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Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Monday, December 17, 2007
More on Deuteronomy
Deut. 6:5-9
"Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home or when you walk along the road. When you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them the doorframes of your houses and on your gates...
...In the future, when your son asks 'What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees, and laws the Lord has given you?' Tell him..."
I wonder if CS Lewis got his idea to write about the signs in The Silver Chair from this. I read the verses this morning. I've been reading a chapter a day. At this rate, I'll be plugging away for three years in order to read the entire Bible from cover to cover. Oh well. As long as God's speaking to me, I guess...
Of course this jumped out at me first because this is the commandment Jesus later coins as the most important. This is the commandment at the center of the rest of the commandments that will follow--some of them rediculous sounding, like the ones my brother just made film about (like not touching shrimp or something? Maybe I'll let you know when I get there.) Some are more practical, like don't have sex with your family members or your neighbor's wife. These days, it's weird to read all the commandments and try to decide which ones are still good to obey, or wonder if God gives commandments still that are so specific. Do we still have stipulations and decrees from God?
We're told that Jesus made it possible for us to fulfill this great command--to love him with everything we've got. We believe there's grace now--we don't have to do anything to recieve it. But I think obedience is still important to God. Our obedience comes from what he's doing within us, sure, and it doesn't determine our salvation, sure, but something else is going on, too. Jesus is renewing our minds.
Maybe the commandments for us have changed in nature--the ones that make it possible to live out the great commandment(s). They have become more personal. In my walk with God, there seems to be something he's trying to teach me and this lesson changes over time. The specifics, anyway. At one point, the early point, I believe he was teaching me to put him first, which required that I do some fasting from things that used to distract me from Him. Later on, his message to me was to chill out and find that he's everywhere. Not to be so careful all the time or I'll miss the work he's doing.
When we read the Gospels, we see that his messages are individual. At one point he's telling a guy to hush about who healed him. He tells another person to go around and tell everyone what she's seen. He tells the Pharisees they need to stop being hypocrites and he tells another guy his faith has healed him. But I think the reality is that we are all of these people, at one point or another. All of His messages to them are relavant at different stages in our lives. Because we are changing beings. We should be, anyway. We should be growing.
I'm a firm believer in a God who speaks to me all the time, who is always teaching me something and I just have to give him my attention to learn what that thing is. This is the message that I believe Moses mentions to the Israelites in his Deuteronomy sermon. I don't think he's telling the people to write all ten (or nine?) commandments on their gates or to fill their foreheads with so much writing, but to be alert to the commandments that are pressing on them. We're not always in positions to lust, for instance, but there may come a day when we struggle with that, so that's when we remember what God has to say about it. The same with being angry at a sibling, etc.
But maybe, because our spirits are awakened by Christ in us, God's individual messages to us take on a more spiritual nature, like the string of commands Paul has to offer the addressees of his letters. Maybe God's telling us to have joy, or peace, or remember that he's alive in us. Maybe these are the lessons we tell our sons and daughters now. Because the outward stuff--the physical stuff is taken care of through Christ's ressurrection. Now we're alive in a different way and need to focus on what's going on with our thoughts.
In truth, I believe that both messages were always apparent--the physical and spiritual laws, even before Jesus came to the earth. David certainly seems to need to hear about peace at times--and I'm sure the other things too. From the psalms, it seems that the spiritual gifts were as available then as they are now. So I think the messages to hear about joy, patience, humility, and to stop grumbling have always been out there for people.
I guess it all just comes back to that idea--what is God saying right now? And how are we responding to it? Do we read a message in the morning and then forget about it? Do we write it down but never read it again? Do we write it on our hands? Talk about it with our friends? Sing about it as we walk to work?
Or maybe it's the story that we tell--that's how we remember. Just like God asked the Israelites to constantly remind each other of how he brought them out of Egypt, we must return to the story of what God did for us--what he brought us out of, what he put to death so we could be resurrected.
In God's diverse messages for us, there is always something we need to be reminded of. And they always point back to the same old thing--loving God with everything he's made us out of.
"Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home or when you walk along the road. When you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them the doorframes of your houses and on your gates...
...In the future, when your son asks 'What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees, and laws the Lord has given you?' Tell him..."
I wonder if CS Lewis got his idea to write about the signs in The Silver Chair from this. I read the verses this morning. I've been reading a chapter a day. At this rate, I'll be plugging away for three years in order to read the entire Bible from cover to cover. Oh well. As long as God's speaking to me, I guess...
