Changes and the Dreaded Concept of Future Contemplation: the 5 year plan! - Purity 813
Purity 813 08/18/2022 Purity 813 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a set of tire tracks going into a
field of gold comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene when I went
a little further down Waite Road than usual while walking the dog, back on July
23rd.
Well, it’s Thursday again and as usual I am sharing
another photo of a pathway as an encouragement for my all my friends to either
get on, or “keep on keeping on”, on the pathway of Christian Discipleship.
Tonight is the last meeting of The Grace Course Discipleship
group that I facilitate on Zoom, and it has me thinking about the course of our
lives and how they are filled with beginnings and endings and how the changes
keep on rolling from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, and from
season to season. The concept of
stability or the status quo really is an illusion and if we think that things
will always remain the same we are deceiving ourselves.
As much as we can experience peace when we walk in
the Spirit, the path of Christian Discipleship is progressive and forward thinking.
One of the questions that I noticed that continually comes up as I have tried
to live my life according to my Christian faith is: “What’s next Lord?” as I
seek to walk into the meaning and purpose that God has for me.
If you didn’t know it, it’s “back to school season”
and changes, they are going to come. Many of my friends in other states have
already shared the “first day of the school year” photos of their kids and soon
the kids, adolescents, and young adults in the Empire state are going to have
to walk that walk too.
My kids are college age. My daughter Haley recently
got her Associates degree and Brennan finished his freshman year with mixed
results that were reminiscent of his high school days.
Haley works at Lowes as a cashier and has decided to
not to continue her studies this fall.
So this morning, I agonized over and made the decision to have her begin
paying “rent”. I have decided to ease
her into it a bit and while she won’t be paying a full portion of a third of
the living expenses at my home, she will be paying $100 a week. I advised her that this demand would continue
and be increased yearly at her subsequent birthdays until she would pay a full
third of the mortgage and utilities upon her 25 birthdays. I also advised her
that this demand for rent would be suspended if she chose to become a full time
college student again and that I would take all things in consideration in this
regard.
As for my son Brennan, his freshman studies ended in
May and since then he has not sought employment and a few days ago admitted he hadn’t
registered for school and wasn’t sure if he would. Today just happens to be the day that
students would have to pay their tuition, so I sent him a message to make him
aware and to encourage him either to register for school or to get a job. I also advised him of his sister having to
begin paying rent and that if he was not a full time student, he too would have
to pay rent after his 21st birthday in December.
So it’s like, AHHH, tough love… I don’t know. You sort of want to be “cool Dad” but at the
same time I feel that I need to make my kids responsible and encourage them to be
self-sufficient, to contemplate their futures, and seek their
independence.
I just got married in January and while TammyLyn and
I are doing this two household thing mostly because of our kids, any illusion
of “status quo” in our lives currently will increasingly be revealed as an
illusion as the years pass and we seek to be joined together under one
roof.
While we don’t know exactly what will happen over
the next five years, the time it will take for TammyLyn’s youngest to graduate
high school, we know that there is the potential for huge changes on our
respective horizons in terms of our respective careers and living situations.
So my “pulling the trigger” on having my kids pay
rent is intended for them to realize that while things seem relatively stable
in our lives now, they aren’t necessarily going to stay that way and that they
should begin to develop that dreaded concept of future contemplation: the 5
year plan.
OOF… it hurts to say it, because I only have the
vaguest idea of what my 5 year plan will be!
But relax, the good thing is that the future doesn’t
happen all at once. Christ said
in:
Matthew 6:25-34 (NLT2)
25 “That is why I tell you
not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or
enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than
clothing?
26 Look at the birds. They
don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds
them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
27 Can all your worries add a
single moment to your life?
28 “And why worry about your
clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or
make their clothing,
29 yet Solomon in all his
glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.
30 And if God cares so
wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire
tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31 “So don’t worry about
these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we
wear?’
32 These things dominate the
thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
33 Seek the Kingdom of God
above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 “So don’t worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough
for today.
