Luke 23:26-31 ~ a great multitude of the people

Today in Jerusalem, this is a model of the 2nd Temple with a close-up of Solomon's Porch.






Luke 23:26-31

English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio   
       

And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.              

28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”      
         

A good question, surely, when we are 2 millenniums past Jesus giving us all of God's promises and changing Heaven forever.

And how often I pictured Jesus dying like "Godspell" with just a few sympathizers. Here we read, the truth, a great multitude of people Mourned for Jesus. These are the people in the Book of Acts who filled the Temple.  They are referred to as a multitude again.    

Acts 2:6       
And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.  

Acts 5:12 -15      
Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.           

Joel 3:14 

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

People will forever disagree if the day is all at once, or like the people who come back from near death experiences - immediately. Time belongs to God. It is His invention. I suppose He can use time any way He wants. We, who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, will find out what time is all about in Heaven when we get there. 

What does the Book of Acts, Chapter 2, say about the time when the wood becomes dry?   
 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel ^{[2nd Chapter of Joel]}:  
 

¹⁷  “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,          
and your young men shall see visions,          
and your old men shall dream dreams;    
¹⁸ even on my male servants and female servants        
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,  and they shall prophesy.      
¹⁹ And I will show wonders in the heavens above        
and signs on the earth below,                    
 blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;   
²⁰  the sun shall be turned to darkness        
and the moon to blood,        
before the day of the Lord comes,     
the great and magnificent day.

  ²¹ And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’  
 

Thank You, Jesus Christ Our LORD.

  I've been thinking this weekend about my son's friend Cory's funeral.  He died in Iraq and people turned out for his funeral lining 6 miles of road from the Church to the Interstate. And I knew Cory had 6 really good friends. People wanted to honor the valiant, Christian, Hometown 19 year old. The stood on the overpasses with firetrucks and ladders extended with the flag hanging. Traffic on the interstate - the other side - was halted. It was amazing. I prayed for Cory not to depart this life without seeing what was done for him. Volunteering for that mission. His mom is Christian Child Minister for her Church. I believe he is the only man I've known who died for this country.

He was an excellent young man, encouraging delinquents of the neighborhood to stop setting fire to their fences and play hide and seek they called 'Commandos'. Organizing an intervention for a very young boy, from the country, not to go in the woods & hurt what that boy called "critters." Changed the life of that boy. I really prayed fervently this glory would be revealed to Cory, as my son & I drove the 6 miles behind the hurst. I felt assuredly Cory could see it all. The day Cal told me Cory had gone behind his parent's wishes (and I hear them on that completely) and enlisted, I saw a cloud, as Cal spoke, in the shape of a star.

 

The Media largely ignored the amazing funeral. The war wasn't in the agenda at the time. Only our Hometown News and the Local Blog published the photos. 

Later, Cory's neighbors dedicated a flag, a flag pole and flower bed with a brass plaque to him, it is the park behind their house. And as I stood with the hundred or so people, their Scottish pastor said he knew Cory wasn't there today, he'd asked God and received that answer and Knew in his being the knowledge was from God. Cory Lives in Paradise. And I knew with the Pastor, it was so. And it dawned me - this isn't your average thing people used to say at Memorial Services from my childhood. Times are changing. The crowd of 100 people knew what the Pastor was saying was true.

My Pastor Clark also hears from God. I hear from God when I read the Bible.

Planned Obsolescence is one of the signs for the passage below. My washer and dryer are about 3 years old and need to be fixed. Our furnace, stove, water heater (had just broken & not flooded the house), sinks, toilets and faucets from our 1953 first cottage were all functioning in 1999 when we sold our home. My husband's 1921 childhood home had the same thing.  "We have the technology." The booklets from the 1953 appliances showed pride and hope in the drawings and the descriptions. People wanted to produce a good product.  

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

 Did you see the "End of Days" movie? It is about the passage above. My husband and I watched it; we were absolutely horror struck about the presence of evil not being stopped by holiness.  I don't believe there is another movie like it, Praise God.   

