Know Jack #387 Keeping Cool

 "You can't know too much, but you can say too much."

~ Calvin Coolidge

The 30th President was famous for his reticence. It seems to be a lost quality in the unrepressed urge of modern humanity to flood the public forum with every detail of their lives, including what they had for dinner. The ever-growing number of social platforms share a common thread. They provide a virtual parade ground in which people celebrate themselves. What is wrong with waving one’s own flag? It depends on intent, timing, and reception.

Timing is everything when it comes to speaking. One of my youngest daughter’s lessons was to memorize Solomon’s greatest bit of wisdom which teaches that there is a time to keep silent and a time to speak. Often the worst time to speak is when wisdom and knowledge have failed the speaker. I have heard it said that if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bull@!#*. That seldom works and cannot benefit the hearer.

On the other hand, the wrong person speaking from a vast reservoir of knowledge tends to offend both the enlightened and the dull. Being offended has almost become a professional sport with every player struggling for the most outlandish offense. Knowledge has a way of making modern people feel judged and thereby offended. In fact, correction itself is the highest form of judgment. Knowledge and wisdom are best maintained in silence.

Intent goes even deeper. “Love vaunted not itself, is not puffed up.” False intent is easily recognized. It begins by telling how all the rest of the world is wrong rather than simply stating what the speaker believes. This kind of speech is more concerned with inflating the speaker than conveying the truth. It is common among health nuts, nutrition gurus, and some old-time tent evangelists.

Coolidge is relatively unknown. He certainly knew more than most. He excelled at resisting the temptation to toot his own horn. That may have denied him a better place in history, but somehow, I think he was okay with that.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #177 Why Am I Here?

 “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.”

John 12:27

The palm-strewn parade is over. Jesus is facing imminent death by crucifixion at the hands of those who just cheered His arrival. He is God and yet He is so completely human it is as if He were not divine. His human body feels as does ours. He shares the impact of emotion as we do—that’s the point of the Incarnation.

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities…” (Hebrews 4:15)

He is not cold, aloof, or far away—He feels. He is about to be humiliated, beaten, and crucified, and He knows it. It’s not just a feeling this might happen, it is certain knowledge. To say His soul was troubled may be an understatement.

He is so human there is a real temptation to ask the Father to rescue Him and spare Him the pain. There is also a desire to do His duty and thus fulfill His purpose in life. The desire wins. He came to do something no one else could do—be humbly obedient to God in His fleshly, earth-bound life as an example to all who would follow Him.

Life is a struggle with the curse humanity bears. Pain and pleasure, heartbreak and joy, betrayal and fidelity, obedience, and defiance are issues we are meant to experience as the means of crafting a unique eternal personality. That is why we are here and maybe the entire purpose of the creation we know.

It is not the business of God to rescue us from experiencing life—even from the parts that hurt. It may be that those who seek to escape every trial and pain are, in fact, fighting against God’s purpose. That is not to say that we should throw up our hands, sing Que Sera, Sera, and indifferently float along on whatever comes. God's will is for us to be active, willing partners in His design.

Fate, destiny, whatever you choose to call the future course of life, is known by God. He sees our choices and gives us the freedom to make them. Save me, from what? my life? from my reason to exist?

No, rather Lord save me from the temptation to seek escape from Your will. Jesus in connection with the words that began this blog said, “Now is the judgment of this world”. The world and all that is in it shall be judged by the standard of His obedient choice of the will of God over escape.

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for me...Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—To do Your will O, God.” (Hebrews 10:5-7)

We have all come to this hour, no matter what it brings, to choose what kind of person we are to become. Choose wisely.

Maranatha

Know Jack #386 Fiction or Fake?

 “Look there, friend Sancho, and behold thirty or forty outrageous giants, with whom, I intend to engage in battle, and put every soul of them to death…”

Don Quixote de la Manche

At first glance saving the world is much easier when it’s one you have created. The trouble is that a writer’s world can take on a life all its own. When that happens, trying to impose rules from outside makes your fictitious world appear fake and that spells doom.

Fictitious means imaginary—elements are put together from the raw materials stored inside the writer’s head and heart. We are told to write what we know. However, this has little to do with facts. It has much more to do with life experience.

If you’ve known heartbreak and loss, imparting that experience to an imaginary person makes them and the world they live in more believable. Unless your character is delusional, like Cervantes’s knight-errant, reality must be an experience shared by the reader and writer. If you see giants, your reader needs to see them too. Writing what you know means writing what the readers know or want to experience.

Disbelief can only be suspended for so long and credibility stretched just so far before it all falls apart. A fake describes a sham or counterfeit. When the world you create is contrived, when the characters and scenes are forced, it will collapse under its own weight of unbelief.

I spent the biggest part of the weekend with new friends from Alabama Paranormal and Bigfoot Group. The free exchange of ideas was amazing. We didn’t necessarily all agree on every topic discussed. However, everyone was free to share their thoughts without the intolerance of other views espoused by so much of modern society. This was because speakers shared what they knew/experienced, shared experience, and a general willingness to listen to every voice.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #176 What Were You Thinking?

