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Lenten Devotionals 2009
Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of the Presence of God, Who is Love. Please share this ministry with others, and I hope you return soon. There is a new offering daily.
Blessings,
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox
Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain
PRAYERFUL ENTERING
Let the following sentences be preparation for entering into the Inner Sanctuary of the Heart of Hearts...
Divine Love, you are here with me
You are coming from outside me
You are arising from within me
Your Spirit and my spirit are becoming one.
You are meeting me
in many ways
in many places
through many persons.
You are
changing me, more and more,
into the Likeness of YourSelf.
I am here
I am receptive.
My Love, I invite you fully into me
my body
my heart
my mind
my soul.
*Brian K. Wilcox.
MAKING MELODY
"Brave." Nicole Nordeman.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecB4i1XcqN8
[Paste into your browser]
LISTENING TO THE SCRIPTURES
1 Then God gave the people all these instructions[lit., words]: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. 3 “You must not have any other god but me.
4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those[or, thousands of] who love me and obey my commands.
7 “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.
8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
12 “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You must not murder.
14 “You must not commit adultery.
15 “You must not steal.
16 “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.
17 “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”
18 When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear.
19 And they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!”
20 “Don’t be afraid,” Moses answered them, “for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning!”
21 As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.
*Exodus 20.1-21 (NLT)
RECEIVING SACRED TEACHING
I had been told my someone that God told the person to do something that brought much hurt to me. I could not make sense, in light of my relationship with Christ and teaching in Scripture, how the person could claim God said to do something appearing so contradictory to Scripture and its principles.
I told my counselor what the person claimed God said to do. My counselor was a dedicated Christian, and devoted to the Scripture. The counselor looked at me with utmost serious, and spoke plainly: "God did not tell her to do that. God does not tell persons to do things like that."
How could the counselor be so confidant? Because she saw that in Christian theology and, even more, in Scripture, there are certain foundational principles.
Let us assume this. I say, "A fireman does not fight fires." Of course, that statement is contradictory by means of inner inconsistency. Likewise, if I said, "That man hurt me, and God told me to go hit him with a ball bat," that is an inherent contradiction. "God" and "hit him with a ball bat" are contradictories.
I cannot rightly claim God told me to do that, even if I dearly want to believe God told me to. I could say, "Well, the angel Michael appeared to me in a dream and told me God wanted me to hit him with a ball bat." No, the vision is contradictory to a godly principle and, thus, cannot be true. At most, I am showing how I lack spiritual discernment. At worst, I am showing the extent to which I will use the name "God" to justify doing what God says is wrong, or even something God disdains.
So, today we address obedience to principles. This will alert us to a need to be judicious in our choices, what we say is right or wrong, the things we say God says or does not say, whom to believe and not to believe in matters of religious affirmation and spiritual direction, ...
A long-standing teaching in the Church is to be careful about intuitive and mystical experiences that appear to be of God. What I mean are revelations, visions, voices - inner or outer -, dreams, ... We can open ourselves, without knowing, to potential self-deception, demonic lies, and delusional ideas and experiences - and as I have affirmed before: Stay away from the occult. Our brain, and that of other persons, has an amazing capacity at producing religious delusions.
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Following Sacred Teaching (or, Torah), the Jewish faith calls halakhah. The root means "to walk, go, travel." Halakhah, then, is the "path one is to walk."
Not all Jews see this Walking alike - hang in, I will relate this later to Christian faith. Below, I give a broad outline of Jewish groups in regard to obedience to Sacred Teaching, but there are other groups in Judaism.
1) Orthodox Jews include the most conservative and oldest branch of Jewish faith. Every word of the Jewish Scripture is considered God-inspired, and the Torah is to be kept strictly.
2) Reform Jews are liberals. This group adheres to ethical laws, but they ignore other teachings: such as on diet and clothing. Divine Teaching is considered influenced by history and cultural changes; all the Teaching is not considered to be followed for all time.
3) Conservative Jews includes a moderate position between Orthodox and Reform Jews. For example, in English-speaking congregations, Orthodox Jews have worship in Hebrew, Reform Jews can use English, and Conservatives use Hebrew and another language.
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The above demonstrates differences in Christianity, likewise. Christians are widely divergent in how they see, for example, the Bible and how to apply it in changing times. Some groups focus more on the Bible than others, while some groups focus more on theology than others.
And often Christians are contradictory in claims about the Scripture and applying it. Many ultra-conservative groups say things, for example, like: "The Bible is inspired by God word-for-word, faithfully transmitted in translation, and is to be obeyed fully." These churches do not do what they say. They do not obey it fully, not in the sense in which they mean "fully." And among them, they can diverge on beliefs and practices, while each claims to be faithfully following the Bible "fully."
