7/27/2005
Minor Ecstasies
NUMBER ONE HUNDRED NINE
Minor Ecstasies
Ecstasy is a big word; it means a state of being outside oneself and outside time, caught up in overwhelming emotion; it implies a high emotion and a greatness of response to it. As a large word it hangs around mystics, first loves, new parents, artists and the like.
But there is a place for ecstasy in every life. The Quaker, Elizabeth Gray Vining, calls these places “Minor ecstasies, bits of stardust which are for all of us, however monotonous our days and cramped our lives, however limited our opportunities.” She calls us to recognize that, “Fragments of beauty and truth lie in every path; they need only the seeing eye and the receptive spirit to become the stuff of authentic minor ecstasies.”
To the seeing eye and the receptive spirit it is a short step from the beauty of this Empire Sunset Lily to the omnipresent God who, Hildebert of Lavardin writes, “is over all things; under all things; outside all; within but not enclosed; without but not excluded; above but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly within, filling.
Jesus himself was our example for making these short steps:
“Consider the lilies and how they grow. They do no work, they do not spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was robed like one of these. And if in the fields God so clothes the grass, which is here today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, will He not all the more clothe you, slow though you are to trust Him?” (Luke 12.27-28)
What we call beautiful is far more than skin deep – it is the music of eternity that we hear because we are made in the image of the Creator.
+++++++
“Jesus saith, Wherever there are two, they are not without God, and wherever there is one alone, I say, I am with Him. Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and there I am.”
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
+++++++
“Praise you the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure in them. His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion.”
Psalm 111:1-4
7/20/2005
True Religion
NUMBER ONE HUNDRED EIGHT
True Religion
In The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer observes: “True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear on time.”
In the study guide to his book The Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster says, “The life that pleases God is not a set of religious duties--it is listening to His voice, and obeying His Word.”
The Apostle James put it this way, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1.22)
In other words, what is heard in the holy place must be lived in the market place.
Today, more than ever before, the followers of Jesus Christ are being told to get out of the public square, to keep their religion inside the walls of their churches, and to sit down and shut up whenever the conversation turns to public morality, governmental actions, or the latest outrage handed down from the Supreme Court. Don’t believe it and don’t listen. “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and all those who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24.1) He is Lord of the nations, and they are accountable to Him.
Chris Hoops recently put it this way, “Our task, indeed our calling, (Matthew 28.19-20) is not [just] to seek a place at the table where dead men discuss the affairs of death and darkness. Ours is to preach the power of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the bold proclamation of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Savior. Ours is to shine the light on the culture of death and dying and to offer to those sitting in darkness light and life and to bring reformation to our land.”
It truly is our calling, even our duty, to confront earth with heaven and to bring eternity to bear on time.
+++++++
"Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The LORD reigns. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out at the presence of the LORD, because he comes to judge the earth. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endures forever."
1 Chronicles 16:31-34
7/14/2005
Wedding Anniversary
NUMBER ONE HUNDRED SEVEN
Anniversary
On the twenty-fourth day of July this year we will be celebrating fifty-one years of married life together. This poem was written for our twenty-second. If I were writing it today I don’t think I would change a thing.
ANNIVERSARY
JULY 24, 1976
For weeks I have pondered
What gift I might bring
To lay at your feet,
To make your heart sing.
With twenty-two years
Of bringing you joys
With touches of sorrow, misery and pain,
Of bringing you children,
Some girls and some boys,
Perhaps you'd prefer
I not bring you again.
But you are a person
Who loves a surprise,
I must bring you something
To light up your eyes.
It must not be candy
For sweets maketh fat,
It cannot be diamonds,
My purse is too flat.
So, in the end,
The thing I will bring
To lay at your feet,
To make your heart sing,
Is this poem
With a promise
To do what I can
To be, in the future,
The best kind of man:
To love you,
To listen,
To sense how you feel
To care for and respect you
In woe or in weal.
To keep pace with the changes
That both of us face,
To meet them beside you
With patience and grace.
So Mizpah! my darling
Shalom! and Compai!
You're stuck with me now
'Til the day that I die.
I'm stuck with you too
And words cannot say
How happy it makes me
To have things this way.
7/76
025
Anniversary
On the twenty-fourth day of July this year we will be celebrating fifty-one years of married life together. This poem was written for our twenty-second. If I were writing it today I don’t think I would change a thing.
ANNIVERSARY
JULY 24, 1976
For weeks I have pondered
What gift I might bring
To lay at your feet,
To make your heart sing.
With twenty-two years
Of bringing you joys
With touches of sorrow, misery and pain,
Of bringing you children,
Some girls and some boys,
Perhaps you'd prefer
I not bring you again.
