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the-single-element · 6 months

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Good morning. And, by at least one definition, Happy New Year.

Yes, at last we have swung around to Advent, to a new liturgical year, to the season of preparation for Christmas. And yet, just as the Church calendar is usually drawn as a circle...

...the transition feels nearly seamless; at least judging by the weekly readings, it's difficult to tell anything's happened at all. Not only has last year's final topic - Jesus's second coming, and the Kingdom it will usher in - become this year's first one, but even the symbols are ones we've just heard Jesus invoke. The servants left in charge of the household, the master returning at a strange hour, and even Isaiah's song of the vineyard.

Except... something has changed, if subtly. Isaiah is no longer speaking like a prophet. No, his poetry in today's excerpt is written in another tone of voice: a plea, a prayer. Despite being written by the third Isaiah, whose audience was a people already returned to their land, he writes about God's return as something he longs for desperately.

Ssomehow, the shoe has gotten on the other foot. Somehow, instead of observing things from the outside, we're thrust into the middle of God's desolate vineyard, into those feelings of abandonment.

Maybe that's not so strange. Now that we've heard that Jesus will come back someday, that the Kingdom will be revealed and every tear wiped away... well, we have to face that it's been almost 2000 years since then, with no updates on the schedule. Maybe we'd be justified for feeling like the Jewish folks of Jesus's time, with their homeland once again conquered, with their Messiah long delayed.

But this is the characteristic feeling of Advent. Advent is a time of hunger. Advent is a time of noticing more keenly what we're missing, what we're wanting for, what we're longing for. Perhaps that’s true of this year even more than it would be of others, separated as we are from family and friends.

And Advent is also a time where we tend to pay more attention to what a mess our world is, what a mess our lives are. Not purely as a theological matter either. It's easier, in December, to notice that the kids who most need Santa are the kids he's least likely to be able to reach. It's easier, in winter, to notice the vast gulf between rich and poor.

You might say - ignoring God's omniscience for the moment, for the sake of the metaphor - that it would be a shame, if the master came back to the house today, and saw the mess it was in.

But that's the same prayer that Isaiah prays today, centuries before Jesus was born. "We know we've made a mess of things. We know we’ve made a mess of this relationship. So come help us! Don't you see how much we need you?"

And Jesus answers: "keep watch for me". Does Jesus mean the Second Coming? He's already told us, in Matthew's Good News, that his coming will be sudden, unexpected, and utterly unambiguous; literally keeping watch for it will do no good, because once it happens, everyone will find out at once. But staying awake, if only in shifts? Keeping at the work? That, we can do, like he cautioned the ten virgins, so that we don't have to rely on being saved by our sleepwalking. And we can actively watch out for him in another way, by looking for "the least of these"; even the righteous seem to often sleeptalk through those interactions, doing the right thing by sheer luck or muscle memory without even noticing that Jesus was there. That's the Jesus who's the most fruitful to keep watch for, although perhaps the hardest to actually spot in the moment.

Perhaps Peter the Correspondent was right, when he said that Jesus hasn't returned yet because he's waiting for a better world to return to. But if so, then Jesus has also given us the tools to improve things. He's been teaching them to us all year - the techniques and methods and knowledge needed to change our hearts, and thus our fruits, and thus our fates. The secrets of how to touch the Kingdom, how to drag ourselves into it and drag it into our world.

If we are hungry for it, if we're longing for Christmas - that is, Jesus's coming - then that's all the better. Let's harness that hunger, ride it, be energized by it. Hunger and longing are hard emotions, but they drive us to action, to get on with our journey towards what we long for.

Advent is a time of hunger, but that's why it's also a time of preparation.

So let's get on with it.

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lilacandladybugs · 3 years

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Hi, I'm grateful for your religion posts, I've always had a really strong relationship with God but in recent years I've just seen so many people hurt by Christianity and slowly become one of them myself (I've been closeted bi for more than two years, it's rough...). I feel out of place with people who've abandoned Christianity and out of place with people who are still fully committed, and I want to still love God but it's hard when religion burns me to think about most days. I'm sorry if this is putting things on you that you don't want to have to think about, but I just wanted you to know that it means a lot to me to see someone staying strong (and probably doing better at it than me)

Blessings 💙

Hello friend I’m glad I can be helpful! Yes I feel the same way, and I think until I’m fully healed I won’t have the energy or the patience to go back to a Bible study and walk them through how to be friends with people who are grieving, or traumatized, or lgbt, or otherwise different from them. So I’ve felt like I have all these thoughts I’ve developed over the years about who God is and what my identity is in him without having a place to talk about it but y’all’s asks give me a place to do that and not have to prove myself to people who have never grieved or ever been rejected by the church.