 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Hebrews 4:12

“Actions speak louder than words.” How many times have you heard people say it as if speaking loudly was the same as telling the truth? Actions are as easily misinterpreted as words. In point of fact, actions can be as duplicitous as any other form of communication. While He did not say to believe everything you hear, Jesus pointed out to His disciples that “from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh”, but I digress. We are speaking of the veracity of actions.

Let me point you to the actions of one extremely well known deceiver. He was a worker of miracles and a defeater of devils. He was chosen by Jesus and sent out with power to be numbered with those who returned proclaiming, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name”.

I am speaking of Judas Iscariot of whom Jesus would later reveal, “Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Clarence Larkin, in his commentary on this verse, argues for the definite article with the word devil. That is, not a devil, but the (as in one and only) devil.

Let’s add one more familiar passage that appears in red in those old-fashioned Bibles. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

 

What then is the best measure of the truth? Our text gives us a clue. The word “quick” does not mean fast. It means alive—like that part of your nail that hurts when cut. While it is sharp enough to separate soul and spirits, joints and marrow, it discerns (to see and understand the difference) thoughts and intents.

No matter what you say or do, the motivation behind it is known to God and can be brought to light with the application of His living word. Study the true Word (Jesus) and you will come to recognize falsehood in all its forms.

Maranatha

Know Jack #385 Home on the Range

 "Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control."

~ Calvin Coolidge

Socrates urged listeners to “know thyself”. The best way to do this and preserve our integrity is to shut out all that questions our opinions and beliefs. This is true on a national scale as well.

Not long ago, Americans were hammered with the catchphrase, “Follow the science”. It sounded good until we were instructed to follow it blindly and never question the findings. That sounds incredibly like what those who trust in science mocked Christians for doing. Would that make them hypocrites? Oh, no, because it was science they were quoting and everyone knows scientists don’t lie, not even to keep their grants.

When the unquestioned science began to fall apart, governmental agencies violated their own rules to prop it up, and dissenting voices were shut out of the public forum. It has since become the norm to denigrate any opinion that dares question the pronouncements of the government and the media. Intolerance of opposing ideas is considered essential to a proper higher education. It is the official policy of some universities. Developing minds must be protected from “wrong” thinking while on their way to what amounts to a participation trophy.

Disinformation boards and community standards are bringing public information under ever tighter control where never is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.

Maranatha

 

Lost Crusader #175 Liberty

 “Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.”

2 Corinthians 3:16-17 KJV

The veil spoken of in the passage above refers to the one worn by Moses. His face shone so brightly after being on the mountain with God that his fellow travelers could not stand the light. So, he wore a veil. In a similar fashion, a veil was placed in the tabernacle/temple between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies which was thought to be the place of God on earth. The idea was not to hide God but to shield mortal eyes from the brightness of His glory. A brightness which shall destroy the antichrist at Christ’s return.

When Jesus was crucified, the veil was torn in two making available direct access to God. Having seen the Son, we have seen the Father, and being indwelt by His Spirit who reveals all things there remains no need for a veil. We are set at liberty to see Him as He is and follow in His steps.

The truth is out there. A popular television show once used those words as its slogan. Though they meant something far different than what I propose here, they were correct. Not only is the truth out there; it’s not hidden nor is it veiled.

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

We are at liberty to refuse to see and hear. The idea of a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not some social construct or political issue. They lie at the heart of our Christian faith as the plan of God for humanity. We have been shown the plan and must choose how we shall follow it or whether to follow it at all.

In Christ there is life. He is the Life. Where His Spirit abides there is Liberty. However, when we go to Him, there no longer is a pursuit of happiness for in His presence is fullness of joy.

Maranatha

Know Jack #384 The Right to Write

 “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The First Amendment to the Constitution quoted above is often bantered about by Americans—most often by those with a need to defend their actions, whether good or bad. It is of special interest to writers and publishers. The text of the Constitution and its Amendments is not as misunderstood as its context. The misunderstanding has to do with our distance from the inception of the document and our distance from the spirit of those who wrote it.

It is supposed by the less pugnacious Americans of the 21st Century that the rights secured by the Constitution are a grant from the government to its citizens (and anyone brash enough to steal across our borders). While this is certainly true of our British cousins and other republican governments, it is not true here.

The United States Constitution is a grant from the American people to their government. It outlines the rights and duties we the people give to our representatives. The Constitution is meant to protect the people from their government by limiting what it can do.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are granted to people by their Creator. James Madison explained that because “we the people” are not angels, we needed a government to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic. As a corollary, because the people elected to serve in that government were not angels, the government needed to be limited by the people.

Free speech is not absolute. No one has the right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. We do have the God-given right to form our own opinions and express them in the public forum without regard to who might be offended. Furthermore, the offended have no right to demand the offensive words be silenced.

I am sharing this tidbit as a reminder of from whence we have fallen. I recently witnessed two men having a private conversation. An eavesdropper took offense to what they were saying and an organization that claims to support 100% Americanism shut down the conversation. Several members pronounced the right of these two men to express themselves privately with one another as “bullshit”.

I feel compelled to share this because silence is tacit agreement. There is way too much silence in America today. Intolerance with certain views has become standard instruction in our institutes of learning and within portions of our government. Silence on the part of “we the people” cannot help but be interpreted as consent to being trampled under the heel of the government.