Get This?
I get it.
There are many professing Christians—or even those who market themselves under the moniker of “faith”—who possess an innate ability to repulse people. While I have met (and even know) people with this particular trait, it is inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible. If you claim to know Jesus Christ and practice Christianity, God expects us to act like his Son.
From a practical and anecdotal standpoint, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Judaism, and Atheism do not give Christianity a bad name; Christians do. Yet the spiritual element cannot be overlooked. While those who reject the idea or concept of an unseen world may find this statement self-serving, it nonetheless remains a fact.
What is done, the actions of people, do not occur in a vacuum. When there is a crime, investigators not only seek what was done but they look for why it was done—the motive. True, some may quibble over terminology and may reply the workings of the mind cause action, I aver while the mind may give reasons for the “why,” this explanation cannot answer from where the “why” originated.
The collective “a-ha” now builds, allowing for the “nature vs. nurture” argument to be applied. Yet this is unsatisfactory. Nature and nurture only allow for the responsibility of an action or actions to be placed elsewhere. This explanation seeks to indict those in the past, not making an argument for the action at hand nor providing a prima facie reason for an action to occur.
Do we ever ask, as a people, to seek the reason something occurs and desire to identify an individual or individuals who are responsible? To claim two brothers were raised in an abusive family environment still cannot assuage the curiosity of those seeking to find both a “why” and the place from “where” such an action originated as these two brothers killed their biological parents. Even in the Bryan Kohberger murder trial, his plea of guilt avoided the death penalty yet failed to provide answers for the families of those killed.
Again, I get it. From the Theo Bros on YouTube to people who assume if you don’t vote exactly like they do you ride the proverbial roller-skate through the gates of Hell, there are many annoyingly loud voices who claim Jesus Christ. Yet they do so as they manage to “annoy the Hell out of the people” they claim are going to Hell. Allow me to point out the Bible never resorts to such imbecilic methodology.
God’s Word (the Bible) is quite clear: every single person that has lived, does live, or will live is destined to spend their life apart from God from the moment they are conceived (Take a breath! Save it for another post). No one fitting the above-mentioned criteria knows for sure who belongs to God or who does not (beyond doubt). Those who belong to God, however, must live like they belong to him. Politics, group identification, personal preferences, clothing, housing, or geography must all take a back seat to what is most important: Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul, a man who endured incredible suffering through loss and pain for his Lord, wrote a small church in the city of Phillipi saying, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Nothing political, economic, national, or personal is more important or worth more than knowing Jesus Christ as Lord.
That people are sinful, selfish, spiteful, and treat things not religious as their religion demonstrates imperfection firstly, not whether they are known by God as his. Yet those who claim Christ—true and genuinely so—should possess the humility to own up to their error and sin. What a Christian has in Christ is not because they are better but rather Jesus Christ is.
I get it.
In all the grace-laden humility I have received from Jesus Christ, I ask those of you festering something akin to hatred for Christianity to consider this: do not look for an accurate picture of Jesus Christ in your fellow humanity. I ask that you see people with something rarely experienced in our society and culture: recognize them as people like yourself. Weak, inconsistent, imperfect, and prone to being a royal pain in the hind parts of many.
Because you can only see God when you ask to see Jesus Christ. If you find yourself moved to think and act this way realize it’s not you on your own desiring this. It is the Father pulling you toward his Son.
My desire is you get him. Grace! Jim
Water & Culture
There is an old Chinese proverb which reads, “If you wish to know about water, do not ask a fish.” The only thing a fish knows is water. For the fish to gain a comparison to the water in which he exists, well, it rarely ends well for the fish.
In many ways, our culture is to us as the water is to the fish. Culture is the medium in which we move and exist in a country, a family or a locale. Because our culture is always with us, it becomes extremely hard to identify what culture sometimes “is” and what it “is not.” If you travel outside the U.S., this grants you a perspective that very few Americans have; if you do not travel, most likely “blissful ignorance” will reign.
Recently, there has been much discussion to change the name of the of the Southern Baptist Convention. The reason? There are those who believe we should change the name of the Convention believe that because the word “Southern” is associated in our culture with the institution of slavery, and because the SBC owes much of its beginning to men who either owned slaves or supported the institution of slavery, we must change our name.
Culture is not automatically equivalent to what the Bible identifies as “worldliness.” Worldliness is all that is opposed to God and the coming of His kingdom. Now culture can certainly qualify as worldliness, but it does not have to be. We speak English in church and read Bibles and sing music that also uses the English language. We are, culturally, an American church, yet we seek to measure ourselves against God’s Word and not our culture.
