Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

Does it come as such a big surprise? I've got to make you realize that I am not what you think I am. I'm nothing more than just a man. - Just a Man, Undercover  Maybe this is just self-flattery. Maybe I am thinking too highly of myself. But I was not designed to fulfill anyone's desires. That is not who God made me to be. Are you looking to me to be the model of faithfulness? Righteousness? Virtue? Then why? I am just a man. Your foundation and consolation is found in a person, but not this person.  We knew it all along. Thanks be to God we are in the season of the longing. When we wonder if we will ever stop flitting from person to person for our identity. Our fulfillment. Our satisfaction. Without rival he came. The Christ penetrated this mess of a place and, without apology took me by the collar, looked straight into my soul, and commanded me to fix my gaze, arrest my attention, on him and him alone. He grabbed both sides of my head and without waver he made it clear th...

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5, NIV We have certain hymns and services, which we say daily, of Lord and thanks to God for His marvelous works; and some forms of prayer, imploring His aid and blessing for the illumination of our labors, and the turning of them into good and holy uses.  -  Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis I am convinced that there is a popular and fuller interpretation of Genesis 3:5 than that which is the popular one. This interpretation can be found in considering the phrase "knowing good and evil" as a Hebrew merism. A merism is a rhetorical device where a whole is represented by its parts, For example, saying "we searched high and low" means "we searched everywhere". Thus, a merism is a way to express totality or completeness by referencing the extremes of a concept. I have come to cognitive rest on this considering "knowing good and ev...

John MacArthur died yesterday. I have benefitted greatly from his books, interviews with Larry King, and other media that he has produced and that I have consumed. I read an article about him entitled  Died: John MacArthur, Reformed Expositor with Worldwide Reach—and Tainted Legacy and that led me to reflect on my own public and private lives. You know, the one people see and the ones that God sees. If Christ is to be believed, and he is, he has made the pronouncement over my life and even the life of someone as accomplished as MacArthur: “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone." (Mark 10:18) I am not a good man, nor am I a good father. I am not a good spouse nor a good employee. I am not good because, frankly, I am not God. That should not be a surprise to anyone. Any superlatives that may be directed to me while I am living or after I have died should have an asterisk after them for: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down ...

There are so many things to which I can give myself. So many things that I can contemplate, so much I can chase after. It is so strange, this freedom I have, to literally do what I want. Of course, the freedom I choose results in a corresponding slavery and there's the rub. I have found a freedom that frustrates, kills, and separates. It's ugly and painful. It has consequences that lead to death. This freedom is sweet for a minute until it stings. Its pain lasts. I forget about that and chase the minute sweetness again. It doesn't satisfy and I am restless under its control. Up down, up down, up down - unsettling is its wake and in my lucidity I see the effects of its poison. I was listening to a podcast in preparation of me teaching the context and outline of the book of Jonah and I felt something that I had not felt since Sunday (it's Wednesday!). When the speaker talked about the compassion of God toward Jonah and the Ninevites something stirred in me. Something deep...

I am just now getting over the flu that I have had for the better part of a week. I am actually now able to concentrate and get some substantial professional and personal work done.   I hate being sick. So much of it is so frustrating because there is so much I want to do, so much of what I want to be, and I am not able to do and be that when I am ill. I know I need to embrace it when it comes. At the very least it illustrates to me life in this fallen world and brings into sharper focus the spousal purpose of my body. You see, I long to give of myself to my wife. That self gift, that love gift, is made manifest through my body. My invisible desires are now visible. There is a myriad of ways that this self gift is expressed to her - from folding laundry to holding her hand when she is sad. And yet I acutely feel my limitations of my expression of the love gift my body is purposed to be when I am sick. It is not merely a feeling of uselessness, but a frustration of the purpose ...

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...

I am reading A Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II. It is a thick book that may take me the better part of a year to get through. Last night, I came across a passage in the book that stopped me. In this part of the book the Pope is ruminating on the initial solitude of man and the implications that has on the body. As he does he makes this statement: "The...text never speaks directly about the body; even when it says 'the Lord God formed man with dust of the ground,' it speaks about man and not the body."   Now I was never explicitly taught that the body, and the body alone, came from the ground. However, I was somehow under the mistaken impression that the body was formed and waited around for the soul. Maybe I thought that when God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being"  was the point at which he was given a soul, but that is not the best reading of the text.  Now, Augustine helps me out a little bit here w...