Hebrews 1:1-3   
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

 We voted with our feet when the Church where my husband & I were baptized as infants, met as teenagers, started saying in the Bible Studies, and later the pulpit; Paul did not know the Holy Spirit and we could disregard what he wrote 2,000 years ago. Do you know his Books, inspired by the Holy Spirit, speak of Temple sacrifices continuing to be done. The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. People still build monuments in areas they know Paul preached. Paul gave his life for his LORD. There is no greater love.   

2 Peter 3:2-4 
That you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 



The people who dwelled and lived with Jesus could not do other than preach Him and live for Him and die for HIM. Jesus Christ did not die in obscurity. Even Josephus, wily general, befriending Herodian kings and Roman Emperors proclaimed this to be AMAZING. Several times, he was interested enough to find out what was going on with the Jesus situation and he wrote his amazement. 16 years after Jesus died, Roman Emperors where putting people to death for Jesus and this continued for 400 years. They could not stop Jesus.

In January of 2011, people went mildly Cuban Missile Crisis over the animal die backs. Google searches became primarily about questions about the end of the world. Our media, which gives military secrets away like M&Ms started not publishing pertinent information like Vietnam having a massive cattle die off (one of the plagues began this way). 

So the question would be: Are we there yet?  We can have the complete and total assurance Jesus knows in His Eternal Kingdom when this will occur. Jesus lives in Paradise and continues to pray for us.  Any one who tells you they know for sure is knocked in the head.  Yet Jesus told us we would know like seeing a fig come into leaf. I love things that grow and this is - A Very Good Analogy. Why? Fig leaves are huge. Jesus had a good sense of humor.

And the answer to the question is: the Church proclaiming & adjusting to the world's values & today's standards is shrinking. And a huge majority of people loyally pray and believe. And then do exactly what they want to suit themselves. = Sign. We have a young generation who learns Church values from Saturday Night Live's Church Lady. And they believe it.

We are a crass culture. Yet people cry out for God. And He hears them. Eventually this will be all for show and He will come for His Beloved.  We are seeing signs of the end. We see the Church culture huddle together proclaiming more about what is wrong than the LOVE and actions a people who love GOD should do.  My best guess would be about 500 years. I pray for my family to be with the LORD in complete wholeness before we experience the horror of the last days.  

Proclaim the Gospel. Jesus said He is the LIGHT of the World.  It is by the Word of GOD we exist. And Thank YOU Father God.  Willing to LOVE us when we are crass and not holy. On Your mercy, each day we give YOU tremendous thanks. You are a God of Love.

 

<><

2 Corinthians 10 ~ I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!

2 Corinthians 10

I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. 12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. 17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Fascinating statement of Paul's ~ he contends with strength versus meekness. We don't think of Paul, facing down the crowds and be adept at it - as being meek and gentle.

And I don't think of Jesus as meek. Contending constantly with the religious pressing in on HIM from each angle. I think of HIM being strong and compassionate. Yet Jesus was always speaking with people, saying not to tell. Taking them aside to heal. Healing the deaf man in a private way someone deaf would understand.

What is God looking for?  Gratitude. Wanting to walk the path He gives us. It is pretty simple. We don't have to always understand the path others have. We don't always have to understand our own path. We are supposed to go down the path Father God gives us and be grateful. If we wander off of the path we are created for, God gives us new gifts - in seeking Him, and in forgiveness and we start down the adjusted path. The path we climb back on - in HIS righteousness. 

And because He is God. Creator of the Universe, The Almighty. True God of True God. True Light of True Light. We can only accomplish His will and His Plan. Even those who fight against HIM.

Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

<>< 

Matthew 9:9-13 ~ many tax collectors and sinners

Matthew 9:9-13

 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁰ And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

So many times we believe God endured this life, knowing what was to come. It was what Jesus came for - to call people and His sheer joy to call his friend Matthew. And how did Matthew return Jesus' call?