So don’t worry about tomorrow or 5 years from now. If
look ahead a little bit, with the idea of what we want to accomplish in the
next 5 years and start taking steps in that direction, we can get to where we
want to be.
But in the meantime, we have to take care of the
things and people that are in front of us.
We have to love and care for the things and people God has put into our
lives in the moment, but we should also be loving enough to be honest about how
things will and need to change in the future.
Although we may feel utterly groundless when we
contemplate the uncertainty of the future, if we are faithful to follow the Lord,
we can be prepared for whatever changes may come our way.
Christ also said something about building things on
a rock versus building on shifting sands:
Matthew 7:24-27 (NLT2)
24 “Anyone who listens to my
teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid
rock.
25 Though the rain comes in
torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it
won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
26 But anyone who hears my
teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.
27 When the rains and floods
come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty
crash.”
When you stand on the Rock, your house will
stand. So listen to the teachings of Jesus and follow them.
So as we move ever closer to a new season in our
lives, keep walking and talking with God. Keep an eye on the horizon but make
sure you are looking at the next step you need to make too. Although the change times and season can seem
like shifting sands, we can be steady as we go when we walk in the Spirit.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Luke 11:9 (NLT2)
9 “And
so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on
seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to
you.
Today’s verse are the words of Jesus who encourages our perseverance
and faith in prayer.
The thing that might not always be clear when we regard Christ’s
words in this verse is the implication of a continuous relationship and conversation
with God that implicit in these instructions.
In the midst of our keep on asking, and seeking, and knocking, we should realize that we should also be
listening and looking for where God wants us to go.
Do we just keep hammering away at a door that won’t open? We could
and maybe we should, if we really believe that what we are asking for is the Lord’s
will.
But in our walk of faith we have to remember that we don’t know
everything and what we may think is best may not be.
But I encourage you to be persistent because sometimes the door
will open when we least expect it.
However, in my faith walk I can testify to persistently praying
for certain situations that did not change, the door remained shut and in retrospect,
I thank God that didn’t open!
God knows best.
But here’s the deal, because He knows best we need to keep asking,
seeking, and knocking in terms of following Him and praying to Him, no matter
what. He will direct our paths and He will give us the good things we ask for
if it is in His will and part of the joy of walking with God is discovering
just what those good things are and when those good things will come.
In truth, in our salvation, we have already received all we will
ever need. So what we get to experience through the rest of our lives is just a
bonus. SO be faithful to follow, and keep asking, seeking, and knocking to
discover what the Lord has in store for you.
______________________________________________________________________
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold’s
“Powers of Darkness”
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and
encourage all to purchase Clinton Arnold’s books for your own private
study and to support his work. This resource is available on many
websites for less than $20.00.
The Modern Understanding of Myth
According
to contemporary academic studies of religion, however, the primary function of
the term myth is not to pass judgment
on the factuality of an event or the metaphysical reality of a spirit. Myth has
a vital role to play in society by giving an account of its sacred origins. “It
reports realities and events from the origin of the world that remain valid for
the basis and purpose of all there is. Consequently, a myth functions as a
model for human activity, society, wisdom, and knowledge.” As Paul Ricoeur
points out, myth is distinct from history in that it narrates the founding
events that occur before time.8
According to this
modern definition of myth, every society has a narrative of its origins, that
is, a cosmogonic myth. For most people in the West the myths of evolutionism
and materialism have replaced the creation story of Genesis. As people relate
the experiences of their own time to their understanding of their origins, the
myth becomes the basis for explaining present experience. For instance, a
Western physician may diagnose someone suffering a severe stomach illness as
having a virus, whereas a Zande tribesman would suspect an evil spirit World
view is thus closely tied to myth. Belief in evil spirits is necessarily linked
to one’s understanding of the origins of existence.
The apostle Paul
revealed his own indebtedness to the Old Testament account of creation. His
conversion to Christ did not force a paradigm shift to an entirely new
mythology, but caused him to rethink his Jewish heritage in terms of the person
of Jesus Christ. Fundamental to Pauline theology is his description of Christ
in terms of the “new Adam.” What is difficult for us to know is the extent to
which Paul subscribed to the various Jewish interpretations of the Genesis account
(for example, were demons the offspring of the cohabitation of angels and
women?—see Gen 6:1–4). Paul is not enamored with such speculation. The fact of
their existence and hostility to the church was what occupied his attention.