I’ve found a lot of solace in Isaiah 55 and in Job and Psalms, this post is getting long so I’ll make another with pictures, but just know I totally understand. There are books in the Bible for people like us though, the Bible was written for broken people, it’s a love letter to us man. And the Bible isn’t the only place where we can listen to God, he’s also all around us in nature, in our loved ones, in poetry, in music. I loved twenty one pilots and I have a few analyses I wrote at 17 about their music and how it was a cry asking God for help. “I don’t know where you are, you’ll have to come and find me, find me,” and Tyler screams it and I would just like scream it with him.

I guess though that’s all you need sometimes. In that drought that’s all you need is that desire to ask God to show himself to you, that “want to want to” do what he says, that wishing you wanted to know him that’s all we need really. And then God takes over, and he promised where his word goes it will not return to him empty.

I’m sure you know this anon but to anyone else reading this the main story of the Bible is that God created us to be in a perfect free will relationship with him, but we used our free will to reject him instead. Since God is the source of life, when we cut ourselves off from him, it kills us slowly like a flower cut off a bush. Anything that goes against God’s will is called sin in the Bible, and so sin is basically the thing that cuts us off of the flower bush, because the natural consequence for turning away from God is death. But God was unwilling to let that be the end of the story and he chose to die in our place so that if we choose we can reenter that perfect relationship with God. And he rose again from the grave, conquering death, that separation that was originally created by our rejection of him.

In 2018 when I was first really realizing that there are people who call themselves christians and are also abusive I really had trouble delineating like who God is and who the Church is, because they aren’t the same you know? Church is made up of human beings, God is perfectly loving and perfectly just.

And one of my friends was trans and financially independent and recovering from religious abuse, and I remember him coming to my family’s house and my family’s church and realizing that God wasn’t this cruel distant judgmental being, that he loves us.

Anyway when my friend realized this he started going to church on his own, and one day as he was listening to the song “Come to the Alter” he said God spoke to him and said, “Come to me and I will be your father and you will be my son.” Which was a really big deal to him because God was willing to fill that role that his abusive ‘Christian’ parents were unwilling to fill, to use his correct pronouns, to meet him where he was, to love him unconditionally, to be his father.

When I heard that I legit cried for like three days and I wrote this:

— Feb 26, 2018

I have been overwhelmed yesterday and today with the goodness and love of God I had so underestimated. I feel the need to protect my friends and self from people who might hurt them, who don’t believe depression exists or handle them cruelly, but I didn’t realize I associated these people and my own brokenness with God himself. But God is not cruel. He does not hurt people on accident he doesn’t condemn, he meets us where we are tenderly like the gentle rays of golden sunshine peeking through the window in the morning or water of a lake lapping gentle on a stone beach.

His love is so pure, so respectful, and yet so overwhelming. Lord how cautious you have chosen to be with me, as one taming a wild deer, and Lord how I didn’t know how starved I am for your love! Oh Lord how you love my people so deeply and purely to stare into its depths though the water is clear I cannot see the end of it!

Father how can I fathom you? I knew who you were with my mind when I asked for our lives but how you have acquainted my heart with you! And you hold on and say “Here I am love, you are safe.” How safe I am with you! You are my nest in the winter where I go when frightened. Your triumph is so great I can’t speak or understand and so I just laugh and cry in joy and relief that you are here. Why do I remain so heavy laden? I should come to you or in you is miraculous peace.

Never have I felt such joy as yesterday, even when (a friend) was released from the hospital my tears were as if I were grieving I could feel all of heaven rejoicing and singing.

Oh God how lovely you are! Stunning and perfect and kind.

Light reflected through ie and silvery breath on cold winters night just a whisper and a gorgeous sight.

Comparing the safety you bring to the love of humans is like comparing moisture to the ocean, a pebble to the rocky mountains, one note to a symphony.

I feel like I have seen for the first time, been loved for the first time, like Rapunzel escaping from her tower I look down and even what is as everyday as grass to you is a wonder to me.

Lord I don’t know what abusive things I’ve taken as normal, please introduce me to life as your child.