Matthew gave Jesus a feast in his own home. Calling his friends and the people he knew needed Jesus, not tip toeing around Jesus and being politically correct. But the people he knew. Displeasing the sacrifice crowd.  Pleasing Jesus to be in a party, celebrating life. Honoring Him. Jesus brought people JOY and Wonder. Loving them.

Give us this Day! 

 Matthew 6:34

 "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today."

John 2:10

 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."

This was Jesus' Love:

Luke 21:37

Every day Jesus went to the Temple to teach, and each evening he returned to spend the night on the Mount of Olives.

Hebrews 12:28

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe

<><

Job 25 ~ who is a worm!

The Dead Sea Scrolls—the oldest known surviving biblical and extra-biblical texts in the world—are slated to be scanned with high-resolution multispectral imaging equipment and shared online, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), this picture was taken in an IAA lab.

Job 25

 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

² “Dominion and fear are with God;
    he makes peace in his high heaven.
³ Is there any number to his armies?
    Upon whom does his light not arise?
⁴ How then can man be in the right before God?
    How can he who is born of woman be pure?
⁵ Behold, even the moon is not bright,
    and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
⁶  how much less man, who is a maggot,
    and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Job is not my favorite book in the Bible. Yet it gets a lot of mileage even today. Even people not well versed in Scripture want to talk about JOB. And if you think about it, it would have probably have made Job feel immensely better to know - all this suffering is Really Going to Pay Off. For himself, for eternity, for us.

The Book of Job - Eusebius (A.D. 263-399) placed Job "two ages before Moses" or 2,000-1,500 B.C. The Talmud has two opinions, saying it was written by Moses and, also, definitely before the First Temple. The First Temple was built about 950 B.C. The Book of Job is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls is the Targum of Job 11Q10. Another source says Job lived during Jacob's time and his second wife was Dinah (Jacob's daughter). Which is speculation.

So we have several aspects we can look at here. Job is suffering. And in America today, more likely than not, we wouldn't have tremendous support. When you attend grief recovery the Christian Churches are so good to provide - you discuss people hide from people who suffer. Statistics say Americans are increasingly so busy churning out what we deem proper existance, national statistics say we have 2 friends. 

So, the other aspect is -we live in a world where we hope to continually sort of replace people. Which is not new. Even the mummies found in China were not from China, but India and Eastern Europe.  We replace people when we change jobs, move, go to college, change Churches. So it is pretty interesting to us to see what "the olden days" hold.  

And this isn't intrinsically bad, we are touched and shaped by the changes in people around us. The journey is to grow up and go home.  

Job has Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. Which is good for us because - these people annoy Job like the way - people annoy us. And part of the problem is one recognizable in our lives - they have made judgements about Job and are going down that path the way a family dog makes a path in our backyards. And this is the way people who have known each other for a long time do communicate. It puts marriage counselors in business!

And it teaches us something - Important. Bildad is not right about Job. However, Bildad is connected to the Holy Spirit and has something Biblical to say.

We don't even come close to the Holiness of God. And that is an important message for me. I used to think I was one of the ones who could have comfortably sat up on the altar platform easily in a Baptist style Church. I was the older brother in the Prodigal Son. I had earned my wings, my salvation was in hand. And I do feel, as Christians know what God places in their heart, that I am saved. However, when I think about it today - I see I was pleasing myself.  And sweeping a lot under the rug. Which is surprising to me even today. We just don't earn our salvation. It is a gift.

We can certainly abuse our salvation and fumble it, causing God to turn from us. But HE is always willing to rush in when nothing is right - but a deep and abiding desire for HIM to return. And we can eventually wear out HIS good will. But He says He LOVES us. And John, who met Jesus, lived with Him says, HE IS A GOD OF LOVE.  Inspired, of course, not just by his experiences, but the Holy Spirit.