Now back to the name change for the Convention: Why? Will anything change? The supporters claim it will change how we are perceived. Will our convention be redefined? No, not really. Same churches, same pastors and members, same beliefs but no changes in doctrine or theology. Then why change?
There exist within our churches people who have bought into the perception, ideology and thinking of the cancel culture which is now rampant in our culture. To change our name because the Convention is no longer geographically defined as being predominantly “Southern,” well, that has some legitimate, logical reasoning and purpose. But to change it based on what others may think—and these “others” are already hateful toward all things Christian—is a silly compromise to cultural pressure and its unbiblical societal demands.
In Matthew 11:16-19, Jesus said regarding John the Baptizer, “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
There are those in our culture will never be satisfied even if we acquiesce to their demands. We can attempt to satisfy their calls for cultural compliance, for no matter what we do, we will never satisfy their demands. We will never reach a point where they will cease to insist that our behavior and beliefs should change. If we seek to comply with their demands, or attempt to avoid their retribution, we will find ourselves the victim of their ever-changing rules and definitions which are continually mutable. To do so will only result in our disobedience.
Those who desire that Christians comply will never be pleased. I’ve read the end of the Bible; there will be more and more persecution of the Church coming and believers cannot escape the consequences of prophecy. Again, believers do not seek consolation and comfort in our circumstances, but in our sovereign Lord.
Our worship is to be lived to only One, to the worship of only One. Jesus Christ stated, “Wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Our deeds, the way we live our faith “out loud” amid our culture, will either justify our use of faith before God or convict us before our culture.
Believers do not live in water; we live in faith. We hope in a future we cannot see and is not yet here. Our proof, the proof we offer our culture and this world, is in our deeds.
The Past, The Post and Future Consequences
If we would rewind about ten years, philosophically the term “post-modern” was used much more. In academia there have even been questions regarding whether we may be now in a “post, post-modern” age. Some may feel even the tenets of postmodernity are even now passe` and we really should not attempt to label the age in which we now live.
Allow me to attempt to define some terms. In Pre-modern times, truth was a self-existent fact which had intrinsic worth; truth simply “was” and the existence of truth had decidedly theistic (think “God”) overtones. This should be greatly attributed to the influence of a Christian-Judaic understanding of right and wrong—morality. This “age” ended around the fall of Constantinople, the Eastern Roman Empire in AD 1453.
Then modernism began to overwhelmingly control philosophic thought. Modernism understood there indeed was truth, yet “truth” was not fully acknowledged, was not granted real value until it was confirmed through the scientific process of thought and observation. This shifted meaning from being inherent in truth to being dependent on man and his observational—and therefore man’s “giving” this value to truth—confirmation.
Modernism lasted until well after WWII. Some use the date of AD 1945, the end of the Second World War which was concluded by the first use of atomic weapons. Like many individuals who have shifted their thinking due to a catastrophic experience, humanity experienced a similar post-traumatic stress reaction to the destruction brought using the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan.
Post-modernism then entered as a means of control for humanity; well, let’s say it was a means used by intellectual elites, liberal theologians and academics to be the control du jour. Beginning after WWII, there existed an observable, concerted effort to change the philosophic bent of the upcoming generations through education, art and eventually pop-culture.
Post-modernism rejected even the existence of an absolute, knowable truth. Post-modernism was humanity’s reaction to fear and stress; humanity, with its modernist moorings, found it had cut the very lines which had provided it stability by embracing postmodernity. It was now adrift in a sea of circumstances to which humanity was in a constant mode of reaction; paddling wildly to gain control of their direction but refusing to follow any “absolute” path.
So, the decision was made to first, reject absolute, concrete truth. Second, to distrust anyone who claimed to come to a truth assertion based on observation and experience. What was left? The individual. The individual then became the arbiter of what was true and what was not, what existed, what had meaning and what was real. Yet because humanity had rejected an absolute, knowable truth, one which in Pre-modern times was enunciated in a theistic argument, humanity chose to reject it all and then only trust themselves, individually.
Even in our own private choices, we gravitate toward those news channels with whom we already agree and avoid those which would challenge our notions. True, we may have come to realize there are some sources which have proven themselves to be inaccurate and untrustworthy, yet the decision to listen, not listen, read or not read should be made on accuracy rather than differences of opinion.