  His Word shall live forever. The Word is a sword that pierces the heart And its truth is a light that cuts through the dark Of this world. Nations shall rise and nations shall fall But nothing shall stand in the way Of the Word.  - Iona I was young and now I am much older and there is one thing that I am more convinced of than ever. God's Word, the Bible, is the only truth that cuts through all of the darkness that this world offers me. Time-bound kingdoms, the ones that ruled over large swaths of this planet and even the one that currently commands the sons and daughters of disobedience cannot stand in its way.  The Word is sufficient in the ultimate and proximate sense as there is nothing of which it does not speak nor conquer. It's light, almost blinding at times, cannot be dimmed. Revelation after revelation, promise after promise, peace upon peace - it's all there and as it marches on it smashes the wisdom of the wise confounding the schemes of the clever.  Wh...

  We had some good machines, but they don't work no more. I loved you once, don't love you anymore.  - Faded Flowers, Shriekback Where are the good machines? The iron and gears that ground out the steps of this life and even love? So many hours to maintain them just to bask in their hum. So many sunset questions concerning their fitness for another day. Another month. One more year? Why was the hole they filled never filled? My love was strong for them. No one who really knew me would think otherwise. What? I never spoke of them to you? You never heard? Surely you felt them. Don't you know how they dictated my treatment of you? You thought that was just me? Well, yes. It was. Yes, you beautiful automatons. I loved you. You never cared on whit for me but I couldn't stop drinking your oil and polishing your brass. I saw my reflection once. Once in the mirror chrome. And that was your death. And mine. You'll fade even more. You will never again see my face.  Only my ba...

I can tell you My love for you will still be strong After the boys of Summer have gone - Don Henley, Boys of Summer Ah the boys of Summer. From where they come we scarcely know. But they arrive nonetheless with their blonde hair, blue eyes, and muscle beach physique. Their white teeth glint even in the rain and their voice rivals that of the storms that herald cooler, drier air. Their hands are firm, fierce, and tender. They know their business, whether a traveling carnival or beach to comb, and their seduction pull shakes even the most sure and forthright. What chance do they not offer? What delight do they not possess? What siren song have they not mastered? What freedom do they not promise? What spell do they not cast? Is there peril at which they do not scoff? Is there sweet fragrance that escapes them? What opportunity is there apart from them even in their wake? Their season is brief and then just you. Me. He. My Love proves strong during their wax and wane doesn't He? Doesn...

I have been chronicling the journey of the Bee Girl in parts one  and two . This is a further exploration of what I see. Peering through the gate the Bee Girl happens upon a magnificent scene. There are no less than 10 people: old, young, black, white, brown, who are all dressed in bee costumes much like hers. They are all dancing together in a green, sunlit field with joyfulness expressed in such a unique manner. This is what she had been seeking in the faces and posture of the people that she had met and that even led her on this journey. Needless to say she joins them. Her somewhat tattered bee suit blends right in with the others and they accept her as one of their own. How could they not? She looks just like them. I can't help but smile in relief that she has found her satisfaction in her image in the ones she now embraces. The ones that have seemingly longed for her. This scene seems so unlike the one in the beginning of the video. But it isn't. It isn't at all. Benea...

For the proper context of this post I would encourage the reader to Part 1 of this series. Well, the Bee Girl rejected the false community that derided her in the talent show. Now in the light that is gracing her as she exited the door to the back stage she journeys to find a community that will be more receptive to that portion of her identity. With apologies to Mr. Spock, the journey she takes is fascinating. She finds numerous groups and individuals for which she performs while still in the bee suit. Admittedly the dance is a little wilder, perhaps more spontaneous, perhaps not, but she dances her heart out for these groups of people in an apparent attempt to make them understand. In short, they don't. She is met with curious stares and confusion. Some merely tolerate her, some come alongside her and even reach out to touch.  Yet, she remains unfulfilled. Her image, the one that drives her, the one in which she finds fulfillment, is not even remotely shared in the ones she seek...

Needless to say there is much that has been said around the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the matter of the legality of abortion back to the States for legislative action. Through the decision the Supreme Court communicated that the United States Constitution does not secure the right for anyone to seek an abortion and that the 1973 ruling guaranteeing that right was in error. The Supreme Court has overturned longer-standing precedents in the past, but that is not why I am writing about this decision.  In full disclosure I am of the belief that human life starts at the moment of conception. I see this position supported in my understanding of the science of reproduction and I believe that this position is in line with mainline veins of western philosophical tradition, current societal norms and sensibilities concerning motherhood and child rearing, and a careful reading of the Bible. However, I am not filled with joy concerning either one of the de...

