we tend to be
under the guise 'why reinvent the wheel?'
when there be paths wheels may not go
better fin or wing or spirited thought

making a path is tough indeed
easier by far to follow
thing is, where the spirit leads
may well not be where the old paths go

bow and scrape and shackle mind
to copy minds 'great'
but 'twould be good to know
those minds their own paths created

better far for me i think
to pack the Book, shoulder my cross
head off into the forest dense ..
see where the spirit would go

oneity with God ..

this 'concept' i've been processing - inclusion in the fellowship-relatedness of Triune God, such that we share and experience the very communion Godself does - began some months ago as i read through John 13-17 .. it has led from one thing to another, almost like a trail i'm following ..
it's related somehow to lovers' relationships .. Ephesians 5 and Song of Songs speak to this

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at Genesis 2 God takes out of the first human, and creates a female, leaving behind a male ..
the now-male, finally encountering the one to whom he corresponds, exults in the obvious correspondence which was previously obviously missing, made obvious as the human 'named' the creatures..
there was no other human-like to be named ..
the exultation results in calling this one 'woman' ( a word apparently etymologically UNrelated to 'man' ) ..
here now are 2 creatures alike, so the now-man exclaims of woman, "flesh and bone from me" or "flesh and bone like me" .. "finally!", leading to the unity, the oneity, described as 'one flesh' (KJV), 'one famiy' (NLT), 'united into one' (ESV) ..
i prefer simply 'one', or 'two as one'

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although perhaps there was a form of relationship before, that of God and the one human, the God-on-human relation must have been somewhat strange to the human (and to God?) ..
they were different, after all, although .. they were also alike, for God had made the human to be 'like' God, as in Godlike ('imago dei') .. still, the difference between creator and created was obvious ..

now we have creature-correspondence, a one-on-one, like-on-like, direct correspondence .. same page, same perspective .. equivalents .. "i have, finally, someone just like me to relate to"

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Ephesians 5 - Christ and the ChurchBody ..
now the dance !

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perhaps .. God, knowing the human is flesh and blood, recognizing the human limits in relatedness to Godself as one-to-one , and then providing the missing link, is working towards something .. hopefully, that inter-relatedness between humans will grow into some kind of understanding, at least in an approximate way, of the inter-relatedness among Godself .. "we'll teach them something of what we experience; now they have each other to touch and smell and see and talk-to and listen-to .. "

.. and they will grow into participation in the very intimate love-relationship of Trune Godself ..

perhaps this oneity between the humans will encourage their desire to intimate with God, an intimacy God wants to share with others ..
at least, that part is the theology-think .. the Triune God spreads Godarms outward to embrace (include?) creature

and God walks and talks with the humans; they relate; they share; they discuss and commune

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but sin ..

but
sin ..

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sin introduces a disruption, an interruption in the God-human relations, a break God had warned them about ..

they broke trust with God
they thought they could be ' like God ', like the serpent said, while, all along, they were already like God, for they had been peculiarly created in the 'imago dei', made like God ..
.. unlike the serpent ..

they lusted for what they already had
perhaps thinking there was more to be had .. like the right to determine right from wrong, the knowledge of Good and Evil, from the Tree of ..

and sin brought death

disconnect on several levels, from God, from life, from life-to-the-fullest .. life in the Triune

`|`

God, being the kind of God that Godself is, refused to give up ..

God overrides the disconnect from time to time, imposing Godself into human existence/experience by employing nature, speaking audibly, appearing in human (Christophanies) and non-human form (fire, cloud, etc), and inSpiring this or that prophet
this for a season

then God unravels Godself ..
God becomes human .. !!

(Hebrews 1 ff. and Philippians 2 speak to this de-deification of the Word, humanizing in Jesus)

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imagine it ..  .  . if you can

that step is the pointed clarion-call to all the cosmos that God is still committed to humanity

God is boldly reestablishing personal and intimate relations with us, headed back to Eden .. Godhead moves to reclaim Edenlife, a radically, inclusivistic embrace of humanity, in whom is still a life-memory of the 'imago dei'

God will not be outdone, God is openly on the move, defiantly, demonstratively, personally, in the person of Jesus, the Anointed, the Messiah/Christ

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God misses the human correspondence, misses having us close, in Godembrace, in Goddance, included in the perichoresis (theology = dance around), deftly twirling arm-in-arm, then switching partners to embrace another in a never-ending joyful expression of celebration .. celebration of love, love shared, love given, love accepted, the pure otherworldly love of Godself flowing through and among Godself and Godchildren ..

God is now made in the image of human ..
and the circle advances, almost full-circle .. creator lives and moves and has being among us, as one of us ..

for a time

and then they kill him

and the creator dies

creator
dies

no greater love than this ..