How many of these churches, for example, require women to follow the succeeding Scripture?
5 But a woman dishonors her head [or, her husband] if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. 6 Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering [or, should have long hair].
*I Corinthians 11.5-6 (NLT)
Now, I am not picking on any group. There are contradictions in all groups within the over-all Church. So, I proceed to share a verity that can be used by persons in any group within Christianity.
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Teachings like the Ten Commandments have an underlying belief vital to our society and our spiritual lives. What is it? Well, it is more a mega-belief; that is, a belief covering every belief. The mega-belief:
There is a divine order undergirding all things - like a spiritual template -, an order arising from and reflecting the Nature of God, and we are to seek to live in agreement - or alignment - with that divine order in all things.
See, the Ten Commandments can be referred to any time and culture. For they contain underlying principles that are part of the divine order. If we, for example, compromise the principle of one Divine Reality, we dis-align with the divine order. To this extent, we cut ourselves off from the fullness of Divine blessing. God is not withholding blessing as much as we are not aligned to receive the Nature of God.
Where all Christians can meet, while disagreeing with many particulars of the faith, is in seeking to discern the aspects of the divine order. We can ask, "What are the underlying principles that apply always, regardless?"
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What is a principle? We can look at etymology to differentiate principles from other beliefs and customs. "Principle" is from the Latin meaning "beginning." This is from the Latin "initiator." The word "prince" comes from the same root. A principle, then, is a fundamental truth on which other truths, beliefs, and customs rest.
Therefore, the way we live out principles will change, but principles will not change. This means the Bible is not a book demanding us to follow temporary beliefs or customs, when these are not fundamental truths, but derivative truths.
Also, we are not to expect the Bible to be what it is not. The Bible is not a history, physics, or science book, anymore than it is a book of cartoons or logic. We should not demand of the Bible accuracy in areas that are not principles. This makes the whole argument of Creationism, based on Genesis 1.1ff, in error. Sure, the Scripture affirms a Creator, but uses a nonscientific genre to convey the truth of (indeed, truths about) creation, not the precise way God created. There are wonderful teachings in Genesis 1.1ff, only they are not scientific: they are parabolic, symbolic, theological.
Cutting through the non-principles, we seek to arrive at a template of principles. We ask, "What is here that is spiritually applicable, always and everywhere?"
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What do we do next? We align ourselves with the principle and, thereby, place ourselves in Divine Blessing by obedience. We could call this "regardless obedience."
So, disobedience to the divine order brings "curse." I do not mean anything like God saying, "Well, my dear child stole that money, so, I'm going to punish him." No, God does not have to do that. The divine order is a manifestation of the Nature of God. The Path is already present in creation. God does not have to punish or judge. We are judged by the results of our not walking in the Path.
In a crude likeness, we could say it is like walking a path, and someone saying, "Okay, I made this path for you to walk in, and out of my heart and mind. It mirrors my love for you. If you keep walking on it, you will walk in love. If you get off it, then, all kinds of other things happen. There are traps, wild animals, bandits, thorns, cacti, poisonous snakes, scorpions, ..."
This does not mean there is one negative result that is for each negative thought or action. Neither does it mean that the flowering of the result is immediate. Often a result seems to be more like a collection of negativity that has coalesced over time. And the clarity of a negative result may be seen long after we violated the Path.
Where does Grace fit in here? Where does forgiveness fit? And repentance? That is not for the writing today. However, it appears that such blessings have potential to lessen or negate negativity. This is one reason we need to apply the negative consequence, so to speak, of remorse, repentance, and confession. If we violate the divine order and think we can get away with it, and think we can go on like nothing happened, we will suffer consequences the more.
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Jesus gives us insight into this Path: the following of eternal, foundational truth.
27While Jesus was still talking, a woman in the crowd spoke up, "The woman who gave birth to you and nursed you is blessed!" 28Jesus replied, "That's true, but the people who are really blessed are the ones who hear and obey God's message!"
*Luke 11.27-28 (CEV)
QUIETLY RESPONDING
1) What in the above writing challenged your thinking?
2) Have you committed an act that you need to confess, repent of, and seek reconciliation regarding? If so, will you do that as soon as possible?
3) What are some beliefs you would define as a principle?
4) What are some religious teachings or customs you regard as non-principles?
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian K. Wilcox, of SW Florida. Brian is pastor at Christ Community United Methodist Church, Harbour Heights, FL, and Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
*Contact the above email to book Brian for Spiritual Direction, retreats, or workshops. You can order his book An Ache for Union at major book dealers.
*The categories of Jewish groups is derived from Bruce Bickel, Stan Jantz. World Religions & Cults 101. Assistance with the etymology of "principle" is from http://www.merriam-webster.com/ ; Merriam-Webster, ©2009.
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