Today, seemingly out of "nowhere" I recalled the memorial acclimation that I was often invited to recite when I was a young boy in the Catholic Church: Dying you destroyed our death, Rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory.  My sin will thrust me, hard, so hard, into the ground some day. Unnatural though it will be my soul will be unzipped from this body of mine disintegrating what God joined 52 years ago. Yet this death will not result in my destruction. It will be the doorway to a new life.  With overwhelming force God will rip me from my grave.  Just as Christ died, was buried, and resurrected so will I be. My brother, master, and savior has shown the way through his death. This death that was meant for evil has been humiliated by the Son and it now kneels before him to do his bidding in benefit of the children he has won for his Father.  I need to taste this death today and die to that which seeks me. I need to come alive and unite myself to him w...

hermeneutic - adj. concerning interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts  noun a method or theory of interpretation We can't go on, together With suspicious minds And we can't build our dreams On suspicious minds - Suspicious Minds, Elvis Presley If there is one thing that has characterized the conversations of our recent times it is this: we are entrenched in a diabolical hermeneutic of suspicion. Now a hermeneutic is a theory or method of interpretation. As people speak I interpret what they are saying and fashion an appropriate response. If someone requires the potatoes at our table they request that I pass them and I fashion a response in concert with my interpretation of their communication. I pass them the bowl of potatoes. That is much more appropriate than throwing them a potato or two from the bowl. Interpretation betrays my stances, even, my heart. The act of interpretation is active and impacted by context. I know that my heart is the closest and mo...

In 1992 a music group named Blind Lemon recorded a song called No Rain. As famous as that song became, the music video became even more so. In the video a pudgy little girl with glasses saw life very differently than her audience. The video begins with her, alone, on a stage where she was dressed in a cute little bee outfit. In that outfit she performed a tap dance routine that was much better than anything I could muster from these clumsy feet of mine. Well, when she was done, there was a single man laughing and what followed was nothing less than a chorus of laughter that rattled her. It impacted her so much that, saddened, she ran from the stage. The next time we see her she is peering around a door (presumably the door to the theater) and into the bright light of the sun. Reflecting on the happenings in the first part of the video I cannot help but think of her reaction to the laughing as a rejection of the counterfeit community for which she performed. Simply, she rejected its rej...

I am the biggest problem in my children's lives. I am the biggest problem in my marriage. I am the biggest problem in my church. I am the biggest problem in my workplace. I am the biggest problem in my neighborhood. Thanks be to God that the Bible is full of God's working through the biggest problems people bring into any situation and grinding out his good and perfect will through it all. Abraham had issues. Moses had issues. Samuel had issues. David had issues. Elijah had issues. The Apostles had issues. Paul had issues. Yet in spite of all of their issues, and mine, God redeemed their work and continues to draw people to himself through redeeming ours. Prayerfully through redeeming mine. His power is, indeed, perfected in my weakness for no one could see the good things that have come my way and honestly say that their genesis is in me.  No one in my head and heart anyway.

And the  Lord  God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  Genesis 3:22 The Bible gives no indication about how long it took for Adam and Eve to be deceived and partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, defying God in the process, and earning exclusion from the tree of life. If it was 10 years or 1,000 years since they were created and related to God unfettered by sin the results were legion. Yet it seems to me that it can be distilled into a single, awful condition.  Humanity is now in pursuit of truths. Before we fell, as we related to God, we pursued him. Singularly. All of our actions and activities endeavored toward a single point and goal. It was a pursuit of the truth. Or, to put it another way, The Truth. Our knowledge of good and evil rested in what the architect of everything seen and ...

This  post  is about my definition of a theological statement and a further statement that individuals, not groups, are the only ones who we can apply theological statements to with any accuracy. This post is more of the same, but goes a bit deeper on why individuals are the only ones who can be accurately described by a theological statement. It does not matter what I call myself or which group I belong to as the truth does not lie in creed, doctrine, or manifesto. It lies in the heart. This is not some sort of Disney theology for that does not frustrate people. But this frustrates me. Why am I frustrated? Because I want to both attain and hold onto personal peace and prosperity. In the unknown I am unsettled. In the dark is where I find my poverty. How am I to know where to dig to lay my sure foundation unless I know what lies beneath my feet? When and unto whom should I draw my curtains? I need to know. So I force myself into knowledge. And, in so doing, I take the place of...

We are in the midst of a sermon series that is examining the last words of Christ before he gave up his life on the cross. Knowing that they are precious and few, the last words that anyone speaks carry great meaning and weight. My Lord's and Savor's final words are no exception. They offer insight like no other and reveal a heart that I wish was mine. Growing up in the church I always found comfort in the promise that Jesus made to the criminal on the cross: that he would be with Christ in paradise that very day. Yet, that comfort gave way to shock when it was brought to my attention that Jesus not only offered grace to the criminal, but he offered  his best grace.  His best grace. Now, Jesus could have given the criminal anything. He could have alleviated his pain as he hung there or maybe even allowed him an hour's peace from his agony. He could have stricken his torturers with remorse (or something worse) allowing the criminal to gloat over the turn of events. But he d...