"Be well assured that on our side
The abiding oceans fight,
Though headlong wind and heaping tide
Make us their sport to-night.
By force of weather not of war
In jeopardy we steer,
Then welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it shall appear,
How in all time of our distress,
And our deliverance too,
The game is more than the player of the game,
And the ship is more than the crew"
Fragment from "A Song in Storm"
Poem by Rudyard Kipling
Kipling struck a chord here with the last two lines of this stanza. He points out the simple fact that there is something greater, bigger than us. The fact that we play this game of life points to a set of rules we play by. There is no game that is relative, having no set rules and realities, except for the game played by Alice and the assorted creatures in Alice in Wonderland...called the Caucus Race. The more limitations placed on the players of the game, the greater the enthusiasm for the game and the thrill of victory for the winner. Compare playing checkers to chess. Once you've played chess, checkers lacks something.
Hebrews 1:1-2 "God, who at many times and in various manners spoke in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds;"
Has God spoken in your world? Do you really need a God? If you have all the answers within your own self, then you are your own god. If God is God, then He contains within Himself the unknown answers of nature, of history, and of redemption. God speaks in different ways, at different times. The act of scorning divine revelation is rebellion, or the refusal to allow God to be God. When we insist on thinking things through for ourselves, externally from God's divine and specific revealed truth, we are trying to be masters of our own existence, claiming to be the ultimate reality and reason. Ironically, there is a ditch on both sides of the road. Some scorn God's divine revelation by inventing prophecies that contradict God's already revealed truth in the Bible. God can not contradict Himself.
The abiding oceans fight,
Though headlong wind and heaping tide
Make us their sport to-night.
By force of weather not of war
In jeopardy we steer,
Then welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it shall appear,
How in all time of our distress,
And our deliverance too,
The game is more than the player of the game,
And the ship is more than the crew"
Fragment from "A Song in Storm"
Poem by Rudyard Kipling
Kipling struck a chord here with the last two lines of this stanza. He points out the simple fact that there is something greater, bigger than us. The fact that we play this game of life points to a set of rules we play by. There is no game that is relative, having no set rules and realities, except for the game played by Alice and the assorted creatures in Alice in Wonderland...called the Caucus Race. The more limitations placed on the players of the game, the greater the enthusiasm for the game and the thrill of victory for the winner. Compare playing checkers to chess. Once you've played chess, checkers lacks something.
Hebrews 1:1-2 "God, who at many times and in various manners spoke in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds;"
Has God spoken in your world? Do you really need a God? If you have all the answers within your own self, then you are your own god. If God is God, then He contains within Himself the unknown answers of nature, of history, and of redemption. God speaks in different ways, at different times. The act of scorning divine revelation is rebellion, or the refusal to allow God to be God. When we insist on thinking things through for ourselves, externally from God's divine and specific revealed truth, we are trying to be masters of our own existence, claiming to be the ultimate reality and reason. Ironically, there is a ditch on both sides of the road. Some scorn God's divine revelation by inventing prophecies that contradict God's already revealed truth in the Bible. God can not contradict Himself.
I saw this bumper sign on a car in Atlanta today. It reminds me of the recent predictions by Harold Camping. When men specifically add to God's word like this they are rebelling against God's will. I knew a sweet older lady who used to get those photocopied handwritten pages of prophecies from televangelists like Ernest Angeley and the others. They were basically ransom notes, photocopied and mailed to pensioners around the country. You had to pay to get the blessing promised. That is just wrong!
We tend to talk things through with each other, to sound our ideas and values off our peers, to question our teachers, expecting the answers to mold to our own "reasonable" ideas. All of this is senseless. After all, if you are building furniture you want defined measures and standards, and not approximations..."Oh, about from here to there sounds good to me." No, you wouldn't ask for opinions but for a measuring tape.
But, when we use reason to define morality, we do so at the expense of allowing God to be God. There is no reason beyond the reality of Jesus Christ. If Jesus is the God of the Universe, then He must be reason incarnate. If not, then He is not God. When God speaks, He does not silence the workings of our intellect. He liberates the mind of man to a reason and reality larger than himself. Our job is to accept and conform to that larger perspective of ultimate truth and reality, instead of trying to construct our own reality. God does not offend my reason. He only offends my pride of reason, which pretends that I am able to answer the central questions of life in and of my own intellect. Hand me the rule book if I propose to play this game!
I not only can not answer the central questions of life, in and of my own powers of intellect, but I fail at asking the central questions. What are the big questions of life? What really matters? Food? health? war? shelter? marriage? peace? security? family? race? social position? education? class? wealth? recreation? literature? politics? Who is God? What is death about? Where is the grave? Can sins be forgiven? How can I reach God? even trying to brainstorm a simple list, I reveal the shortcomings of my own human reasoning. Has God really spoken?
We as humans have the capacity of mind to reason out alternatives. Only God can provide the moral yardstick to judge between correct and incorrect alternatives. Alternatives will not lead us to the path of salvation. If we have all the answers, we don't need a Saviour. We don't need a god. We become our own idol. Reason must match a morality. Morality is ir-relative of reason. Morality is definition and reality.