Of course this jumped out at me first because this is the commandment Jesus later coins as the most important. This is the commandment at the center of the rest of the commandments that will follow--some of them rediculous sounding, like the ones my brother just made film about (like not touching shrimp or something? Maybe I'll let you know when I get there.) Some are more practical, like don't have sex with your family members or your neighbor's wife. These days, it's weird to read all the commandments and try to decide which ones are still good to obey, or wonder if God gives commandments still that are so specific. Do we still have stipulations and decrees from God?
We're told that Jesus made it possible for us to fulfill this great command--to love him with everything we've got. We believe there's grace now--we don't have to do anything to recieve it. But I think obedience is still important to God. Our obedience comes from what he's doing within us, sure, and it doesn't determine our salvation, sure, but something else is going on, too. Jesus is renewing our minds.
Maybe the commandments for us have changed in nature--the ones that make it possible to live out the great commandment(s). They have become more personal. In my walk with God, there seems to be something he's trying to teach me and this lesson changes over time. The specifics, anyway. At one point, the early point, I believe he was teaching me to put him first, which required that I do some fasting from things that used to distract me from Him. Later on, his message to me was to chill out and find that he's everywhere. Not to be so careful all the time or I'll miss the work he's doing.
When we read the Gospels, we see that his messages are individual. At one point he's telling a guy to hush about who healed him. He tells another person to go around and tell everyone what she's seen. He tells the Pharisees they need to stop being hypocrites and he tells another guy his faith has healed him. But I think the reality is that we are all of these people, at one point or another. All of His messages to them are relavant at different stages in our lives. Because we are changing beings. We should be, anyway. We should be growing.
I'm a firm believer in a God who speaks to me all the time, who is always teaching me something and I just have to give him my attention to learn what that thing is. This is the message that I believe Moses mentions to the Israelites in his Deuteronomy sermon. I don't think he's telling the people to write all ten (or nine?) commandments on their gates or to fill their foreheads with so much writing, but to be alert to the commandments that are pressing on them. We're not always in positions to lust, for instance, but there may come a day when we struggle with that, so that's when we remember what God has to say about it. The same with being angry at a sibling, etc.
But maybe, because our spirits are awakened by Christ in us, God's individual messages to us take on a more spiritual nature, like the string of commands Paul has to offer the addressees of his letters. Maybe God's telling us to have joy, or peace, or remember that he's alive in us. Maybe these are the lessons we tell our sons and daughters now. Because the outward stuff--the physical stuff is taken care of through Christ's ressurrection. Now we're alive in a different way and need to focus on what's going on with our thoughts.
In truth, I believe that both messages were always apparent--the physical and spiritual laws, even before Jesus came to the earth. David certainly seems to need to hear about peace at times--and I'm sure the other things too. From the psalms, it seems that the spiritual gifts were as available then as they are now. So I think the messages to hear about joy, patience, humility, and to stop grumbling have always been out there for people.
I guess it all just comes back to that idea--what is God saying right now? And how are we responding to it? Do we read a message in the morning and then forget about it? Do we write it down but never read it again? Do we write it on our hands? Talk about it with our friends? Sing about it as we walk to work?
Or maybe it's the story that we tell--that's how we remember. Just like God asked the Israelites to constantly remind each other of how he brought them out of Egypt, we must return to the story of what God did for us--what he brought us out of, what he put to death so we could be resurrected.
In God's diverse messages for us, there is always something we need to be reminded of. And they always point back to the same old thing--loving God with everything he's made us out of.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Do not be terrified, do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. (Deuteronomy 1:29-31)
The world behind me, the cross before me.
No turning back, no turning back.
(I Have Decided to Follow Jesus)
He brought me all the way to Bangkok. He showed me many things to delight in here, meeting my needs every day, protecting me from disaster. He will be faithful to the end. Remembering what God has done in the past should give us confidence in our future--i.e. we should have no anxiety from thinking ahead. This frees us to think about the present, what God has given us now.
This also gives me the freedom to just write because I love to write, one sentence at a time, exploring realms through words. Each project for these applications is just an opportunity to write and discover through writing. I've fooled myself into believing that each of these writing assigments for applications will determine my future, but it doesn't work like that.
One more quote:
Life is a game
and True love is the trophy
(Rufus Wainwright, Poses)
God did what he did so we could move through this world fearlessly, like a game--to engage in our surroundings knowing there are no losers, there's not even teams (if we're all on the same team, are there teams?). This is what I think it means to have the world behind us--it means we don't let it dictate how we view our lives. Instead, we let the Spirit of Jesus reveal his truths in us and build our lives from there.
The world behind me, the cross before me.