Yet do you not see how easy it is to descend into ideological tribalism which pits “us” against “them” because all “those people” are racists, prejudiced, Nazis or they’re just “crazy?” How many of us seek, on our own, to form an opinion based on truth, rather than only mimicking someone else’s thoughts?
An ancient Hebrew scholar wrote that the people who have rejected the truth presented through clear evidence have not simply rejected just “a truth” but the very means of finding any answers to their problems. No, once an absolute, objective measurement of reality is abandoned, then it isn’t a set of ideas has then been rejected. This action then produces the inability to reject anything! Once objective, absolute truth is abandoned, then we are forced to make up our own system of measure; everything, no matter how absurd, is then equally an option.
What we are seeing in the United States at this moment in our history is the natural, expected and inevitable outworking of postmodernity. Everyone defines everything by their own standard, through their emotions and then this in turn becomes an insatiable cataclysm of rising confusion.
Almost 2,000 years ago a man, who was also the Only Son of the Only God, did not merely drive out death and darkness, but He took it all on Himself and defeated it. If we have any desire to see healing in our homes, our cities, states, this country and our society, we must accept His truth and His demonstration of truth and love.
Ours just isn’t working; and we’re living with the consequences.
Seriously? Getting What We’ve Gotten!
While forgetfulness is a universally experienced bane of humanity, what is now being considered—and even demanded—by many in today’s culture has not so much been forgotten as it has never been learned.
To be forgetful is one thing entirely and is a forgivable problem. Those with family members who have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease understand the personal anguish associated with those who have lapsed into the terribly increasing nothingness of those diseases. These families would never blame their loved ones for forgetting; they only possess a deep longing for its cure.
Yet to not know, to be controlled by a veritable arrogance of this agnostic lack of situational awareness, often produces derision in the observers of those who refuse to know. The realization of those who witness this pandemic of ignorance is this: even if they had the opportunity to show those caught up in their blissful celebration, those affected would never desire to see the presentation of reality nor do they possess the mindset to appreciate what they would deem as an antagonistic view.
Their reaction would demonstrate the wisdom of not casting one’s pearls before swine; they would eat as food which should be digested as wisdom.
Ideas have consequences. Words have meaning. Meaning demands that absolute truth must exist. Truth ignored will bring consequences.
I do not believe in an esoteric version of truth; I believe truth is embodied in a Person. There exists One who is Truth. This Truth is absolute. This Truth exists. Someone may choose to not believe in Him, yet He cannot be dismissed or ignored; true, one may attempt to do so, but the consequences are profound.
If something in the wisdom presented by humanity—whether philosophically, scientifically, or practically—if such wisdom is true, the One who embodies Truth is the originator and the owner of such Truth.
Too many of the ideas being spread like nightsoil on a field are being seriously considered as viable options to consider. Are people forgetful? Yes, but that’s part of being human. Are people ignorant? Absolutely! Yet ignorance is an addressable weakness; yet to do so one must acknowledge their lack of knowledge and seek to overcome that lack with knowledge.
Today, because of the prevalence and overwhelming acceptance of postmodernity, everyone can determine their own truth. If someone speaks an idea into existence, then we are forced to accept it, unless the speaker is deemed to be unenlightened by those who “know the truth”—who know their truth—and then it is derided and rejected.
To get well when one is sick, it isn’t the fact a doctor exists somewhere and because there is a doctor “out there somewhere” the sickness will be cured. No, the one who is sick must admit they are sick. Then they must seek out a doctor who possess the “true” treatment regimen which will then make the one who is sick better or well.
Education, filling people with “knowledge,” will not cure the diseases which now wrack our society and culture; in many ways, unfettered knowledge possessed by those who lack wisdom, contributes to the turmoil we are currently experiencing.
The English, Franciscan friar, William of Ockham, invented what has been attributed to him as “Ockham’s Razor.” When a problem has more than two answers which address all the facts of the problem, the simplest answer will be the one most often correct.
The answer to the complex problems facing our world, our society and our culture, should not be addressed by complex and obviously recycled answers. It is time to set aside arrogance, to reject labels of unsophistication and patriarchy, and consider the One who is Truth, Life and the only Way out of our predicament. Jesus Christ is the only viable answer to the chaos we are witnessing and experiencing.
Unfortunately, many will reject this answer. Instead they will opt to once again keep doing what has always been done.
And they will keep receiving what has always been received.