God saw us for exactly what we are. And He made a decision. To live the best part of life, as part of a family blending itself seamlessly together in a small community. And the worst part of life - to go forth each day - proclaiming Mercy over Sacrifice and Rule and to be rejected. To be hung on a cross. To be condemned as a criminal. Knowing what we all are. To decide to wade into the fray. And save us.

God tells us each day of our lives, "I value you as part of this earth's creation." How do we know? We aren't called home yet. Knowing that .... we will go home.

Why?  God loves you. Come as you are: Imperfect. Striving. Ugly. Beautiful. Upset. Peaceful. Good. Bad. Indifferent. Yet He reaches out to you.

I have a few Bildad the Shuhite s in my life. And sometimes I'd like to kick them, or walk away from them. Yet, God has placed them in my life. And they have something to say. It is up to me to hear if they are telling me something from God or to just be the mercy of God to them.

Because.

Give Justice with Mercy
Love Kindness
Walk Humbly with the LORD

Bildad was not giving Justice. But mercy - time to care and talk. Kindness - talking, even if it was not really justice. And giving us an important message Job wanted to push aside - we need to be Humble before GOD.


<><

Isaiah 59 ~ from this time forth and forevermore

Isaiah 59

 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
²  but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.
³  For your hands are defiled with blood
    and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
    your tongue mutters wickedness.

 
⁴  No one enters suit justly;
    no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
     they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
⁵ They hatch adders' eggs;
    they weave the spider's web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
    and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
⁶  Their webs will not serve as clothing;
    men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
    and deeds of violence are in their hands.
⁷  Their feet run to evil,
    and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
    desolation and destruction are in their highways.

 
⁸ The way of peace they do not know,
    and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
     no one who treads on them knows peace.

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us,
    and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰  We grope for the wall like the blind;
    we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
     among those in full vigor we are like dead men.

¹¹ We all growl like bears;
     we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none;
    for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
    and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
    and we know our iniquities:
¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord,
    and turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
    conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

¹⁴  Justice is turned back,
    and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
    and uprightness cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is lacking,
    and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
    that there was no justice.

 
¹⁶  He saw that there was no man,
    and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation,
    and his righteousness upheld him.

 
¹⁷  He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
    and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
    and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

 
¹⁸  According to their deeds, so will he repay,
    wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;
     to the coastlands he will render repayment.

 
¹⁹  So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west,
    and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come like a rushing stream,
    which the wind of the Lord drives.

²⁰  “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.

²¹ “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

How very, very fortunate we are to live in the New Covenant. Without Jesus Christ, we do not have the hope of forgiveness.  His own Arm has brought us Salvation and His Righteousness upholds His Promises to us.  His Glory comes to us like the rising of the sun. 

The Mercy, the Glory, the Righteousness, the Holiness, the Wonder of His Mighty Acts. His Grace. His Forgiveness. For each day of our lives. Now is the beginning of our eternity.

Jesus Christ the LORD.




<><

Jesus Made Time for What is Meaningful

June 30, 2012, 3:15 am811 Comments

The ‘Busy’ Trap

By TIM KREIDER

Anxiety: We worry. A gallery of contributors count the ways.

Tags:

Anxiety, Friendship, modern life, Time

If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: “That’s a good problem to have,” or “Better than the opposite.”

It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this; it’s something we collectively force one another to do.

Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs  who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.


Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. They schedule in time with friends the way students with 4.0 G.P.A.’s  make sure to sign up for community service because it looks good on their college applications. I recently wrote a friend to ask if he wanted to do something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time but if something was going on to let him know and maybe he could ditch work for a few hours. I wanted to clarify that my question had not been a preliminary heads-up to some future invitation; this was the invitation. But his busyness was like some vast churning noise through which he was shouting out at me, and I gave up trying to shout back over it.
.