No turning back, no turning back.
(I Have Decided to Follow Jesus)
He brought me all the way to Bangkok. He showed me many things to delight in here, meeting my needs every day, protecting me from disaster. He will be faithful to the end. Remembering what God has done in the past should give us confidence in our future--i.e. we should have no anxiety from thinking ahead. This frees us to think about the present, what God has given us now.
This also gives me the freedom to just write because I love to write, one sentence at a time, exploring realms through words. Each project for these applications is just an opportunity to write and discover through writing. I've fooled myself into believing that each of these writing assigments for applications will determine my future, but it doesn't work like that.
One more quote:
Life is a game
and True love is the trophy
(Rufus Wainwright, Poses)
God did what he did so we could move through this world fearlessly, like a game--to engage in our surroundings knowing there are no losers, there's not even teams (if we're all on the same team, are there teams?). This is what I think it means to have the world behind us--it means we don't let it dictate how we view our lives. Instead, we let the Spirit of Jesus reveal his truths in us and build our lives from there.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Divine Track List
Feeling a little down.
Put my ipod on shuffle.
Asked God to choose some songs he wanted me to hear.
1) Hotel Arizona (Wilco)
"I feel some connection between you and me
Well I guess there's some direction maybe you can't see"
2) Playboy Mansion (U2)
"Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
And though I can't say why
I know I've got to believe"
3) Are You the One that I've Been Waiting For? (Nick Cave)
"As you've been moving surely toward me
My soul has comforted and assured me
That in time my heart it will reward me
And that all will be revealed"
4) Mother Popcorn (James Brown)
"Yeah! Popcorn! Oh! uh!
Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
Yeah! EEEE Yeah!
Do the popcorn hu!
Ooooooooh!"
(My God really knows what cheers me. )
5) Changes Come (Over the Rhine)
"There is all this untouched beauty
The light the dark both running through me
Is there still redemption for anyone
Jesus come
Turn the world around
Lay my burden down
Turn this world around"
5) Anything at All (Over the Rhine)
"Sooner or later, things will all come around for good.
Sooner or later I won't need anything at all."
6) God of Wonders (From May's Crosstian folder on my computer)
"The universe declares your majesty
Precious Lord, reveal your heart to me."
Put my ipod on shuffle.
Asked God to choose some songs he wanted me to hear.
1) Hotel Arizona (Wilco)
"I feel some connection between you and me
Well I guess there's some direction maybe you can't see"
2) Playboy Mansion (U2)
"Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
And though I can't say why
I know I've got to believe"
3) Are You the One that I've Been Waiting For? (Nick Cave)
"As you've been moving surely toward me
My soul has comforted and assured me
That in time my heart it will reward me
And that all will be revealed"
4) Mother Popcorn (James Brown)
"Yeah! Popcorn! Oh! uh!
Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
Yeah! EEEE Yeah!
Do the popcorn hu!
Ooooooooh!"
(My God really knows what cheers me. )
5) Changes Come (Over the Rhine)
"There is all this untouched beauty
The light the dark both running through me
Is there still redemption for anyone
Jesus come
Turn the world around
Lay my burden down
Turn this world around"
5) Anything at All (Over the Rhine)
"Sooner or later, things will all come around for good.
Sooner or later I won't need anything at all."
6) God of Wonders (From May's Crosstian folder on my computer)
"The universe declares your majesty
Precious Lord, reveal your heart to me."
7) Everything in Its Right Place (Radiohead)
The title says all there needs to be said.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Thinking through...
Warning: lots of scrambles and generalizations here...
I've been having a lot of conversations about the two nations that live in Thailand. Thailand and Muang Thai. Thailand is the place that the farangs see, the tourist farangs and the foreigners who have lived here for years and years and never learned the language (or only know a tiny bit). That's the nation full of indoor rice shops with poorly translated menus. These restaurants vary in taste but usually don't compare to the restaurants that belong to Muang Thai--the Thailand that Thai speakers belong to.
I am in the middle, maybe the middle leaning towards the Thailand side, since I only know a minimal amount of Thai. So much goes on under the farang's noses, it's almost frightening. I've been able to see more than most farangs because of the music opportunities, because of P'Nui, etc. Because of friends. I've been into a Thai home and watched a soap opera with Amata. I've tried, assisted, to watch Thai news or read Thai newspapers. And of course, I have the Polling Center job around me. But seriously, I am still kept out of much that goes on here. I get glimpses, like when my boss told me that four years ago, the gov't instilled a no-tolerance drug policy which meant if you were caught selling drugs they'd shoot you, your wife, and your kids on the spot without trial. This policy is no longer in effect, but Good Lord. I never would have guessed that the "peaceful buddhist culture" they show the farangs would allow something like that.