Healing through Heeling
October 13, 2019 was the beginning of my lesson in heeling (don’t lose your mind here; there’s method to my perceived malapropism). The day before while hiking at Tallulah Falls Gorge here in Georgia with my wife and a friend, I thought I had food poisoning from a less-than-tasty breakfast sandwich purchased that morning. Because of this, I cut my trek short, told the girls to finish the trail and I hiked back the two-and-a-half miles to the car.
I’ve had food poisoning many times in my life and it has never been enjoyable. I had no idea that a part of my body which I had invested fifty-eight-and-a-half years building a relationship with was at that moment strapping on a proverbial bomb vest and by the next afternoon was going to blow itself up and take me with it!
I have never hurt so badly in all my life! I spent the next five-and-a-half days in the hospital recovering from a “perforated appendix with peritonitis.” It’s been over five weeks since my surgery and I’m still not back to where I was before. Yet here is what I have learned from this particular incident.
There are no accidents or coincidences in God’s kingdom. Those who belong to God, who have a relationship with Him and are being obedient to Him to the best of their ability, will never be a victim. The two basic rules I teach are these: Rule #1: God is Sovereign; Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1!
This does not mean that during the depths of discomfort I did not question God as to “Why?” I had to go through this! I hated every single second of this experience. I cried—and I’m not exaggerating here—I literally cried because of the pain of this. I begged the Lord to just give me a few minutes of relief from the cramping, the pain and the nausea. When I could think more clearly sometime later on the Monday after the surgery, the thought crossed my mind, “Does this have any comparison at all to the sufferings of my Lord?”
I still hurt. I still was in incredible distress, yet there was a silence within my soul that demanded I listen. Did I hear a voice? Nope. Just silence and the words I have studied and taught so many times came back to me, “My grace is sufficient; My strength is made complete in weakness.”
Since those who are justified by God through election and salvation, “Must live by faith,” the closest equivalent to our faith is the air we breathe. We get nutrition through our study and submission to God’s Word. We strengthen our relationship with the Lord through prayer. Yet (and sticking to these metaphors) how do we “touch” the Lord? We touch the Lord through our interaction, fellowship and ministry with other believers; those who possess the Holy Spirit of God.
How often have we heard someone say, “The pain was so intense it dropped me to my knees?” If I had not been lying in a bed for five days, I would have easily expressed the same thing. God in His wisdom, however, allowed me to experience a “perforated appendix with peritonitis” to bring me closer to Him—and it began “on my knees.”
When my wife and I used to have dogs, one of the first “lessons” in training a dog is teaching it “to heel.” When walking a dog—especially if you’re a Type A personality with an elevated level of desire to control—you do not want the dog to run ahead of you (dragging you behind them) or to trail behind you where you feel you must drag the dog after you. You want the dog “to heel.” To walk beside you, to stop when you stop and walk when you walk but doing so alongside you and willingly.
Being on this side of the pain, I can now see some of the reasons God allowed my body to attack itself. It wasn’t because He looked at the “books” and saw I hadn’t experienced pain in a long while (this was my first surgery and first hospital stay as an adult). I believe with all of who I am by God’s grace, that God desired me to learn “heeling” and “to heel” to Him through the process of my healing.
I’m still not at the “100%” I desire to be physically. It’s frustrating when I realize the strength and endurance I have lost—yet I am able to build it all back. The process of healing has very few shortcuts. The Lord reacquainted me with the true nature of prayer; not getting what I want, but through trusting Him (through the use of the faith He has given to me) I have found I want what He wants more than I want what I want.
In this there is great benefit and healing while learning to heel.
Fear of the Unknown
Everyone wants to be known. In those places of business we frequent, there is a particular pleasure when the staff or owners know us by name (accompanied by a smile, preferably)!
I have personally experienced this regularly; well, maybe not regularly. When your last name is “Grieme,” the mispronunciations are legion. The fact they remember my name, well this is a more universally appreciated emotion; the fact they can pronounce my name correctly, well, this elevates the experience to a symphony!
I believe this desire “to be known” is one of the reasons for the exponential explosion of social media. Every post, every like, every share and every platform undergirds our desires to be known!
This ecosystem of need manifests itself within an irony of action. The very ones who are seeking their value and worth through these digital environs, comport themselves in a manner which undermines their ability to receive this want in actual reality. We all observe an extremely large (and ever increasing) portion of our society which live their lives, while ambulatory, without the physical connection with another human due to their obsession with a faux, digital world.