But you are a person
Who loves a surprise,
I must bring you something
To light up your eyes.
It must not be candy
For sweets maketh fat,
It cannot be diamonds,
My purse is too flat.
So, in the end,
The thing I will bring
To lay at your feet,
To make your heart sing,
Is this poem
With a promise
To do what I can
To be, in the future,
The best kind of man:
To love you,
To listen,
To sense how you feel
To care for and respect you
In woe or in weal.
To keep pace with the changes
That both of us face,
To meet them beside you
With patience and grace.
So Mizpah! my darling
Shalom! and Compai!
You're stuck with me now
'Til the day that I die.
I'm stuck with you too
And words cannot say
How happy it makes me
To have things this way.
7/76
025
7/05/2005
The Koran
NUMBER ONE HUNDRED SIX
The Koran
The Koran has been much in the news lately—the alleged mistreatment of this book in the prison in Cuba is part of the latest game of uproar being played by the liberal politicians and the liberal media. It also showed up in an adult class at church where the teacher read a quote from it, something he took from the Internet. I went out and bought a copy and read it through—but never found the quote. I am not going to talk about the Democrats or the unreliability of the Internet though--I am just going to make a few observations about this interesting book.
I have the Penguin Classic Edition, translated by N. J. Dawood, last revised in 2003. In his introduction Dawood says:
“The Koran is the earliest and by far the finest work of Classical Arabic Prose. For Muslims it is the infallible Word of God, a transcript of a tablet preserved in heaven, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel…Muhammad, who disclaimed the power to perform miracles, firmly believed that he was the messenger of God, sent to confirm previous scriptures. God had revealed His will to the Jews and to the Christians through chosen apostles, but they disobeyed God’s commandments, and divided themselves into sects. The Koran accuses the Jews of corrupting the Scriptures and the Christians of worshipping Jesus as the Son of God although He had expressly commanded them to worship none but Him. Having thus gone astray, they must be brought back to the right path, to the true religion preached by Abraham. This was ‘Islam’ – absolute submission or resignation to the will of God.”
The Koran consists of 114 surahs, (chapters) and each verse of each surah is numbered. These were said to have been given to Muhammad piecemeal over some period of time. They were memorized by remembrancers and then written on whatever came to hand during his lifetime. The collection was completed and fixed during the caliphate of Uthman, Muhammad’s successor (about 644 A.D. -- Muhammad died in 632 A.D.).
The surah’s overlap at times and are often repetitive (the encounter between God’s Prophet Moses and the Egyptian Pharaoh is told 14 times, usually as a warning to unbelievers and infidels that they ignore Muhammad at their own risk) so scholars have never agreed on a chronological order; they are generally arranged with the longer ones at the beginning and the shorter ones at the end.
I have read nothing about the Koran but the Translator’s introduction and nothing about Islam (excepting what has been in the news and the magazines) since college. My observations are simply the product of a first reading of the Koran as a book. The translator has attempted to render the original Arabic into contemporary English—not knowing Arabic; it is hard to tell whether it is a paraphrase or a translation. He has changed “Prophet” to “Apostle” in almost all cases and “Allah” to “God” in every case. When God speaks He usually uses the plural of majesty, “We” or “Our” or “Us. Sometimes God shifts from the plural to the singular in mid-sentence. The translator generally provides good notes so the reader can tell whether the “you” is the prophet or the believers or the unbelievers.
According to the Koran God gave the Torah to the Jews, the Gospels to the Christians, and the Koran to the Arabs:
“He has revealed to you the Book (the Koran) with the Truth, confirming the scriptures which preceded it; for He has already revealed the Torah and the Gospel for the guidance of mankind, and the distinction between right and wrong. Those that deny God’s revelations shall be sternly punished; God is mighty and capable of revenge.” 3.3-4
But the Torah and the Gospels were not enough. The Koran says God planned to complete these things by sending a Prophet (Muhammad):
“When God made His covenant with the Prophets, He said; ‘Here are the Scriptures and the wisdom which I have given you, An Apostle (Muhammad) will come forth to confirm them. Believe him and help him.’” 3.81
Numerous times the Koran says that it is given to confirm the Torah and the Gospels. Muhammad was clearly familiar with these Scriptures in a general way. Much of the Koran is a retelling of the Old Testament stories of Abraham, Moses, and other notables, and the Gospel accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus. For the most part these tellings are to reinforce Muhammad’s credentials and power. As Pharaoh was roughly treated when he did not obey God’s message through Moses, so today will all be roughly treated who reject God’s message brought by Muhammad.
