Christmas impermanence

We did it.  We shopped, cooked, pressed through traffic, went to a service, socialized; we Christmassed.  Now it is boxing day in a land without boxing day.  It's just the day after Christmas and a week before New Year.  Anicca (impermanence) is a teaching easily accessed on a day like this, and yes, it can lead to oppressive clouds of dukkha.

In Christian work there are missions and their are ministries.  Ministries are open ended, ongoing service efforts.  Missions are objective defined, an accomplishment to strive for.  The Christmas holiday time functions like a mission, but life is more of a ministry.  Today I want to find a mission to pursue, if for nothing else to elevate faith in something better than the present existing safely, even if it's harbor is beyond the next hill.  I don't want to be forced to feel that the mix of good and bad around me is more or less all there is.  I need to believe that the limitations of the good of the day and the impositions of the troubles of the day are what is temporary, and that a future reckoning will show a boon of goodness.

Pulling back to the broadest view, one of eschatological completion and grandeur, delivers that idea, but it is so difficult to access with feeling in tow.  Shorter cycles of deliverance through exodus and entrance in to abundance through conquering and holding are needed.  I need a mission, even if that mission is to get to where ministry ebbs and flows in unashamed contentment.

achieving

Easy answer: I want ETERNAL achievements, not temporal ones.

Actual answer: What was the question??

I have to figure out my AT&T bill.  Don't want to start the debate till i get my facts straight.  Can't figure out the facts.  Should just talk to them directly.  But I don't want to start the debate till i get my facts straight.

etc.

Should I want eternal achievements or temporal ones?  Yeah, I figured that was the question.  The problem is that I live in the temporal world and am squeezed by it.  How to I abide in the eternal while actually abiding in a temporal mind, body and context??

QT is one answer.  Old spiritual disciplines is a slightly deeper answer.  But the fundamental challenge is using temporal dynamics to direct oneself to trans-temporal ideals.  Hungry, fidgeting, perceiving, wondering and wandering.    The naturalistic identity is rather loud.  Sometimes hard to find the the transcendent identity.  Quite the fight, actually.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."  (I wonder how hard it was??)

Choosing Church - from Colossians

What is church?  Colossians 1:2

What is the goal of church? 1:9-10 (onto 1:13) and restated in verse 28.

What should church NOT be about?  Colossians 2:16-23

What should church be about?  Colossians 3:1-17

What is church?  Colossians 1:2 

brothers and sisters = a family whose common relative is the Messiah of God

What is the goal of church? 1:9-10 (onto 1:13) and restated in verse 28.

The goal of church is to be increasing wise in relating to God and life such that we live well, with gratitude, as we grow up more and more.

What should church NOT be about?  Colossians 2:16-23

Church should not be about rules, including what you consume or when you have 'services'.  It is also not about following a guru.  Lot's of that kind of stuff seems spiritual, but doesn't work.  ('Work' refers back to the goal of the church, to grow in wise and grateful living in God's world.

What should church be about?  Colossians 3:1-17

treasuring - Christ as your real life and hope [3:1-4]

put off - Dead and dirty ways of the world [3:5-11]

put on  - Love in all its characteristics [3:10-14]

live out - Gratitude in community [3:15-17]

The rest of the book describes what that looks like.  The Story of Christ and his church (Colossians 1:15-23) is displayed in relationships.  Colossians 3:18 and following describe how people should relate to one another, including a list of personal names Paul and others are actually working with to see this happen.

church is about the messiah of God forming a family that works toward God's ways in a world that doesn't.  

So what makes a church a good one?  What is necessary?  What is optional?  How is your church doing?  What part are you playing in that?

moving forward into the fog

The #1 concept rattling about for me right now is life with limited knowledge.  Delusion (a huge fear of mine; partly because I dislike being around delusional people and don't want to become one) is overconfidence in regard to knowledge.  Delinquency, the danger of anti-delusion, is my other big fear.  Somewhere between over-zealous belief and the dropout pattern from despair is the realm of 'ought-ness'; the course of action based on information as best as can be discerned at the time.  That is what I have to get more comfortable with.

So does that mean grading knowledge?  I believe this is true at a level A, that at a level C... etc?  Or is it all more fluid than that?  Too fluid pools in pointlessness, too resolutely confident snaps under the weight of inconsiderate circumstances and other intrusions of reality.
Internalized Kung Fu metaphors.  That's the answer.  OK, on with the day! (nothing like the power of limited insight!!) No time to explain, must act on limited knowledge.

Developing the doctrine of limited knowledge

 Daniel 12, Daniel did not understand.  Job didn't.  Angels don't.  Paul says we look through a rough mirror.  We don't see it all.  Our knowledge is limited.  Being clear on muddledness is a good idea.

Because how I ever got to you, I have no idea
It's like some secret door, well, it just appeared
So, no matter what I do from now on with my time
You will always stay here in my mind
I am certain of this and I am not certain of anything

So I want to get myself attached to something bolted down
So that these winds of circumstance won't keep blowing me around
To when I land to when I leave there is enough time to sleep and sing
I keep running when all I want is to lay motionless   ~ Bright Eyes: Motion Sickness

daniel 7 swirls

(no time set aside to edit.  just writing for me, but open to others if they want)


I think in swirls.  Maybe that's not so uncommon.  I don't know, I can't focus long enough to sort it out.


Daniel 7 is a swirl.  So... maybe I don't need to start with trying to sort it out.  Maybe I should listen to odd music, read it, swirl with it, and see what odd clarity comes of it all.  (ok, that's what I'm already doing, but i tortuously interact with my perception of the "normal" world with misgiving, self-doubt, and efforts of justification)  nuff said.


Sufjan: Transfiguration (music i'm listening to while writing)
Daniel goes to sleep in his Babylonian bed.  I wonder what language he dreams in?  Hebrew?  Chaldean?  Does he have scrolls from Moses, others?  Who does he eat dinner with.  Do they make him laugh?  Annoy him with pedantic speculation about the next shift in Babylonian politics?  Does he try to track what was going on in Egypt?  (I try to, but I can't focus, I just get bits which are now on standby for a sudden synaptical connection which has the illusion of careful study and organized problem solving).  Daniel dreams.  It freaks him out; bad.


4 winds of heaven... blowing over the seas... the Ruach over the Waters.... Genesis 1???  
scary weird ramps up... beasts...
Lion, like Judah?, no, with wings, but they get plucked, all 4 of them (why 4???) and the lion is raised to stand, like a man, then given the mind/heart of man...  Man formed from a noble beast?  What's going on????


(i hit replay on Sufjan Stevens THE TRANSFIGURATION - in the cloud, Son of Man/Son of God... swirling)


New beast.  A bear. ((now I remember mumble rumors of a "bear and an eagle in revelations..." from hanging out under the street light on willingham with teen efforts at our own daoistic mysteries of youthful meaning, power, mysteries, insight... significance... secrets))
But the bear is also tagged with a weird number here, not 4 wings, but 3 ribs (tusks?) hanging out of the mouth, mandated to buffet on flesh.  (Why 3???)


Next beast.  Leopard. 4 wings. 4 heads. dominion.  (#s??)

4th beast is scary and strong (iron teeth and stamping feet) DIFFERENT and 10 horns

10 horns, another one, 3 uprooted.

Eyes of man and big mouthed

Thrones, Ancient of days, white with mobile fire throne

Massive crowd of servants before the fire streaming Ancient. 

Court to judge according to books

Attn pulled to big mouth horn.  Beast killed and burned with fire.

Other beasts lost dominion, but still alive for a while

W/ clouds 'son of man' to Ancient

He gets domion, glorious rule over everyone forever, no end

Daniel: uhhhh, what is all this (to one who stood there)

Ok

4 beasts = 4 earthly kingdoms

Saints of Most High rcv Kingdomthat lasts

Ok so #4?

10 horns?

Other horn?  Big mouth big shot?

Looked =

Horn warred with saints and was on top

But then, Ancient judged for saints

Saints then get kingdom

4th kingdom is unique, global, and destructive.

10 horns = 10 kings. + 1 (unique)

downs 3 kings

Anti-Most High words

Wears out saints (for t t's, part t)

BUT - court judges

Dominion removed, consumed, destroyed to the end (telous in LXX)

All Kingdom dominion summed up as "under the whole heaven"  given to

Snts. Of Most HIGH - doesn't end and rules over subsets (all 'dominions' will serve and obey them)

Conclusion?  I was FREAKED OUT, inside and out, but… I kept it to myself.

And for me???  I couldn't keep up with the swirling.  Skype started percolating with work reminders...  Makes me think the cycle of thinking and speaking is way too short.  Dip, speak, dip, speak... not enough plunging.  Wonder how that would work, what it would do?  What boundaries to employ, or not?  Don't want to end up hanging from a street light in Ca., nor sitting in a cubicle, but what is the middle way (that allows for aft. snacks and non-orange)?

What do I think I think?  I think Daniel was probably stressing from a series of Babylonian regime shifts, and his VISION of Israel, in exile, then returning, had a John the Baptist unsettledness (or at least the temptation for it). Am I really living the Story I think I'm living?  Are we here for 70 years, and then back on course, or am I delusional.  The world really is just mean and shallow and void of transcendent meaning and purpose.  

I'm convinced those feelings, whether thought in useful words or not, happen to almost everyone (suppose there might be exceptions).  The pull to coherence, order, clarity is one pole, the pull to spontaneous, incidental, random, self-sufficient experiential surges (a.k.a meaninglessness) is the other pole.  