Brecht Vandenbroucke

Even children are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extracurricular activities. They come home at the end of the day as tired as grown-ups. I was a member of the latchkey generation and had three hours of totally unstructured, largely unsupervised time every afternoon, time I used to do everything from surfing the World Book Encyclopedia to making animated films to getting together with friends in the woods to chuck dirt clods directly into one another’s eyes, all of which provided me with important skills and insights that remain valuable to this day. Those free hours became the model for how I wanted to live the rest of my life.

The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it. Not long ago I  Skyped with a friend who was driven out of the city by high rent and now has an artist’s residency in a small town in the south of France. She described herself as happy and relaxed for the first time in years. She still gets her work done, but it doesn’t consume her entire day and brain. She says it feels like college — she has a big circle of friends who all go out to the cafe together every night. She has a boyfriend again. (She once ruefully summarized dating in New York: “Everyone’s too busy and everyone thinks they can do better.”) What she had mistakenly assumed was her personality — driven, cranky, anxious and sad — turned out to be a deformative effect of her environment. It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this, any more than any one person wants to be part of a traffic jam or stadium trampling or the hierarchy of cruelty in high school — it’s something we collectively force one another to do.

Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness.

Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day. I once knew a woman who interned at a magazine where she wasn’t allowed to take lunch hours out, lest she be urgently needed for some reason. This was an entertainment magazine whose raison d’être was obviated when “menu” buttons appeared on remotes, so it’s hard to see this pretense of indispensability as anything other than a form of institutional self-delusion. More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary. I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.

I am not busy. I am the laziest ambitious person I know. Like most writers, I feel like a reprobate who does not deserve to live on any day that I do not write, but I also feel that four or five hours is enough to earn my stay on the planet for one more day. On the best ordinary days of my life, I write in the morning, go for a long bike ride and run errands in the afternoon, and in the evening I see friends, read or watch a movie. This, it seems to me, is a sane and pleasant pace for a day. And if you call me up and ask whether I won’t maybe blow off work and check out the new American Wing at the Met or ogle girls in Central Park or just drink chilled pink minty cocktails all day long, I will say, what time?

But just in the last few months, I’ve insidiously started, because of professional obligations, to become busy. For the first time I was able to tell people, with a straight face, that I was “too busy” to do this or that thing they wanted me to do. I could see why people enjoy this complaint; it makes you feel important, sought-after and put-upon. Except that I hate actually being busy. Every morning my in-box was full of e-mails asking me to do things I did not want to do or presenting me with problems that I now had to solve. It got more and more intolerable until finally I fled town to the Undisclosed Location from which I’m writing this.
Here I am largely unmolested by obligations. There is no TV. To check e-mail I have to drive to the library. I go a week at a time without seeing anyone I know. I’ve remembered about buttercups, stink bugs and the stars. I read. And I’m finally getting some real writing done for the first time in months. It’s hard to find anything to say about life without immersing yourself in the world, but it’s also just about impossible to figure out what it might be, or how best to say it, without getting the hell out of it again.

Related

More From Anxiety

Read previous contributions to this series.

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. “Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do,” wrote Thomas Pynchon in his essay on sloth. Archimedes’ “Eureka” in the bath, Newton’s apple, Jekyll & Hyde and the benzene ring: history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments and dreams. It almost makes you wonder whether loafers, goldbricks and no-accounts aren’t responsible for more of the world’s great ideas, inventions and masterpieces than the hardworking.

“The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.” This may sound like the pronouncement of some bong-smoking anarchist, but it was actually Arthur C. Clarke, who found time between scuba diving and pinball games to write “Childhood’s End” and think up communications satellites. My old colleague Ted Rall recently wrote a column proposing that we divorce income from work and give each citizen a guaranteed paycheck, which sounds like the kind of lunatic notion that’ll be considered a basic human right in about a century, like abolition, universal suffrage and eight-hour workdays. The Puritans turned work into a virtue, evidently forgetting that God invented it as a punishment.

