Pulling back the veil part 2 - love changes everything

Stand and be heard

Its a new Day

Prayer 2: If God be for us, who can be against - Romans 8:31

There always were just two basic concepts of God. Those have variations on a theme, but the two were there from the beginning and still are.

It started when two brothers competed for his favor. Abel was merely a good steward of what God had entrusted to him and he brought that back as an un-embellished, simple sacrifice. 

He sought to please God as a man would  please his beloved, not formulaically but from the heart.

The way it works

The socio-political model of biblical Israel, passed through two main phases. There was a time when judges intervened, although they didn’t rule per se, and another time when kings ruled.

Undoubtedly, the latter was worse. Even at their best, the kings were imperfect and they ultimately led the nation to ruin and exile. God warned it would be so.

The upshot of the king model was that it rejected God.

Its a world full of people

A client related a great story to me. A woman accidentally shut herself inside a cold room on a Friday afternoon. 

No one heard her shouts and her body temperature was falling rapidly. Then, a good while later, a security guard found her. "What led you here", she asked? 

"Mam", he added, "of all the employees who work here, you are the reason I come to work. You greet me in the morning, you wave to me at night and when you can you chat or give me some food. So I wouldn't have missed anyone else, but I was expecting you to come out of the building and wave to me as you went home, and when you didn't appear I knew something was wrong. I searched all over until I found you down here, in this cold room".

My cup runs over

Our moods ebb and flow in cycles. We are oft desensitized to that because of contemporary lifestyles, diets, “feel the same every day” stimulants or the demands of life.

So, as I am feeling spiritually flat right now, I googled that and found a topic at the top of my search list, which seemed off subject. It was about menstruation.

Before artificial light dominated our world, the full moon stimulated the pineal gland to induce ovulation, but the darkness of a new moon induced menstruation.

That ebb and flow ensures her mystique. The menstrual pause heightens sexual sensitivity, to add the tension that saves the relationship from becoming predictable.

Love changes everything

I was debating this morning over some coffee, why some coffee shops treat clients as work-in-progress, whilst others treat them like people. They let them relax, don’t process them, enjoy the hospitality, order more coffee when and if they want to, and, perhaps have something to eat, or don’t … “No problem, we are just happy to see you – pop in tomorrow”.

He 'aint heavy

Sir Isaac Newton argued that to every cause there is an equal and opposite effect. It is empirically valid for the physical world, but I contend that it is also valid for the social world.

Let me ask. If you did some good for someone today, would it have a good or bad effect? Maybe not 100% good as in Newton’s world, but in more than 90% of cases the effect would be commensurate with the good first done.

Likewise, do someone in or spit on them as Antonio did to Shylock and see how that comes back to you. It almost cost Antonio a pound of his flesh.

End First

Stephen Covey said that we should always start with the end in mind. The bible does that too. A key example is a verse in Ephesians 4:13, which says "... until we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man".

What advantage then has the Jew, Part 3

I once had to mediate in a school issue after a teacher was assused of racism. I asked the parent to state her complaint and then asked the teacher to respond, but the parent kept interjecting. Despite my appeals she kept on arguing, until I asked her, "How do you define racism?" She replied, "It is prejudice", to which I retorted, "Well then, by that same definition you are racist, for you are prejudging the teacher and affording her no opportunity to defend herself". The parent yielded and so became a loyal friend of the school.

I grew up in a racist context that distorted our thinking, so I understand how dreadful it is. However, now I see the reverse side of it. Those now in power are as racist, for anything they don't understand or perceive as unfair is automatically racist or attributable to the past. That is no recipe for reconciliation.

Naked before God

Like the donkey in Shrek we are covered by many layers, which Shrek compared to layered skin of an onion. Those layers supposedly cover us, but in reality they hold us down and frustrate our relationship with God. God does not reject us, but the fact that we have to approach Him with such fig leaves suggests that we do reject ourselves and as such we reject His presence - and then still blame Him. He only wants to accept us, but not on our own pretences, which are like filthy rags.

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Keep Bleeding

Leona Lewis' hit, "Bleeding heart", shot her to global reknown. It is really quite a simple song, even sentimental, not every one's cup of tea. What caught me was her great voice and the haunting strains of the song. It had a repetitive rhythm, like a wave crashing against the shorebreak. It reminded me of the great vein of love that was opened on the hill of Calvary and still bleeds so much for humanity today.

Of course I speak metaphorically. His blood dried up that day and at best only stained the hill with crimson, but the compassion Jesus felt for humanity then still courses through His being today. He sees and intimately knows what we are up against. He battled our ultimate enemy and saw into the heart of darkness. He felt the wretchedness of those around Him. He witnessed unfairness everywhere. That's why He keeps bleeding:

You cut me open and I Keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love

I keep bleeding, I keep, keep bleeding love

Keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love

You cut me open

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net

Image courtesy of starlight87.spaces.live.com/

He lifted me up

Through the years of my toil, I tasted this life’s bitter pill
as by night I’d toss and turn, ‘ere my soul at last was well.

Though I stood calling, I still seemed so alone;
and though I knelt praying, my life was so undone.

I watched as murky mists did part and peered with pounding heart

to see the king, alight the path and breach the fallen rampart.
Though the tides pushed back, He bade me, walk the track:
o’er the waves, my homeward tack, to cast aside my leaden sack.

Though I’ve tried, reasoning, I have found no sense;
but by His call heeding, I am recompensed.

Waves still tried to take me down, so surely I’d have drowned
but looking up, at last I found, hope that seeks a royal crown.
Firm against the tempest flare, He prevails as none compare;
to keep us, from here to there, on this road he cares to share.

Now I see the distant shore, thence my soul be daily drawn
to my savior’s faithful call - amid that great, assembled roar.

Though I’ve sighed, stumbled, I never felt alone,
for the whispers, of my King, will surely lead me home.


(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net

Why is love a battlefield

Jordin Sparks recently had a major hit with her song, “Battlefield”, which asked “why does love always seem like a battlefield?

Her point related more to the struggles of early love, but if she but knew it love is also a long-term battlefield. I have never known a time in my 24 years of marriage where there was not some kind of struggle. Oh, of course there were times when we had to adjust to each other and the seven year slump, where reality hit home. There were other more personal battlefields that confronted us with real crises, and raising children presented its own difficulties. Of course every struggle was both normal and worthy of the fight.

However, beyond such everyday struggles is a far greater spiritual battlefield that is not just about marital or familial love, but also about spiritual love. The great darkness that broods over this world is loveless, cold and destructive. It is the antithesis of love, for God is love. It is hell-bent on destroying every last vestige of love, to remove all traces of God – and it will burn on regardless of how many homes or lives it yet breaks.

Love is a battlefield. Yet every war that was ever fought was waged and won for a greater cause. The cause we fight for, when we defend love, is a worthy cause indeed. Nothing will heal the nations and revive the broken more than love … for love is without envy or strife. Love is without boasting or vengeance. Love is patient and kind. When all else is lost, love will still remain … for God is love.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.com