Thank you so much Dad

Thank you <3

-------

I love you anon, keep me posted and I’ll keep giving you a ton of unsolicited advice hahahaha. The only other thought I had was that you don’t have to push yourself to worship God in any particular way! God isn’t just in worship music or just in the Bible. (although the Bible is the ultimate source of truth) sometimes the Bible can hurt to read when you’re traumatized and that is okay, God will meet you where you are. The word of God is not bound!! He’s not limited by your trauma, he’s not weakened by it, he can still do what he needs to do, just listen.

sister i wish you the best of luck, may God be with you wherever you go

#religion #religion tw #christianity #christianity tw #eslyea #i love you anon #good luck #god loves you #god loves your friends

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biblestudysummer2018-blog · 6 years

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Introduction

I’m bad at introductions. I’m not sure who will read this, or that it is even really meant for anyone to read. I just wanted a place to easily document my experience as I explore my faith. Today I had an extremely lengthy conversation with God. It was the whole cliche “coming to Jesus” moment. Just, without Jesus. I have decided to devote my free time this summer to reading the Bible. I grew up in the Christian faith and as a child, I conversed with God frequently. However, as our generation seems to succumb to, as I faced hardships in high school and in my early adulthood, I gave up on God and my faith. Granted, I believed in some kind of universal force that kept humanity going. I believed in things such as Karma and Luck, and that they were controlled and dispersed by some universal force. This force connects all humans and has always been since before humanity and will continue to be long after we’re gone. Today, as I spoke with God, I began to think “why couldn’t God be this universal force?”. I am not sure I would title myself a Christian. However, I figured the best place to start in my religious exploration would be that which I grew up with and am surrounded by in my life- Christianity. I have never read the bible, only passages that various pastors would read from in their sermons. I have decided to read the entire Bible this summer. This blog will be a record of my explorations in the Christian faith. The bible I will be using is the NIV, ISBN: 973-0-310-62989-4. Notes on tabs: Red=The Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy), Orange= History (Joshua-Esther), Yellow=Poetry and Wisdom (Job-Song of Solomon), Green=The Prophets (Isaiah-Malachi), Blue=The Gospels (Matthew-John), Plum=The Letters (Acts-Revelations), Lavender=Utility Tabs

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dfroza · 7 years

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A common thread of rebirth

is interwoven throughout nature, and all of Creation itself. a most beautiful thing, considering the current state of this world and what has become of the sacred universal garden of earth.

and what we see in the nature of the Scriptures is a significant thing, to be sure. and just as tonight signifies the anniversary of the receiving of Torah “Anew” i believe it is important to see the revelation of grace in the rebirth of the heart, the eternal spirit inside. the New Covenant and its baptism.

and this metamorphosis seems to be reflected in Today’s chapters from the Bible, with my personal preference for several years now of reading a chapter from each Testament each day moving through the books in sequential ordering of the 66 contained within, with this day being Isaiah 26 and 2nd Thessalonians 1, from which is seen a picture of transformation and simultaneously Judgment, which will happen at some point. yet, the children of God should have no fear of this, save that of the reverential fear of God which is a healthy fear that forms humility.

and as it relates to seeds, in what seems the death of Winter at times, yet what is actually taking place is a state of resurrection, when things are made new, just like in Spring. and along these lines, a few years ago i typed a few lines about such in a plain & simple poem:

Book B

Chapter B [seeds]

1. (drop)

everything starts by a seed, drop a winter dream, death (or so it seems) life buried, underground wings

(january 16 : 2 grand-fourteen) dfroza

and for Today i thought i would include all of my chapters from the Scriptures so that if anyone may choose to read along with me, they may. because beyond a pair of chapters that i’ve tied Together in a way from each of the Testaments, i also read from the Psalms and Proverbs each day as well. with Today being Psalms 30, 72, and 150 for day 30 of the month, day 72 of the season, and day 150 of the year, to begin Anew tomorrow since the book concludes with number 150. and then following this set of “Songs” is Proverbs 30 for the day of the month, currently in may.

and i like how Psalm 30 was penned by David, and then 72 by his son Solomon. and to me, 72 is a number of significance because it is the alphabetic number of the word “marriage” when each letter of the word is added up as it corresponds to its position in the alphabet from 1 to 26 (from A to Z)

and a marriage proposal is the theme of the book of my heart and all of its letters with its engagement ring of instrumental music & poetry. something dear to me personally as a seed of genesis in befriending the heart of another, in the hope of paths crossing by an act of grace.