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out of death
life

and Jesus is highly honoured and given a name above all names, to whom every person and power in the cosmos will bow, and is exalted by God to the honourable place of RightHand of God, the Man paving the way for us .. the incredible unthinkable oneity with Godhead

this unity is the very same oneness Jesus experiences with GodFather
same, no different ( John 17 ) ..
God in Jesus
Jesus in God
and now .. us in Jesus in God in us
God in Jesus in us

same interplay, interflow, interpenetration that exists within Godself, same ..
Godhead extends that to embrace humanity, the special creature created in the 'imago dei'
us
you
i

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this is the radical-think, beginning with the Patristics, from the 2nd century, lost in the shuffle of western civilized society and the sad-embrace of religion and power
and the unthinkable schism that marked the church that Jesus built, breaking-up, marking-off, de-edifying, ranking, excluding, marginalizing

and Jesus is lost in the shuffle ..

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this (to us today) radical-think is theologically termed 'theosis', 'divinization' ..
it is not us becoming God .. it is us being embraced in the intimate in-ness that the members of the Triunity experience among themselves
a staggering thought to the human mind ..

it's why i tread this road i find myself on
as Scriptures tell us, " we will realize how much like him (Jesus) we are when we see him as he is " (1Jn 3.2) ..
we are more like God than we know
we simply need to live into that .. follow the Man

Jesus came among us to remind us of that, and to prompt us in that think-direction, heart in tow ..
that live-direction where we live-out the image of God in us, as we live and move and have our being among all the other ' imago dei's ', regardless of their colour or stripe, gender or state-in-life ..

in God, the Triunity
embraced in Godself, included in Godself
so that God may be all in all
all, in all ..
us in God
and God in us
at one
as one
one ..

all through Jesus, the Man

now, may the love of God and the grace of Lord Jesus and the embrace of Godspirit be ours ..

peace

sundy best ..

i used to 'love' church, in my own way, best i knew how
i really didn't know anything else
besides, everyone else was in error
we were the faithful remnant ..

`|`

one day i visited a long-ago-seen goodfriend
the morning after i arrived, he said he was headed to AA, and, hesitantly, asked if i wanted to go
absolutely
never been, and i was most interested in it (specially since it was always treated poorly by us religious) ..
besides, i wanted to go with my friend as support

well, to cut to the quick, i was stunned
excitedly so
it was  wonderful

later, we went for breakfast
i sat speechless for a while, under the guise of a full mouth
in reality, i was stunned
i loved it
i kept thinking " this is what church should be like " ..

what with
"hi, i'm owen, and i'm an alcoholic"
think, " hi, i'm owen, and i'm a sinner "

what with the must-be teenage girl that said when she woke that morning she coudn't wait to get to AA
.. ? ... ? really ??

it absolutely stank of church-should-be-like-this
the pungence of that smell wouldnt wash off me for days ..

`|`

i almost gave up hope of ever finding an AA-type church
where people were real to who they are, and can't wait to get in there

very occasionally, like 2 times maybe, in the last decade, i've run across one

today i had the distinct pleasure of being in such a place once more
it has been 2 moths, i think

i just can't get the smell off me ..
or the feel
the music will not leave me alone
the dude next to me and i, exchanging smiles as the guitar riffed ..
the pianist drew a standing ovation at the 'offertory' - a massive spine-tingling rendition of a compendium of hymns, all in the theme of praise to God
and the dude just back from vietnam belting bluesy 'you gotta serve somebody' a la dylan, with a brilliant vocal backup, and an applausable guitar solo

the message still hot inside

and Godspirit danced through the aisles and into the gaps between the pews
excited
thrilled to be there with Godpeople celebrating the anniversary of the ascension

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the message out of Acts 1
"Men of Galilee, why are you standing there staring up to heaven?" !
time to go, time to make disciples, time to move on

and the one-liner that i wrote down
" we are to be caring about those we are witnessing to
caring for those we are witnessing to " ..

`|`

i am blessed today

thank you, Jesus

GodMother and my mother ..

it's entirely possible that God designed humanity as relational, not only for the purpose of procreation (God could have done that using any method), but to give us a taste of what it's like to be in relationship with others, with another

classic christian theology posits the triune Godhead
a dancing-around (perichoresis) of three people, interpersonally, intimately, vulnerably, enjoyably, perfectly united, as one
complete in their union

so that God wants us to understand something of what God experiences within Godhead
with Godself

enter mother ..

while i would normally use a lovers' union to express that, today i honour my mother, and that heartily

she's my hero

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because of the way language developed in the context of human history, it moreoftenthannot defaulted to the masculine
women and children were seen (and moreoftenthannot treated) as lower-class people
women still are treated that way today

this treatment includes the christian scriptures, such that we grew-up reading/hearing/thinking of God as he/him

ahmmmm .. just so you know, God is not a male

while you taste that ..
consider (my view) that God created a human embodying both male and female characteristics ..
and then, so that the human would not be 'alone', God took out the female attributes and created the companion
now male and female
and then God brought them back together and told them to become 'one'
again
intimacy at an almost unintelligible level to us today
and far too often unexperienced
pointedly illustrating not only the intimacy of Godhead in 3 persons
but also the wholeness of Godhead (perfection, totality)
male/female attributes all intermingled
perfectly

