I have family visiting later
in the month and in planning the menu I’m going to make it as easy on myself as
I can. Rather than trying to find out what they need, or would like to eat, I
plan on having dishes I can prepare ahead of time, that will serve well in a
buffet line, and that will store well if there are leftovers. Jesus told Peter,
as well as all leaders in the church, that their responsibility is to “feed my
sheep.” On occasions I’ve visited churches where the food being served to the
flock is convenience food, not the spiritual food that is needed, “These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating
with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They
are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit
and uprooted—twice dead” (Jude 12 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Man was made in the image of God. Maybe that has something to do with the shape of our bodies. But it has more to do with a spiritual reality. The same eighteenth century philosophers and scientists who laid out the fundamental ideas incorporated into our once great country of people were also the earliest to consider and study the human psyche. Their principle observation, that man is a social being who observes carefully the reactions of others to his own doings for the purpose of making aligning adjustments, has been an accepted underpinning of psychology ever since. It is called the looking-glass principle. And through it an individual reflects the culture of his community.
-----Nothing is monolithic. Nothing is completely good or completely bad. The New Testament calls us to imitate those who follow the Lord well; it calls them to be good examples. And well that should be, for to do well in following the Lord is to do well in dying to the self, putting the Lord on in its place, growing from one degree of glory to the next into the likeness of the Lord.
-----Now isn’t that interesting? We were created in God’s image. For a very short time we (Adam and Eve) lived God’s image. Then the Fall. Then centuries of rebellion. Then darkness of mind. And, oh my, reflection does not happen well in the dark.
-----Then centuries of an ever present remnant began twinkling in the dark like lonely little candles. What makes their lights shine? Who are they reflecting? What is this image of God in which we are made?
-----Jesus is the working hand of God. He came into this world reflecting His Father in the works of His hands and the words of His heart. And He was and is and will be our God for us to also reflect. And God’s Spirit moved the minds of those who grew in Jesus’ tutelage to call Him the Truth.
-----Truth is a very, very basic concept to all things. Currently, truth has a not quite parallel concept: deceit. We can gain much appreciation of each by beholding their oppositeness. Truth requires two things to exist: something that is what it is plus a mind to reflect what that something is. Truth is the mind’s precise reflection of what is, an image of what is. Deceit is anything other than that. Anything other. Anything. With God, there is not even a hint of deceit. He is completely true. Man reflects too much other.
-----So, man was made in the image of God, but it is a falsehood that man thus automatically is yet the image of God. Man is really become more the image of not God. Man is reflecting each other like a lost boy in a house of a million mirrors. Being all he can see, he thinks it quite natural. But God, who can see the whole fun park isn’t laughing. He will soon crush the mirrors.
-----The truth is all around us for reflecting. Yet, it is difficult to find because it little attended in man’s mad rush to be the first to reflect the most popular. Evolution, the most popular, has no proof. In fact, there are several known phenomena which completely controvert it. Yet all those who do not put their knees in the dust to lick the dirt of evolution’s boots get deliberately, publicly shamed by the watchers over the boot lickers. Far too many preachers have feared those watchers more than they have feared God’s Word, and thus have not much of His image left to behold. The sermons reflect their condition.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment