Breakthough series 2: God is my rock

Prayer 4: Cross the line

The French connection

In the movie, “Now you see me”, the actors are at pains to remind us that illusionism is about keeping your mind focused there while they do their thing here. It is about distraction.

I might add that the modern illusionist has taken such deception to unprecedented levels, to make planes or bridges disappear, while others walk on water or drive coins through glass.

During the French revolution, the illusionists were never seen. They used a stage hand, Robespierre, to do out there what detracted from what the puppet masters did over here. 

When they had had enough of Mr R, his head rolled as well.

The righteous state

Through the years I often heard somewhat naïve statements about how the world would only be a better place if it had a Christian government. That is unrealistic. In time yes, not now.

It led me to a controversial question: “Could our world or our society carry on indefinitely, if it functioned righteously?” 

No, I am not saying, “if it was Christian”. Our lessons of Jewish and church history disqualify the viability of a theocratic state, per se. Frankly the church needs to get its own house in order.

Thus to argue that only a Christian state is workable is as wrong as saying that any theocratic state would work and endure, which history invalidates. Besides, theocratic states, as in say the Sharia model, tend to be intolerant and repressive, rarely righteous. However, the secular state of Islamic Turkey has historically proven to a moral beacon in our world.

Its all in the mind - or not

I believe Depression is fully treatable, not with chemicals, but with sound application of biblical truth. I believe many psychosomatic or autoimmune disorders are as treatable. I believe we can enjoy more vibrant, fulfilled lives. I believe we can truly experience the power of the cross.

There I have said it. Take me apart if you must, but hear me first.

A friend today reminded me of a book written by Spurgeon, somewhere as far back as the 40’s and 50’s, in which he highlighted a disturbing rise in extra-biblical teachings.

Reality perceived

When Michelangelo finished carving his marble statue of Moses, legend claims that the sculpture was so real that he willed it to speak out. Legend also claims that he got so frustrated that he threw a chisel at it and nicked the knee of the great man. Well his knee has a nick, but it seems that vandals did the dirty on him. 

That said, Michelangelo did crush an earlier Pieta statue with a mallet and chisel, removing the arms of Jesus and breaking arms. Someone repaired it later, but there is no doubt he did it.

Standing tall

The human sense of consciousness revolves around three spheres: the mind, the body and the soul. C S Lewis argued that the soul is not an entity but a state of being. Traditional bible views are that the soul is the seat of our emotions. I am assuming the latter although I also accept the former.

Thus, we have an intellectual, emotional and physical pillar.

The Law of Moses argued that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength (body). In our vernacular that implies intensity, the kind of intensity I would reserve for my wife or my children.

Retreating to our cave

As a guy, I can relate to the influence of the mind. It is generally more rampant than for women, who are more emotionally centric. I only speak in general terms for there are exceptions to everything.

As a guy, I also thought I was the only one who had the tendency to retreat inside my thoughts. I may well be more mentally active than most (more is not better), but the pattern is the same. 

I have a high abstract reasoning aptitude, so I see and work out things inside my head, so maybe my take on this is a bit exaggerated. 

Keep going until it makes sense

So much of life proves that waiting is useful. 

A top restaurant will insist that good food takes times. 

A mother with child knows that once her course is run her joy will be full. 

A student pushes through the years of learning, motivated by the prize beyond and the value of waiting for it. 

A farmer reconciles himself to the idea that what seems like nothing is happening will yet bear fruit. 

Pain is God's megaphone

Life is a choice and choosing to live victoriously is better than trying to live a positive life negatively.

But here's the thing. If a child doesn't feel pain, will he learn? If an underlying health issue doesn't instill some pain, will we do anything about it?

Lepers yearn for the gift of pain, because their disease so dulls pain that they injure their limbs enough to lose them. The pain of learning carries through life, but it only is pain and will only adjust us, if we feel it and admit to it.

That my will may be done ...

Psalm 139: 5 says, "You hem me in behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me." Its a familiar feeling for many who have times of contradiction and frustration in their lives.

Surely He will bless ...

Every day I hear speculations that sound so good to the ear but remain so far from God's heart. I think it was A W Tozer who said, "Our thoughts are too worldly for God".

The lifecycle of organisations predicts that uncertainty will precede progress

In business logic we refer to "the lifecycle of organisations". It describes how a firm goes through a startup, restart or revival phase, followed by growth, then maturity or stability, before finally going into decline or a contraction phase.

A light in the darkness of trouble

David spent a lot of his early life darting from cave to cave, and living in the caves of the Shefelah, where he tried to interpret his life struggles. It was at times like those that he wrote some of his most haunting Psalms.

Beyond the last blow, the final push ... is the redemption of breakthrough

Tim Robbins plays the lead role in Shawshank Redemption, a Stephen King best seller now ranked 1st in a recent top 100 movies survey. It is a surprisingly redemptive work and as such the movie is also a personal favorite.

Andy Dufresne, having been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank, for a murder he never committed, employs his urbane charm and sharp intellect to become a significant influence in the jail. His influence provides the personal stimulation needed to keep his hopes alive, but also helps to improve the lot of his fellow inmates as they resist the contradictions of an evil warder and his corruptions of the bible.

Behind a poster in his small cell, Andy begins the arduous, twenty-year project of chiseling his way to freedom, using a hand chisel he got from his friend Red Ellis. He eventually breaks through to a narrow alley, which gives him access to the main sewerage channel and the thrall of freedom, which also redeems the many hard years of injustice and thankless toil.

Flying the meatball to find the sweet spot of God

One of the most demanding skills around involves landing a high powered jet on the deck of an aircraft carrier. With only 500 feet of landing space on a surface that often heaves on the sea, it is a very dangerous activity.

There are all kinds of support systems, including approach guidance systems, flight deck communications and a triple arrestor system that is used to snag the plane’s arrestor hook and bring it to a safe, albeit quick stop.

One of the systems used is the long range line-up system or Lens, which uses a number of green, orange and red Fresnel lights supported by a gyroscopically stabilised platform. If a jet has the right angle of approach, the pilot will see what is called, “The meatball” – the amber lights in line with a row of green lights. If coming in too high, the green lights will be above the orange lights. Too low and the pilot will see red light.

Where do we stand?

One of the greatest causes for human crisis results from misrepresentations of God. The dark ages marked a significant eon of human crisis, driven by ignorance about God and His heart for humanity. Fear of the unknown reduced all unknowns to the devil’s work, which enslaved humanity to ignorance, suspicion, superstition, fear and all the more obvious consequences of that age: dungeons, death and disease.

Aside from many other obvious social deviations, we each have our own personal misconceptions of God. It all reminds me of a little Church Mouse cartoon, which shows a mouse saying “Lord, just look at what is now available in the Internet”, to which a voice in heaven replies, “I’d rather not”.

Okay, enough of the more patently negative aspects of human attitudes to God. To me it is more tragic that believers are getting into trouble because of their misconceptions.

Work in progress

Wendell Phillips said, “Every step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake”. Of course there is a double meaning, for our world as we know it was as much formed on the scaffold of the stone-mason as on the scaffolds where truth died to spare the lies of thrones. Our own lives are also under the scaffold, an incomplete work whose time must surely come.

Many years ago I lay on the floor of the Sistine chapel to admire Michelangelo’s profound adornment of the ceiling. At the time the last supper was under renovation, masked behind scaffolding and workers sheets. For all the wonder of that equally famous painting, I was denied something of its true greatness ....

Poem: Journey to victory

"It takes much building and rebuilding to establish a kingdom", said my youngest son. I had just lost months and months of work on my blog site, all accidently overritten in a moment of madness. My initial reaction was a mixture of sadness and anger. Even the postings had gone and that really saddened me, for each post represented a priceless moment of reflection. It was also just another brick in the wall, another setback amongst so many in a long journey with God.

I did not understand Daniel's counsel at first, but then my 12 year old added, "Dad, Israel was given to the Jews, yet it rose and fell, sometimes to the level of a smouldering ruin. It was attacked again and again and again, especially Jerusalem. But they carried on building it anyway."

Indeed, the Jews returned like ants to the nest, determined to secure their heritage. God also built up and then tore down, until they got it right. No wonder the Arabs are finding the Jews so intractable today - they never truly fought for that land, which to the Jews is as a child to its mother.

Your own struggles might reflect steps forward and sometimes even more steps back, as you advance and fall back, but still advance, for so you must, until you find,

(c) Peter Eleazar @ http://www.4u2live.net/
Image: Rembrandt's, Christ in the storm on the sea of Galillee

Rebuilding the walls

Darius’ decreed that Nehemiah should start restoring Jerusalem, became a significant prophetic marker, because the moment meant so much to God. Nehemiah enjoyed the favor, blessing and authority of God – a very important consideration, given that the same authority had sent once sent His people into captivity, some 70 years earlier.

Thus the Jewish Diaspora came full circle. They had been exiled for as many years as the Sabbath years that they had once dishonored, but with Darius’ decree the matter was closed and God moved on.

However, Sanbalat resented the Jews and did all he could to stop their recovery. Although Nehemiah had authority to take wood from the king’s forest and to quarry for stone, Sanbalat would have none of it. Guess who he characterizes?

So Nehemiah made rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, his priority. He knew that as long as they were exposed to Sanbalat, all other efforts would be fruitless. They were so single-minded about their approach that they built with their swords by their sides, ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

The story is analogous to our own human struggles. We also neglect truth and end up in exile. We are also taken captive by life and dragged off to work the thankless systems of this world. Yet when God redeems, He gives us the vital authority to rebuild our lives.

That rebuilding process will have its gainsayers. You will face detractors, often for no other reason than that your own progress highlights their crises. That is why you get tall poppy syndromes in various cultures – people are generally happier when you remain as dispossessed as they are, but they resent it when anyone rises above the average and starts to reclaim their lives, their dignity or their life purpose.

They say that there is only one thing worse than being spoken of, and that is not being spoken of – for indeed whenever we advance to recovery we will be spoken of, we will face our opposition. Satan works through others to keep us down and will put up a fight when we don’t comply.

So our strategy is not to start building outwards, until we have built upwards. We have to build the walls first. That implies a need to assert our divine position: a vital appropriation of your authority expressed through daily confessions of our rights of way and the favor of God over our lives.

As you resist the Devil, your walls will rise, your defenses will become sure and you will move to a state of relative rest - not behind insular walls, but walls of purpose and dignity. You will never be fully at rest, but the idea of being able to post a reasonable guard at the gates of your life, your home and your family, so you can redirect your resources into tilling the earth and building a future – is very desirable.

So, if you have faced crisis but feel you are headed towards recovery, stand your ground and see it through until your walls provide enough refuge for you to extend your life into other avenues of expression.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ http://www.4u2live.net/
Image courtesy of: http://thechurchofjesuschrist.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/ba5.jpg

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