And then there is the food on the street. Good food, found in places many farangs wouldn't be able to order at because there is no sign of the English language anywhere. This is a conscious decision, I think.
Do I have a desire to have people appreciate my home and culture? I guess I do. I tend to give lectures about Detroit music, history, etc. But I am not so sure that Thai pride is matched in any way by any american. Sometimes I think I wouldn't be surprised if a Thai rejected the gospel because Jesus wasn't Thai. Of course, Buddha wasn't either.
And then there's the hostility from the Farangs towards Thais. The Farangs that seem to look down on the Thais as if they are incompetant. I have heared the woman described as manipulative (though I would argue that the hundred dollar bill waved in front of Thai women is a type of manipulation). I have heard a critique that they keep their poor without money and the wealth is only handled by a select few (could this be universal?).
I've come across a man frustrated because his girlfriend's family won't meet him, because he's white. (After watching what white men have done to so many Thai women, is he surprised her parents don't want to meet him?) He says he wants to marry her, she's why he's here. The same man refuses to learn Thai, as it seems too feminine for him to produce those sounds. He has been here for two years, but says he has not really been in a situation where he heard the Thai language. And that is the best example of the two nations that exist here.
Is this the case with all farang men who marry Thai women? Do they fully expect the women to give up their language in their homes? If these men refuse to learn their lover's language, aren't they in some way refusing a part of their lover? Does "I love you," ever have the same effect from a person's second language that it does coming at them in their native tongue?
I've been having a lot of conversations about the two nations that live in Thailand. Thailand and Muang Thai. Thailand is the place that the farangs see, the tourist farangs and the foreigners who have lived here for years and years and never learned the language (or only know a tiny bit). That's the nation full of indoor rice shops with poorly translated menus. These restaurants vary in taste but usually don't compare to the restaurants that belong to Muang Thai--the Thailand that Thai speakers belong to.
I am in the middle, maybe the middle leaning towards the Thailand side, since I only know a minimal amount of Thai. So much goes on under the farang's noses, it's almost frightening. I've been able to see more than most farangs because of the music opportunities, because of P'Nui, etc. Because of friends. I've been into a Thai home and watched a soap opera with Amata. I've tried, assisted, to watch Thai news or read Thai newspapers. And of course, I have the Polling Center job around me. But seriously, I am still kept out of much that goes on here. I get glimpses, like when my boss told me that four years ago, the gov't instilled a no-tolerance drug policy which meant if you were caught selling drugs they'd shoot you, your wife, and your kids on the spot without trial. This policy is no longer in effect, but Good Lord. I never would have guessed that the "peaceful buddhist culture" they show the farangs would allow something like that.
And then there is the food on the street. Good food, found in places many farangs wouldn't be able to order at because there is no sign of the English language anywhere. This is a conscious decision, I think.
Do I have a desire to have people appreciate my home and culture? I guess I do. I tend to give lectures about Detroit music, history, etc. But I am not so sure that Thai pride is matched in any way by any american. Sometimes I think I wouldn't be surprised if a Thai rejected the gospel because Jesus wasn't Thai. Of course, Buddha wasn't either.
And then there's the hostility from the Farangs towards Thais. The Farangs that seem to look down on the Thais as if they are incompetant. I have heared the woman described as manipulative (though I would argue that the hundred dollar bill waved in front of Thai women is a type of manipulation). I have heard a critique that they keep their poor without money and the wealth is only handled by a select few (could this be universal?).
I've come across a man frustrated because his girlfriend's family won't meet him, because he's white. (After watching what white men have done to so many Thai women, is he surprised her parents don't want to meet him?) He says he wants to marry her, she's why he's here. The same man refuses to learn Thai, as it seems too feminine for him to produce those sounds. He has been here for two years, but says he has not really been in a situation where he heard the Thai language. And that is the best example of the two nations that exist here.
Is this the case with all farang men who marry Thai women? Do they fully expect the women to give up their language in their homes? If these men refuse to learn their lover's language, aren't they in some way refusing a part of their lover? Does "I love you," ever have the same effect from a person's second language that it does coming at them in their native tongue?
Friday, September 14, 2007
laugh of the week...
Claire L. has an album on her profile that includes a picture of her mother trying to brush her hair.
She commented: "Jungle fever has it's price white woman!"
Tore me up.
She commented: "Jungle fever has it's price white woman!"
Tore me up.