So Daniel has a dream with details.  He thinks it must mean something.  Then he has another vision, one with him right in the middle of things, seeing COURT set up with God as an old man with fire.  He is told that th3 4 beasts are 4 kingdoms, and i wonder if he thinks of this more or less like the '4 corners of heaven', as in, all summed (not 1, 2, 3, 4 as much as each and every all together).  But, there is a massive focus on a last one who is extra scary and global and is summed up by us vs. them.  Pole 1 vs. Pole 2.  The Transcendent, GOD pole is the true and victorious one, so, don't get sucked over to the despairing side.  

In other words, life is really confusing, and it is tempting to think God is not over the world, but a bit of nonsense as a subset of human existence, but don't believe those words, God is over the world and being faithful is the way forward (but not easy).  That is what I experience when I swirl with Daniel this Wednesday morning.

Now I need to get to a 'to do' list.  

another review of Daniel 1-7

Our goal is to learn from the book of Daniel directly.  Cross referencing later…

The outline I’m suggesting:

Chapter 1, (in Hebrew), tells how the people of God ended up in Babylon.  It also gives an intro into the main idea, standing with God, even when in the ‘world/babylon’, by trusting on God’s intervention, primarily in the form of revelation, but also in intervention.

The ARAMAIC “world language” section of 2/3/4 5\6\7

Chapter 2 has a worldly king dream about kingdoms, and then God’s man interprets the dream and says God is sovereign over nations and will rule.

  Chapter 3 has a showdown between the world and God’s faithful.  God saves and the world is told that God saves.

      Chapter 4 has a worldly king proud and then humbled, while God and his faithful are vindicated

      Chapter 5 has a worldly king proud and then humbled, while God and his faithful are vindicated

   Chapter 6 has a showdown between the world and God’s faithful.  God saves and the world is told that God saves

Chapter 7 has God’s man dream about Kingdoms, and then God’s messenger interprets the dream and says God is sovereign over nations and will rule

2&7 = It looks like the worldly ways rule, but they ultimately don’t

3&6 = being faithful to God clashes with the world, but being faithful creates a testimony to others

4&5 = arrogant worldliness will be humbled and God’s faithful will be vindicated

Application so far?

As you get more and more information about how complex and harsh the world can be, don’t be surprised to see lots of evidence for reality to be about power and worldliness.  Instead of giving into that, resolve to be faithful to God, even in small matters, and ready to suffer for going against the world and for God.  God can and will be glorified through taking a stand, and ultimately there will be judgment for worldly wrong and vindication for being faithful.

Daniel’s Aramaic Message- don’t be fooled by worldly power, God is greater

Chapter 1 Introduces the Hebrew plight.

Chapter 2 (v 4) begins the Aramaic section, going through chapter 7

Chapters 2/3/4-5\6\7 are in the broader language of the ancient world (Aramaic) and have a basic message highlighted by the structure of this section.

2 – Dream about kingdoms shows that God is sovereign and gives revelation

   3 – idolatry vs. God ends in salvation for those who trust God, and broad proclamation 

      4 – Ruler testifies that he was crazy not to follow the true God

      5 – Ruler shows that it was crazy to mock the true God

   6 – idolatry vs. God ends in salvation for the one who trusts God, and broad proclamation

7 – Dream about kingdoms shows that God is sovereign and gives revelation

So, in the broadly used language, this is the message people might get:

God is sovereign over history and gives revelation through his prophets.

Trusting God, even when it seems dangerous, is the way to salvation; everyone should hear this.

Some of the most powerful people in the world have made the mistake of not heeding this.  Unless they repented, it ended very badly for them.

When we move on to Daniel 8-12, we need to keep the basic message of in mind (God’s Kingdom is greater than worldly kingdoms).  Likewise, that is why we read the gospels with Jesus talking about the Kingdom of God over 100 times.  The gospel/good news proclamation is that God is the ruler and he is revealed in Christ.   Trusting in Christ is bowing to the true King as our rescuer (savior) who is Sovereign (lord).  We then actively seek to trust God over circumstances, even when it looks very dangerous to do so. This tends to lead to the news spreading, that God is great, and that ignoring or rejecting God is much more dangerous.

5 Columns as Catechism

The 5 columns are a graphic showing Creation, Separation, Redemption, Transformation, Completion.  I will be working on it over the next few months as part of my work, hoping to share it with experienced Christian workers and new believers from various groups of people in Asia with very few in their language who are also believers.

The goal will be to have a simple organizing view of the Christian explanation of the human response to good and bad in light of Christ's plan.  (I'm sure I will edit that sentence, a lot).