Perhaps the world would soon slide to ruin if everyone behaved as I do. But I would suggest that an ideal human life lies somewhere between my own defiant indolence and the rest of the world’s endless frenetic hustle. My role is just to be a bad influence, the kid standing outside the classroom window making faces at you at your desk, urging you to just this once make some excuse and get out of there, come outside and play. My own resolute idleness has mostly been a luxury rather than a virtue, but I did make a conscious decision, a long time ago, to choose time over money, since I’ve always understood that the best investment of my limited time on earth was to spend it with people I love. I suppose it’s possible I’ll lie on my deathbed regretting that I didn’t work harder and say everything I had to say, but I think what I’ll really wish is that I could have one more beer with Chris, another long talk with Megan, one last good hard laugh with Boyd.

Life is too short to be busy.

Mark 5:21-43 ~ “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.”

 Housing in Judea during the time Jesus lived

Capernaum, Jesus' adult hometown, today

Mark 5:21-43

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. ²²  Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet ²³ and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” ²⁴ And he went with him.

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. ²⁵ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” ²⁹  And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² And he looked around to see who had done it. ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” ³⁶ But overhearing^{[ignoring, hearing]} what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” ³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. ⁴¹  Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. ⁴³ And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

This would have taken place in Capernaum. It is an interesting dilemma - one we can think about today. Should we acknowledge Jesus in our lives. Jairus has to decide. Is he a Jew running the synagogue. Is it worth it to let Jesus come to his house to see his dying daughter. She probably didn't just get sick that day. Events are pressing in on Jairus.

21 Times Jesus has healed with His Spoken Word
13 Times Jesus has reached out to touch
9 Times people were healed dfuring preaching and teaching, plus the 2 times the Scripture says "He healed them All."
8 Times Jesus drove out demons
7 Times ill people where healed because they had faith
4 Times Jesus was moved with compassion 
1  reached out to touch Him.


And Jairus sees the woman reach out to Jesus. Jairus has done the same thing. He has put aside the pride of his position to reach out to Jesus.  And the woman is healed. Jairus must have been so glad. And then crushed.  Jairus' face must have been completely stricken.

Jesus immediately reacts to Jairus. Saying

 "Do not fear, only believe.”

Mark 9:24
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

Faith. Jesus saw it waver, in those around Him,  all the time.

Matthew 14:30-31
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

If Jesus sees faithlessness so often, what set Jairus, the boy's father and Peter apart?

Romans 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Romans 4:20-25
No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Both Jairus and the woman - reached out to Jesus. And in reaching out. Jesus had compassion on them. Lives were changed. Hearts renewed.  This is what Jesus is about. Making people know how wide, how deep, how unfailing is God's love. For us.

John 20:29
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Blessed.


<><

Psalm 30 ~ that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

I recently woke up recently on Padre Island and decided to use the energy and joy to walk on the beach. As I walked, I realized the sun was rising out of a collar of clouds, very similar to this photo and the sun was perfectly centered. It was a great blessing. The color of the clouds actually looked more like yesterday's photo.  Only One is Good. Jesus the LORD.


Psalm 30


I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.

8 To you, O Lord, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!
O Lord, be my helper!”

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!


Genesis 18:32-33
Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

The angels saved Lot and his two daughters in Genesis 19.

Jeremiah 5:1
"Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city."

Ezekiel 22:30
"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none."

John 2:23-25
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Matthew 23:37
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"



Matthew Henry's Commentary
2:23-25 Our Lord knew all men, their nature, dispositions, affections, designs, so as we do not know any man, not even ourselves. He knows his crafty enemies, and all their secret projects; his false friends, and their true characters. He knows who are truly his, knows their uprightness, and knows their weaknesses. We know what is done by men; Christ knows what is in them, he tries the heart. Beware of a dead faith, or a formal profession: carnal, empty professors are not to be trusted, and however men impose on others or themselves, they cannot impose on the heart-searching God.


2 Samuel 7

English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for the great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. 25 And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”



Romans 8:26-38

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

<><