Actually, the Koran does not confirm the previous Scriptures, it consistently contradicts them. The Koran’s treatment of Jesus is a good example. The Koran seems to allow for the virgin birth of Jesus:
“And of the woman who kept her chastity. We breathed into her Our spirit, and made her and her son a sign to all mankind.” 21.91
But Jesus was not the Son of God:
“Jesus is like Adam in the sight of God. He created him from dust and then said to him: ‘Be,’ and He was.” 3.59
“The Messiah, the son of Mary was no more than an apostle: other apostles passed away before him. His mother was a saintly woman. They both ate earthly food.” 5.75
“Creator of the heavens and the earth. How should He have a son when he had no consort?” 6.101
“They say: ‘God has begotten a son.’ God forbid! Self-sufficient is He. His is all that the heavens and earth contain. Surely for this you have no sanction. Would you say of God what you know not?” 10.68
“The Jews say Ezra is the son of God, while the Christians say the Messiah is the son of God. Such are their assertions, by which they imitate the infidels of old. God confound them! How perverse they are!” 9.30
I could go on—but once the Koran has written off Jesus, the Messiah, God come in the flesh, the rest is superfluous detail. Everything the Koran says about Jesus contradicts the Gospel accounts. The same is true of other areas, from the Creation to the Resurrection (final judgment).
Before I finish I will make one other general observation. Having read the whole book, I come away with the impression of another contradiction. Each surah is headed with this:
“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”
Yet over an over again, those who do not accept the Koran are depicted as worthy of being attacked and suffering terrible punishments from a angry, hostile God and his angry, hostile prophet:
“Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites around and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate.” 9.73
“Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that God is with the righteous.” 9.123
“Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers (in Allah and His prophet). Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed with rods of iron. Whenever, in anguish, they try to escape from Hell, back they shall be dragged, and will be told: ‘Taste the torment of the Conflagration!’” 22.19-22
Salvation from this is not guaranteed in the Koran, only the hope that faith in Allah, obedience of his Prophet, Muhammad, and many good works will outweigh the bad works in the Resurrection when all will be judged.
To save your asking, I did run into the virgins, though the number of them per believer is not mentioned:
“As for the righteous, they shall be lodged in peace together amid gardens and fountains, arrayed in rich silks and fine brocade. Even thus: and We shall wed them to dark-eyed Houris (virgins, voluptuously beautiful young women). Secure against all ills, they shall call for every kind of fruit; and, having died once, they shall die no more.” 44.51-56
I recently read an interview with a female suicide bomber who said that she expected to be the head virgin of a group of seventy-two when she arrived in paradise having blown herself and a goodly number of infidels to kingdom come.
I can’t recommend the Koran for light summer reading. But this is the book that Osama bin Laden and his homicidal Sons of Allah would make the law of all nations--we might do will to give it some thought.
+++++++
“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” 2 John 7
“And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.” 1 John 4.3
“Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Father has the Son also.” 1John 2.22
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1.1,14
The Koran
The Koran has been much in the news lately—the alleged mistreatment of this book in the prison in Cuba is part of the latest game of uproar being played by the liberal politicians and the liberal media. It also showed up in an adult class at church where the teacher read a quote from it, something he took from the Internet. I went out and bought a copy and read it through—but never found the quote. I am not going to talk about the Democrats or the unreliability of the Internet though--I am just going to make a few observations about this interesting book.
I have the Penguin Classic Edition, translated by N. J. Dawood, last revised in 2003. In his introduction Dawood says:
“The Koran is the earliest and by far the finest work of Classical Arabic Prose. For Muslims it is the infallible Word of God, a transcript of a tablet preserved in heaven, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel…Muhammad, who disclaimed the power to perform miracles, firmly believed that he was the messenger of God, sent to confirm previous scriptures. God had revealed His will to the Jews and to the Christians through chosen apostles, but they disobeyed God’s commandments, and divided themselves into sects. The Koran accuses the Jews of corrupting the Scriptures and the Christians of worshipping Jesus as the Son of God although He had expressly commanded them to worship none but Him. Having thus gone astray, they must be brought back to the right path, to the true religion preached by Abraham. This was ‘Islam’ – absolute submission or resignation to the will of God.”
The Koran consists of 114 surahs, (chapters) and each verse of each surah is numbered. These were said to have been given to Muhammad piecemeal over some period of time. They were memorized by remembrancers and then written on whatever came to hand during his lifetime. The collection was completed and fixed during the caliphate of Uthman, Muhammad’s successor (about 644 A.D. -- Muhammad died in 632 A.D.).
The surah’s overlap at times and are often repetitive (the encounter between God’s Prophet Moses and the Egyptian Pharaoh is told 14 times, usually as a warning to unbelievers and infidels that they ignore Muhammad at their own risk) so scholars have never agreed on a chronological order; they are generally arranged with the longer ones at the beginning and the shorter ones at the end.