A pure Winter’s dream come True by turning the page to Spring (#2)

from Today’s reading that i did earlier from an actual book of paper pages, but then copied here on an illuminated screen to be shared:

(thank you for reading along, for however long you may be holding this gentle seed, to be…)

[Isaiah 26]

Stretch the Borders of Life

At that time, this song will be sung in the country of Judah: We have a strong city, Salvation City, built and fortified with salvation. Throw wide the gates so good and true people can enter. People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don’t quit. Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing. Those who lived high and mighty he knocked off their high horse. He used the city built on the hill as fill for the marshes. All the exploited and outcast peoples build their lives on the reclaimed land.

The path of right-living people is level. The Leveler evens the road for the right-living. We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you’ve done are all we’ll ever want. Through the night my soul longs for you. Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you. When your decisions are on public display, everyone learns how to live right. If the wicked are shown grace, they don’t seem to get it. In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living, blind to the splendor of God.

You hold your hand up high, God, but they don’t see it. Open their eyes to what you do, to see your zealous love for your people. Shame them. Light a fire under them. Get the attention of these enemies of yours. God, order a peaceful and whole life for us because everything we’ve done, you’ve done for us. O God, our God, we’ve had other masters rule us, but you’re the only Master we’ve ever known. The dead don’t talk, ghosts don’t walk, Because you’ve said, “Enough—that’s all for you,” and wiped them off the books. But the living you make larger than life. The more life you give, the more glory you display, and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!

O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble, when your discipline was so heavy they could barely whisper a prayer. Like a woman having a baby, writhing in distress, screaming her pain as the baby is being born, That’s how we were because of you, O God. We were pregnant full-term. We writhed in labor but bore no baby. We gave birth to wind. Nothing came of our labor. We produced nothing living. We couldn’t save the world.

But friends, your dead will live, your corpses will get to their feet. All you dead and buried, wake up! Sing! Your dew is morning dew catching the first rays of sun, The earth bursting with life, giving birth to the dead.

Come, my people, go home and shut yourselves in. Go into seclusion for a while until the punishing wrath is past, Because God is sure to come from his place to punish the wrong of the people on earth. Earth itself will point out the bloodstains; it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.

The Scroll of Isaiah, Chapter 26 (The Message)

[2nd Thessalonians 1]

I, Paul, together with Silas and Timothy, greet the church of the Thessalonian Christians in the name of God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ. Our God gives you everything you need, makes you everything you’re to be.

Justice Is on the Way

You need to know, friends, that thanking God over and over for you is not only a pleasure; it’s a must. We have to do it. Your faith is growing phenomenally; your love for each other is developing wonderfully. Why, it’s only right that we give thanks. We’re so proud of you; you’re so steady and determined in your faith despite all the hard times that have come down on you. We tell everyone we meet in the churches all about you.

All this trouble is a clear sign that God has decided to make you fit for the kingdom. You’re suffering now, but justice is on the way. When the Master Jesus appears out of heaven in a blaze of fire with his strong angels, he’ll even up the score by settling accounts with those who gave you such a bad time. His coming will be the break we’ve been waiting for. Those who refuse to know God and refuse to obey the Message will pay for what they’ve done. Eternal exile from the presence of the Master and his splendid power is their sentence. But on that very same day when he comes, he will be exalted by his followers and celebrated by all who believe—and all because you believed what we told you.

Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jesus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus Christ, giving himself freely.

The Letter of 2nd Thessalonians, Chapter 1 (The Message)

[Psalm 30]

A David Psalm

I give you all the credit, God— you got me out of that mess, you didn’t let my foes gloat.

God, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together. God, you pulled me out of the grave, gave me another chance at life when I was down-and-out.

All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God! Thank him to his face! He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime there is only love. The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter.

When things were going great I crowed, “I’ve got it made. I’m God’s favorite. He made me king of the mountain.” Then you looked the other way and I fell to pieces.

I called out to you, God; I laid my case before you: “Can you sell me for a profit when I’m dead? auction me off at a cemetery yard sale? When I’m ‘dust to dust’ my songs and stories of you won’t sell. So listen! and be kind! Help me out of this!”

You did it: you changed wild lament into whirling dance; You ripped off my black mourning band and decked me with wildflowers. I’m about to burst with song; I can’t keep quiet about you. God, my God, I can’t thank you enough.