.. so, God is not a male
nor is God a female

God encompasses all of that

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MotherGod
and my mother

blessed I am
highly blessed

i'm not going to try to convince you my mother is perfect
she isn't
she made her mistakes like we all do

but there was an underlying motivation of doing right; of making the most out of, too often, little; of persisting in the face of opposition and tough circumstances; of determination to make it happen; of providing a life for us children that was one-up on the life she lived, at great expense to her and to her personal life and relationships

my mother has been a rock in my life
a place i could always step when i found myself adrift

i am blessed

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more than that though, more than that ..
i am honoured to have a mother that is willing to change, even at this advanced stage of life, where change for most is unusual ..
we tend to cement as we age
new ideas and differentthink to what we cut our teeth on becomes difficult
we tend to think the way we always thought the older we get ..

what inspires me about this woman is her untiring dedication to knowing the God that is, including her willingness to undo her 'theology' and consider that God, in some ways, may be different to what she thought all along ..
that blows my mind
in the face of much younger folk like us who are so entrenched in our Godthink, so immovable, so unwilling to consider that we may not have everything 'right' ..
so arrogant ..
like .. we're not God, yuh know

i am blessed
very

so here's to mothers
and here's to my mum ..
thanks for teaching me about God by who you are

and here's to a God that intimately knows and understands mothering
my MotherGod

peace

a control god and prayer, goodread ..

kinda in the vein of recent 'God is in control' posts, this piece on prayer and does it actually bring change is a considerable consideration ..

http://reknew.org/2015/05/does-prayer-really-change-things/?utm_source=Website+Signup&utm_campaign=51cc4e57b1-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0de6226b5c-51cc4e57b1-48866665

"God is in control" 2 ..

 a couple weeks ago i blogged part 1 of this here .. http://denyingme.blogspot.com/2015/04/god-is-in-control.html

in the 1st part i presented the issue, the oft-employed fall-back when we're faced with oppression and depression and abuse and illness and loss and financial failure and death .. "God is in control"

 i then posited my default position on things biblical, things concerning God - find and take Jesus' perspective wherever possible, and if that's not clear, then find the position that reverberates with Jesus' attitude in general..
Hebrews explains why we take Jesus' take on it; Jesus is the perfect expression of God in human form ..

so, what about the "God is in control" thing ?


`|`

let's take the 2 examples i gave originally - the people that suffered life-threatening heart attacks and cancer ..
the clear statement from one was that God gave them the heart attacks; from the other, "don't get in God's way when God is working on someone" by employing cancer or similar; ie. don't interfere with God's working on them, which implies praying for the person's healing .. if we pray for healing we're actually interfering because God is bringing the very illness we're praying against

so, we end up praying something like this: "God, we want Jamal to be healed, but we recognize this could be your plan, so, Lord, your will be done." ..

basically we've just undone the whole point of prayer ..
presumably prayer is for the purpose of bringing about change, somehow employing God's power in the earth to deal with a situation ..
we're saying "God, this is so wrong! please help. bring help to my friend" or similar ... .
aren't we ? ... . eh?
because if that's not what we're doing then we're simply mouthing-off, we're praying to be able to say "i prayed", or worse yet, we're praying because we're 'supposed to' ..
that kind of prayer, "your will be done" in the face of someone who was raped last night is simply disingenuous ..
"Maria was raped, but since you could be working in Maria's life to get her attention, well .. your will be done" ..
or, wait .. maybe rape is the one thing God doesn't 'use'
hmmm.. maybe not murder .. .?
ahmmm .. John and suzy's 2 year-old daughter that was killed by a drunk driver last week ? ..
.. . . .

listen friend, either prayer is to engage God, encourage God to bring healing, to change hearts, to override awfulness, to combat evil or it's simply a waste of breath, and besides, does serious injustice to the consistent biblical injunctions and examples of prayer, including Jesus' ..

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another point to consider - when (if?) we read the gospels, we're consistently presented with a Jesus that goes about doing good
there's a chorus we used to sing, "everywhere he went he was doing good; he's a mighty healer, he cleansed the leper .."; i forget the rest ..

but that was Jesus regular practice, he was famous for it ..
he healed, he fed, he cast out demonic spirits, he restored ..
he did good

if that's so, and it is, then Jesus himself was working against God!
for if God was employing cancer and heart attacks, and Jesus healed cancer and heart attacks in those people, then Jesus was undoing God's work ..
(aside: some 'smart' person might retort that Jesus only healed the ones God wasn't working on - he knew ..
- God works on everyone
- there are passages that relate 'multitudes' (= lots of people) coming to Jesus, and he healed them all, apparently indiscriminately)

`|`

another thing, Jesus didn't interview people he healed
he didn't ask them a bunch of questions about whether they believed in God, or when was the last time they went to the temple and offered sacrifices for their sins, or if they kept the Law
he simply healed them
in fact, there were times when he spent so much time and effort healing people that he had to sneak off to rest, take a break; it was taxing stuff, not anything magical ..

point is, if Jesus life was marked by healing, which took effort on his part, then his intention was clearly to undo the illness and disease, the blindness and the lameness ..

doesn't it strike you strange that this man, who is the very image of the invisible God in human form, is fighting against the things that destroy humanity, and yet God is employing those things?

Jesus fought agaist the destroyer, the Satan
not God, not ever God

more to come ..

peace to you