I have read nothing about the Koran but the Translator’s introduction and nothing about Islam (excepting what has been in the news and the magazines) since college. My observations are simply the product of a first reading of the Koran as a book. The translator has attempted to render the original Arabic into contemporary English—not knowing Arabic; it is hard to tell whether it is a paraphrase or a translation. He has changed “Prophet” to “Apostle” in almost all cases and “Allah” to “God” in every case. When God speaks He usually uses the plural of majesty, “We” or “Our” or “Us. Sometimes God shifts from the plural to the singular in mid-sentence. The translator generally provides good notes so the reader can tell whether the “you” is the prophet or the believers or the unbelievers.
According to the Koran God gave the Torah to the Jews, the Gospels to the Christians, and the Koran to the Arabs:
“He has revealed to you the Book (the Koran) with the Truth, confirming the scriptures which preceded it; for He has already revealed the Torah and the Gospel for the guidance of mankind, and the distinction between right and wrong. Those that deny God’s revelations shall be sternly punished; God is mighty and capable of revenge.” 3.3-4
But the Torah and the Gospels were not enough. The Koran says God planned to complete these things by sending a Prophet (Muhammad):
“When God made His covenant with the Prophets, He said; ‘Here are the Scriptures and the wisdom which I have given you, An Apostle (Muhammad) will come forth to confirm them. Believe him and help him.’” 3.81
Numerous times the Koran says that it is given to confirm the Torah and the Gospels. Muhammad was clearly familiar with these Scriptures in a general way. Much of the Koran is a retelling of the Old Testament stories of Abraham, Moses, and other notables, and the Gospel accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus. For the most part these tellings are to reinforce Muhammad’s credentials and power. As Pharaoh was roughly treated when he did not obey God’s message through Moses, so today will all be roughly treated who reject God’s message brought by Muhammad.
Actually, the Koran does not confirm the previous Scriptures, it consistently contradicts them. The Koran’s treatment of Jesus is a good example. The Koran seems to allow for the virgin birth of Jesus:
“And of the woman who kept her chastity. We breathed into her Our spirit, and made her and her son a sign to all mankind.” 21.91
But Jesus was not the Son of God:
“Jesus is like Adam in the sight of God. He created him from dust and then said to him: ‘Be,’ and He was.” 3.59
“The Messiah, the son of Mary was no more than an apostle: other apostles passed away before him. His mother was a saintly woman. They both ate earthly food.” 5.75
“Creator of the heavens and the earth. How should He have a son when he had no consort?” 6.101
“They say: ‘God has begotten a son.’ God forbid! Self-sufficient is He. His is all that the heavens and earth contain. Surely for this you have no sanction. Would you say of God what you know not?” 10.68
“The Jews say Ezra is the son of God, while the Christians say the Messiah is the son of God. Such are their assertions, by which they imitate the infidels of old. God confound them! How perverse they are!” 9.30
I could go on—but once the Koran has written off Jesus, the Messiah, God come in the flesh, the rest is superfluous detail. Everything the Koran says about Jesus contradicts the Gospel accounts. The same is true of other areas, from the Creation to the Resurrection (final judgment).
Before I finish I will make one other general observation. Having read the whole book, I come away with the impression of another contradiction. Each surah is headed with this:
“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”
Yet over an over again, those who do not accept the Koran are depicted as worthy of being attacked and suffering terrible punishments from a angry, hostile God and his angry, hostile prophet:
“Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites around and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate.” 9.73
“Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that God is with the righteous.” 9.123
“Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers (in Allah and His prophet). Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed with rods of iron. Whenever, in anguish, they try to escape from Hell, back they shall be dragged, and will be told: ‘Taste the torment of the Conflagration!’” 22.19-22
Salvation from this is not guaranteed in the Koran, only the hope that faith in Allah, obedience of his Prophet, Muhammad, and many good works will outweigh the bad works in the Resurrection when all will be judged.
To save your asking, I did run into the virgins, though the number of them per believer is not mentioned:
“As for the righteous, they shall be lodged in peace together amid gardens and fountains, arrayed in rich silks and fine brocade. Even thus: and We shall wed them to dark-eyed Houris (virgins, voluptuously beautiful young women). Secure against all ills, they shall call for every kind of fruit; and, having died once, they shall die no more.” 44.51-56
I recently read an interview with a female suicide bomber who said that she expected to be the head virgin of a group of seventy-two when she arrived in paradise having blown herself and a goodly number of infidels to kingdom come.
I can’t recommend the Koran for light summer reading. But this is the book that Osama bin Laden and his homicidal Sons of Allah would make the law of all nations--we might do will to give it some thought.
+++++++
“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” 2 John 7
“And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.” 1 John 4.3
“Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Father has the Son also.” 1John 2.22
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1.1,14