The Book of Psalms, Song 30 (The Message)

[Psalm 72]

A Solomon Psalm

Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God, the gift of just rule to the crown prince. May he judge your people rightly, be honorable to your meek and lowly. Let the mountains give exuberant witness; shape the hills with the contours of right living. Please stand up for the poor, help the children of the needy, come down hard on the cruel tyrants. Outlast the sun, outlive the moon— age after age after age. Be rainfall on cut grass, earth-refreshing rain showers. Let righteousness burst into blossom and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing. Rule from sea to sea, from the River to the Rim.

Foes will fall on their knees before God, his enemies lick the dust. Kings remote and legendary will pay homage, kings rich and resplendent will turn over their wealth. All kings will fall down and worship, and godless nations sign up to serve him, Because he rescues the poor at the first sign of need, the destitute who have run out of luck. He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out, he restores the wretched of the earth. He frees them from tyranny and torture— when they bleed, he bleeds; when they die, he dies.

And live! Oh, let him live! Deck him out in Sheba gold. Offer prayers unceasing to him, bless him from morning to night. Fields of golden grain in the land, cresting the mountains in wild exuberance, Cornucopias of praise, praises springing from the city like grass from the earth. May he never be forgotten, his fame shine on like sunshine. May all godless people enter his circle of blessing and bless the One who blessed them.

Blessed God, Israel’s God, the one and only wonder-working God! Blessed always his blazing glory! All earth brims with his glory. Yes and Yes and Yes.

The Book of Psalms, Song 72 (The Message)

[Psalm 150]

Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies; Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness; Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings; Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute; Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin. Let every living, breathing creature praise God! Hallelujah!

The Book of Psalms, Song 150 (The Message)

[Proverbs 30]

The Words of Agur Ben Yakeh

God? Who Needs Him?

The skeptic swore, “There is no God! No God!—I can do anything I want! I’m more animal than human; so-called human intelligence escapes me.

“I flunked ‘wisdom.’ I see no evidence of a holy God. Has anyone ever seen Anyone climb into Heaven and take charge? grab the winds and control them? gather the rains in his bucket? stake out the ends of the earth? Just tell me his name, tell me the names of his sons. Come on now—tell me!”

The believer replied, “Every promise of God proves true; he protects everyone who runs to him for help. So don’t second-guess him; he might take you to task and show up your lies.”

And then he prayed, “God, I’m asking for two things before I die; don’t refuse me— Banish lies from my lips and liars from my presence. Give me enough food to live on, neither too much nor too little. If I’m too full, I might get independent, saying, ‘God? Who needs him?’ If I’m poor, I might steal and dishonor the name of my God.”

Don’t blow the whistle on your fellow workers behind their backs; They’ll accuse you of being underhanded, and then you’ll be the guilty one!

Don’t curse your father or fail to bless your mother.

Don’t imagine yourself to be quite presentable when you haven’t had a bath in weeks.

Don’t be stuck-up and think you’re better than everyone else.

Don’t be greedy, merciless and cruel as wolves, Tearing into the poor and feasting on them, shredding the needy to pieces only to discard them.

A leech has twin daughters named “Gimme” and “Gimme more.”

Four Insatiables

Three things are never satisfied, no, there are four that never say, “That’s enough, thank you!”— hell, a barren womb, a parched land, a forest fire.

An eye that disdains a father and despises a mother— that eye will be plucked out by wild vultures and consumed by young eagles.

Four Mysteries

Three things amaze me, no, four things I’ll never understand— how an eagle flies so high in the sky, how a snake glides over a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, why adolescents act the way they do.

Here’s how a prostitute operates: she has sex with her client, Takes a bath, then asks, “Who’s next?”

Four Intolerables

Three things are too much for even the earth to bear, yes, four things shake its foundations— when the janitor becomes the boss, when a fool gets rich, when a whore is voted “woman of the year,” when a “girlfriend” replaces a faithful wife.

Four Small Wonders

There are four small creatures, wisest of the wise they are— ants—frail as they are, get plenty of food in for the winter; marmots—vulnerable as they are, manage to arrange for rock-solid homes; locusts—leaderless insects, yet they strip the field like an army regiment; lizards—easy enough to catch, but they sneak past vigilant palace guards.

Four Dignitaries

There are three solemn dignitaries, four that are impressive in their bearing— a lion, king of the beasts, deferring to none; a rooster, proud and strutting; a billy goat; a head of state in stately procession.

If you’re dumb enough to call attention to yourself by offending people and making rude gestures, Don’t be surprised if someone bloodies your nose. Churned milk turns into butter; riled emotions turn into fist fights.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 30 (The Message)

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