Someone said that no man is an island to himself, floating around out there defining his own realities. One ex-navy friend said that he learned on a carrier ship that it's the really big things in life that provide stability. Climb into a little boat and find yourself tossed about all over the sea. But, on a carrier, you don't even notice the waves. That's where we find the presence of the church in our lives to be so important. If we try to stay afloat on our own, we will sink alone. But, the church provides direction and stability to the "crew." When a sailor loses sight of the railings, he ends up wet, to the cry of man overboard.
I found the following poem on the face of a greeting card in a college bookstore in 1983. I kept it all these years instead of giving it to somebody, the real purpose of cards. It captured me, because the poem points out the need for something real.
All around we can hear the cry,
Who am I? Who am I?
So many search for the answer
Till the day they die.
So many people come and go
Never learning what they must know.
What am I meant for? What shall I do?
God, dear God, if only I knew.
Some search to identify with someone else,
Never having the courage to look to themselves.
They search with vigor and with vim,
For the answer that lies only within.
For some it is easy to run away,
They haven't the courage to face the next day.
For some it is easy to face the next day,
They haven't the courage to turn away.
All around we can hear the cry,
Who am I? Who am I?
So many search for the answer
Till the day they die.
And yet the answer is as clear as day and night,
You must do what makes you feel right.
Be real...
Above all, be real.
Be real by Paul Samuels born 1944, a Messianic Jew
More can be found at: http://www.paulsamuels.com/poems.html
Though I love the poem, notice the answer that he claims is as "clear as day and night," is really murky? He never defines reality. He leads you up to the edge of a cliff to see the world, and then screams, "Jump!" I always suspected he didn't know himself what was real when he wrote the poem. And, I can tell you from personal experience that many things that "feel right" will get you in trouble. There are "real" people sitting in prison and stretched out in graveyards. We need a God bigger than the reality of our own mind.
We tend to talk things through with each other, to sound our ideas and values off our peers, to question our teachers, expecting the answers to mold to our own "reasonable" ideas. All of this is senseless. After all, if you are building furniture you want defined measures and standards, and not approximations..."Oh, about from here to there sounds good to me." No, you wouldn't ask for opinions but for a measuring tape.
But, when we use reason to define morality, we do so at the expense of allowing God to be God. There is no reason beyond the reality of Jesus Christ. If Jesus is the God of the Universe, then He must be reason incarnate. If not, then He is not God. When God speaks, He does not silence the workings of our intellect. He liberates the mind of man to a reason and reality larger than himself. Our job is to accept and conform to that larger perspective of ultimate truth and reality, instead of trying to construct our own reality. God does not offend my reason. He only offends my pride of reason, which pretends that I am able to answer the central questions of life in and of my own intellect. Hand me the rule book if I propose to play this game!
I not only can not answer the central questions of life, in and of my own powers of intellect, but I fail at asking the central questions. What are the big questions of life? What really matters? Food? health? war? shelter? marriage? peace? security? family? race? social position? education? class? wealth? recreation? literature? politics? Who is God? What is death about? Where is the grave? Can sins be forgiven? How can I reach God? even trying to brainstorm a simple list, I reveal the shortcomings of my own human reasoning. Has God really spoken?
We as humans have the capacity of mind to reason out alternatives. Only God can provide the moral yardstick to judge between correct and incorrect alternatives. Alternatives will not lead us to the path of salvation. If we have all the answers, we don't need a Saviour. We don't need a god. We become our own idol. Reason must match a morality. Morality is ir-relative of reason. Morality is definition and reality.
Someone said that no man is an island to himself, floating around out there defining his own realities. One ex-navy friend said that he learned on a carrier ship that it's the really big things in life that provide stability. Climb into a little boat and find yourself tossed about all over the sea. But, on a carrier, you don't even notice the waves. That's where we find the presence of the church in our lives to be so important. If we try to stay afloat on our own, we will sink alone. But, the church provides direction and stability to the "crew." When a sailor loses sight of the railings, he ends up wet, to the cry of man overboard.
I found the following poem on the face of a greeting card in a college bookstore in 1983. I kept it all these years instead of giving it to somebody, the real purpose of cards. It captured me, because the poem points out the need for something real.
All around we can hear the cry,
Who am I? Who am I?
So many search for the answer
Till the day they die.
So many people come and go
Never learning what they must know.
What am I meant for? What shall I do?
God, dear God, if only I knew.
Some search to identify with someone else,
Never having the courage to look to themselves.
They search with vigor and with vim,
For the answer that lies only within.
For some it is easy to run away,
They haven't the courage to face the next day.
For some it is easy to face the next day,
They haven't the courage to turn away.
All around we can hear the cry,
Who am I? Who am I?
So many search for the answer
Till the day they die.
And yet the answer is as clear as day and night,
You must do what makes you feel right.
Be real...
Above all, be real.
Be real by Paul Samuels born 1944, a Messianic Jew
More can be found at: http://www.paulsamuels.com/poems.html
Though I love the poem, notice the answer that he claims is as "clear as day and night," is really murky? He never defines reality. He leads you up to the edge of a cliff to see the world, and then screams, "Jump!" I always suspected he didn't know himself what was real when he wrote the poem. And, I can tell you from personal experience that many things that "feel right" will get you in trouble. There are "real" people sitting in prison and stretched out in graveyards. We need a God bigger than the reality of our own mind.