This is not primarily an evangelism tool.  It is more an early discipleship too.  However, many early discipleship tools can be used for 'ev' if there is enough dialogue going on with someone who isn't sure what believing would entail.  Part of the reason is that the symbols require a willingness to 'see' them.  They are not self-evident and compellingly clear.
crown = God as sovereign
heart = human, created in God's image to give and receive appropriate love with him and people
globe = creation, the world, physical and spiritual (angels, demons, etc), on this planet and beyond (cosmos).

stacked in 1st column

1. crown
2. heart
3. globe

This shows the original order of God/man/everything else.  The point is man's purpose is to be God's representative to the rest of creation, under his authority in a loving relationship.  The aspect of our current experience which relates back to this '1st column' is the experience of 'goodness'; of 'oughtness'.  To phrase it more simply, and like a mini-catechism "Why do we experience good?"  "Because God is good and created a good world with a good role for us as people".

stacked in column 2

1. cloud with dotted outline of crown
2. globe is upside down
3. heart is upside down

cloud with dotted outline of crown = God is there, but not seen directly

globe is upside down = the world is now over man and not working like it should (sickness, death, storms, demonic, etc.)

heart is upside down = humanity has submitted to creation, specifically to rebellious spiritual powers, which results in love not working with one another as it should, and our desire to worship God blocked by creation, which explains why we are natural idolators.   

side by side in column 3

1. heart 

2. upside down heart under a cross

3. heart

The first heart shows the incarnation.  Jesus is the 2nd Adam, humanity as we were intended to be.

The upside down heart under the cross shows Jesus becoming sin for us, taking all of our column 2 failure as if it were his own and dying as a result; in judgment.

The final heart shows the vindication through resurrection.  Righteous Jesus  + sins of the world dying on the cross = resurrected Jesus.  His righteousness is greater than our condemnation.

Column 4

1. cloud with dotted outline of crown
2. globe is upside down
3. heart is upside right with a cross in it

The only differences between column 2 and 4 are the result of the cross on the heart.  Now the cross is turned toward love when it abides in the work of Christ on the cross.  This is meant to show a number of things to believers who are struggling with hard circumstances.

1. God is there, but we do NOT see him clearly as we would like.

2. The world was intended for good, but it is NOT working like it should.  People do get sick and die, spirits do bully, lie and manipulate; life is STILL hard after coming to faith in Christ.

3. We don't have to have our hearts upside down in subjection to creation.  We can be conformed to the image of Christ by resting in his work such that we put off worldly ways and put on Christ's ways.

Column 5

1. crown

2. heart with cross in it

3. globe

This is the final hope, the destination of life which is reconciled with God.  God is clearly seen because he is with us.  Humanity is restored in authority over creation (including spirits) and everything works the way it should.  No sickness, sadness, death remain (all the bad is judged in the transition from column 4 to 5).

How to use it?  For personal reference in processing.

1. processing experiences = good?  thank God for his good creation.  bad?  remember the consequences of leaving God's way for the way of idolatry (ruined the world and life).  choice?  good over bad, in Christ, in me/us, and eventually in all that remains.

2. processing scripture = notice in Scripture God's goodness and intended ways is column 1.  Notice the way of death (idolatry, spirit of Babylon, etc.); that is column 2.  Follow the plan of salvation, from the beginning of Genesis to the resurrection is column 3.  Transformation of someone who turned to God's grace and was changed is column 4 (even in Old Testament stories).  Column 5 is Hope revealed, including Psalm 67, 96 and anywhere the final state of restored completeness is described.

3. in choices.  

thank God for good.

take responsibility for being part of the problem (we all contribute to sin pollution) when we sadly face evil and suffering in a fallen world.  

pay attention to the sovereign plan of God unfolding in promises, events, and examples leading to Christ.  

humble ourselves under God by trusting in Christ and his ways. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  That grace is given to transform us to be more like Christ.

stay hopeful, even when things are dark and difficult.  Remember where things are headed, and don't be afraid to ask for miraculous glimpses into the final state in the form of miracles even now (healings, etc.).  Part of the discipleship process will include explaining miracles as 'column 5 signs and samples', not as any current pattern.  In other words, God does do amazing things, but the basic pattern of this world, even in the life of someone living a column 4 life, is hardship, suffering, and ultimately death.  Be real (and Biblical), but also be free to call upon God for exceptional provisions, particularly as signs to others of where the future is headed.

This is the general idea to be edited and practiced.

grumpy monday

Monday.  Should be grateful.  Alive and well and all that.  Hmmph. 
ok.... so I need to repent... to metanoia... to rethink.
Alive
well
all that...

ok. doing better.
Life is (including me in process) because ___________.
God is self-existent, and we are contingent... and our contingent reality includes epistemic angst... but there are promises and signs... and so there is hope.  So, there is good that is not an illusion, there is cause for gratitude that is wise, not just obligatory. 

ok.  ready for Monday.