Those who hold to the
modern understanding of myth do not want to demythologize the New Testament (as
Bultmann advocated). Rather, they emphasize the importance of discerning the
role and function of a given myth in its social setting.
From Projections to
Collective Unconscious: Jung and Wink
In
his scientific exploration of the unconscious, psychologist Sigmund Freud came
to the conclusion that the devil was nothing more than the expression of
individual repressions, that is, projections. His associate Carl Jung agreed
with him but took the mythological element of religion more seriously than
Freud. Jung did not come to the point of accepting the metaphysical reality of
the powers, but he did see religious myths involving evil spirits as powerful
psychological realities that should not be discarded. His concept of the
“Shadow”—the negative side of personality—comes close to the idea of an evil
power. The Shadow could also be understood collectively. A group or social
order could manifest a collective personality characterized by evil, such as
racism, exploitation and violence.10
In his recently
published studies on the language of power in the New Testament, Walter Wink
adopted this Jungian framework for interpreting the powers of darkness. He
interprets demons and evil spirits as the psychic or spiritual power (“the
inner essence”) of an individual, organization, society or government. (Because
of the significance of his work, I will give a focused assessment of it in
chapter fifteen.)
The Inadequacy of
“Myth” to Explain Evil Spirits
Building
on the modern understanding of myth, Wolfhart Pannenberg contends that one
needs to make a necessary distinction between world view and myth. He argues
that belief in demons by people in the New Testament era was part of their
world view, but it should not be identified as specifically mythical. Arguing
against Bultmann, Pannenberg contends that belief in demons (indeed, also, the
understanding of the Christ event) is tied neither to Jewish apocalyptic nor to
a Gnostic redeemer-myth. He rightly observes that scholarship subsequent to
Bultmann has thoroughly discredited Bultmann’s idea of a Gnostic redeemer-myth
influencing Christianity. He also argues that eschatological themes in the New
Testament that correspond to Jewish apocalyptic must not necessarily be
regarded as mythical. Pannenberg’s comments are made in the context of
advancing a nonmythological understanding of the Christ event. The historical
work of Jesus, according to Pannenberg, was not a tale derived from some other
primitive myth, but an actual event that came to function as a “new myth” for
the Christian church.
Pannenberg
effectively opens the door to the possibility that the supernatural realm may
directly reveal itself to people in some tangible way. He appropriately asks,
“Can the other-worldly make its reality known in any other way than by
manifesting itself within the world?” Endorsing Pannenberg’s approach, Anthony
Thiselton argues similarly that “belief about supernatural interventions in the
affairs of men … is not necessarily primitive or pre-scientific, as the
Enlightenment view of myth would imply.”15 Pannenberg notices that
every religious understanding of the world fundamentally accepts the idea of
divine intervention in the course of events. Consequently, it is possible to
hold to the real existence of evil spirits without necessitating recourse to
interpreting them as part of a larger mythical drama (whether of the creation
of the world or of the end of the world).
This seems to provide
a very helpful perspective on the ancient (and contemporary) understanding of
evil spirits. While Paul may have been working from a specific cosmogonical
myth (a story of origins), the details of the myth were neither obvious in his
writings nor did they appear to be important to Paul. He evinced concern only
about the fact of hostile supernatural interventions in the daily affairs of
Christians.
In a similar way it
is difficult (if not impossible) to piece together any mythical drama standing
behind the numerous Hellenistic magical texts. For those who used these texts,
it was the common assumption that extradimensional beings existed and that they
could be controlled. Magic was then concerned with learning how to manipulate
these spirit-beings either for personal good or for someone else’s misfortune.
We are now back to
the question of world view. Can we accept a world view that believes in the
metaphysical reality of spirits, demons and angels?[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
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These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your
progress, and to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 173–176.
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