Many a young person—and even those not-so-young—come to a devastating conclusion that they cannot maintain long-term employment while being attached to a digital IV dispensing their fix. Few employers will tolerate snippets of attention to projects they assign to said employee with such an all-consuming addiction controlling them.
Simple response: then they should stop. The problem is one of conditioning. These people have spent their whole lives addicted to their devices; they have no experience existing without such a digital presence in their lives. This is what gives them value and worth!
Back to my beginning, everyone desires to be known, and more, to have value! Yet for the believer in Jesus Christ, our value is found in the fact that we are known by God! Jesus Himself refers to us as “His sheep” who “hear His voice” (John 10:27 ESV). Yet this is important: We are not the sheep of God because we hear (a choice on our part) but we hear because we belong to God and are His sheep!
With every enunciation of the good news of the Gospel, there exists the echo of judgment. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells of how He will respond to those who claim to be His, to belong to Him, but in reality, are not His. In Matthew 7:23 after listening to the attestations of those who claim to be His, He says, “I never knew you; depart from Me.”
In these words of Jesus there exists the epitome of all human fears: to not be known. This exceeds the mere knowing of our name; this is an intimate knowledge which leaves nothing undiscovered.
Herein is our greatest fear. The fear of being unknown.
You Were Convenient!
I wish I could remember where I read a snippet (Twitter?) where the “tweeter” observed the silliness of parents who wonder aloud where these kids today (every generation says this) “Get the ideas and behavior they have?” The author of the post replied, “It came from the parents, not the kids because kids know nothing in and of themselves!”
Those adults who embrace a Pro-Choice (sorry, “Pro Women’s Health Choices”) mindset and stance have, in reality, undermined their own foundation for parenting. Every parent will face that moment when they must reiterate that they love their children and their children are valuable and important to them. Why would this argument be undermined?
It will be difficult, hypocritical and even bordering on lying to try to convince an internet-savvy teen of this when the argument the Pro-Choice movement makes boils down to convenience. Whether or not a baby is brought to term, delivered and allowed to live, is purely based on the whim of the parent.
The culture says the baby is nothing more than a choice. For some, the child may represent an attempt to remove a woman’s freedom, a left-over “collar” representing a patriarchal and backward chauvinism found in those radical church-goers who will not modernize their beliefs. Of course, “modernized beliefs” would always look exactly like what society supports.
Since a child becomes a demonstration of convenience and convenience is the resultant outcome of choice, how can one choice have more value than another? Well, if the choice is to end the life of a baby (by whatever euphemistic term currently in vogue), then yes, that choice has more value. Yet any choice seeking to limit that one has no value.
Here we are: since the early 1970’s the self-esteem of adolescents has experienced an ever-devolving spiral. By what means can we communicate the intrinsic value of a child when our culture screams a child is a choice, is a convenience? As a parent struggles to convince a young girl not to have sex before marriage (oh I’m sorry, “Too early”) or a teenage boy not to try drugs because it devalues them as a person (of course, they know they have no value beyond “mom & dad’s choice”), how will parents surmount the new religion of eroticism and sexual freedom?
In this culture, a child is not a gift (that would mean there exists a Giver), the child is not made in the image of the Creator (we merely evolved) and because no child is imbued with an absolute value, our society has nothing (in and of itself) to counter the eroto-mania, death culture prevalent in our world today.
Rejecting the Truth of God doesn’t mean people have merely rejected church or a biblical morality. Rejecting the Truth of God, which is where we learn of human worth and dignity, means that any reason for the disposal of life must be accepted.
Besides, it’s convenient.
Never Knew I Was A Sheep!
I’ve always considered myself fairly content, of course, I’m not even sure why “content” is even an issue or even what it is. I’m not even sure why “I’m” even an issue.
Some of the others say I have OCD; though, admittedly, no one has ever defined that label and I certainly cannot define it. I guess I am just “me.” This is very convenient since I have no ability to really be anything else but me.
My right hip has been itching again. I told my people about it and they all just snicker and continue eating. Granted, I know I am very good at eating; I prefer clover, but long, deeply green grass is as good as candy—whatever candy is!
So there I was, happily and contentedly eating the grass just outside the area where we all sleep. There was a noise, a rather melodious tone which I recognized but I do not recall ever hearing it before. Others also heard it—I saw their heads raise up—but many resumed eating. The sound came again, yet this time I understood it: Come!
I wasn’t the only one, there were others, yet many ignored the sound. I was drawn to it, it literally resonated through all of who I am. As I began to move toward it, all who recognized it started moving faster and faster; not to be left behind (and that place on my hip was itching again), I started running too!
