As Jesus hung on the cross bystanders
mistakenly thought he was calling for Elijah. After giving Jesus a sponge
filled with wine vinegar those standing around said, “Now leave him alone.
Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him” (Matt 27:49 NIV). In a similar sense believers
can feel the pressure of the cross when non-believing bystanders disparage our
faith and smirk, “Let’s see if Jesus comes to save them.”
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Continuums are useful tools for understanding concepts. We’ve all seen gray-scale continuums; they start with white at one end adding a slight shade of gray with each step until they end with black on the other end. When I say we’re like sandwiches, I refer to a continuum. On one side is the purely material. A step away is the purely mental. A step beyond that is the purely spiritual. That is like white, gray, black. But like the gray-scale can be shown in much finer degrees of variation, so can the sandwich. Although consciousness seems separate from the material body, it is not. It arises from the multitudinous interactions of countless neural networks cueing each other’s firing in what’s come to be scripted patterns forming interacting senses which emerge as the thoughts, perceptions, and feelings of consciousness. Mind can express itself completely within, such as quiet contemplation and inward prayer. Or it can express vocally, or in writing, or art, or even as we unfortunately have to behold occasionally, as vandalism, and riots. Every movement of the body is an expression from the mind. And between the mind and spirit is also a continuum, an interacting mixer of mind and spirit to varying degrees, any attempted description of which is too complicated for these limited words.
-----Those who are saved by Jesus have eyes to see and understand the things of this continuum. Those who are not see only the material of the world. The rest of existence, to them, is the confusion and chaos of a billion blind guesses. The saved mind begins to form order of both its physical and spiritual environments, and to act out of that order, which forms more order in both its ongoing perceptions and the processes by which those perceptions form. The lost call this “subjectivity“. The saved despair in their hearts over the blindness of the lost, without which they could avoid the eternal torment of Hell. Occasionally the truth of such torture breaks through the veil of deceit thrown up against such by the lost. The saved have always the bucket of cool, living water to throw upon any fear of despair. The lost don’t know what they’re talking about. The saved do.
-----And those are just some simple, significant ways that Jesus has saved. Time hides more ways. So does the complexity of the array of circumstances our events wander through. Tragedy strikes today, out of which more tragedy follows tomorrow. The lost may even bear up escalating loads of doom until they reach a little oasis of circumstances, or fall into their grave. Whatever will be is just a part of the chaotic jumble for them. But the same escalating destruction to the saved is always meaningful to their good. For on the other end of all events is either the Lord God’s express or permissive will guiding the believer’s life through life’s array of circumstances for, at the very least, treasure of wisdom and perception of truth. The fool cannot see this escalating order within the soul of the believer. And like a gnat stuck on a speeding car’s windshield, the fool will never escape the multitudinous, chaotic expressions of the physical end of existence’s continuum. For his spirit in the spiritual end is locked up in solitary confinement, to where his consciousness will also go in death (outer darkness.) But everything happening to the believer can be received as glorious and wonderful no matter how tragic, for at the other end of his continuum the Holy Spirit animates his spirit with life and fellowship and the endless horizons of infinite forevers yet to be experienced. The fool has not a clue of just how saved the believer is even when he’s got his butt in a sling.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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