There was a man, a man who was calling my name! He touched me, stroked me and told me I belonged to Him. I felt so much contentment and love when I heard Him say my name. I knelt at His feet, I laid my head on His lap, and He uncovered the spot on my hip that had been itching for as long as I could remember.
“He is yours,” a voice told the Man, “there is My mark, My brand on him.” The Man looked at me and smiled at me. He said to the Voice, “Can you see the damage done by the wolves and his poor choices?”
“You know I cannot My Son; Your blood has made him as white as snow.”
I loved this Man. I loved His Father and there is something in me which lets me know I will always be His. I now remember all I have read (read?) and recall words from long ago:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30 ESV)
I now am forever with this One; I cannot leave and I cannot be lost!
Conquering Hope meeting Fear on Christmas Eve
What are your hopes tonight? What are those things you most want? Who are the people you miss, those you desire to see, to be in the presence of or perhaps the one you desire to love?
What are your fears tonight? What were they as a child, as a young adult, or what do you think your fears will be in the future?
We all have hopes and fears. I know, you might think this is an odd question on Christmas Eve, but wouldn’t it make sense to face the negative in the midst of an even greater “positive?” This is the most “positive” time of the year! If ever there was a time appropriate to face our fears and to gain more hope, this is it!
https://pointofview.net/viewpoints/o-little-town-of-bethlehem-2/ No infringement of Copyright intended.
The Christmas hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehemwas written by Phillip Brooks in 1867, two years after he had visited the Holy Land and had ridden from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 1865 to participate in a five hour service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem!
The hymn has not merely endured through the years, but it has come to be one of the most favorite of all of the hymns of this season. The words Brooks wrote so vividly describe the city of the Saviors birth.
“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.” We can even imagine the six-foot-six-inch Brooks descending from the hillsides on horseback into the town with only candles and fires for illumination. The stars slid across the night sky in the matching silence that was evident in the town.
Yet the imagination of Phillip Brooks is all too evident in the first stanza of this beloved song: “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
There it is again, “the hopes and fears.” It isn’t merely the hopes and fears we each have with us tonight, it is the “hopes and fears of all the years.” Brooks understood the majesty of the gift given at the point in time which literally split time in half: the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the Living water, the Bread of life and the Light of the world—it is this Jesus, our Messiah who provided the everlasting light within the dark streets of Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.
The Creator of all which exists, the Lord of this Universe came as a baby, was placed in a feeding trough in the midst of livestock. He will never come to this world again in such a helpless and vulnerable state. The angels told the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into Heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into Heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven.”
His mother was carried to Bethlehem on a donkey, but when Jesus the Messiah returns it will be on a white horse and He will destroy those who oppose Him through His Word—have you ever wondered why the Bible refers to itself as the sword of Truth!
Think now of all of our hopes and fears—indeed, think of all of the hopes and fears of all time, from people everywhere! Every single hope is made real in the person of Jesus Christ! Hope isn’t a mere idea, it is a person. We hope, we trust, we know what will happen, not just because this is what we want, but because it is promised in the person of our Lord!
In the face, in the midst of such incredible hope, how can any fear yet remain? What fear can stand in the brightness of an “everlasting Light?” You’re afraid of darkness? He is the Light of this world! You fear fire? He is living water, quenching heat, thirst and dryness of the body and the soul.
Are you afraid of hungering for something you cannot have? He is the bread of life which satisfies every spiritual hunger which often motivates our physical ones. Fear lack and financial ruin? He tells us of mansions He is building in Heaven, how our treasure is there, and no moth or rust can ever destroy it!
We celebrate the greatest valentine ever given on Christmas Day! Because God so loved the world, He sent His one and only Son to give us the ability to live eternally with Him!
Just as the gifts under the tree are no good until they are taken and opened, until they are used, until the change how we live, and then those gifts which make the most difference, we never cease to give thanks to the one who gave them!
Tonight, we come to prepare our hearts for the greatest gift ever given. Unlike the gifts under the tree, this gift will remake all who accept it. It will never grow old, never wear out, and it will always amaze those who have it. Its power split time in half, it changes us from orphans to adopted sons and daughters. And there is nothing we as humans can ever get another which will give us life everlasting like the gift the Father has given to this world.
There are those who find this thought silly, even unsophisticated. Yet in this is a sad truth: Those who have this gift, know; those who do not have it, do not know.
Life. Seriously? Funny! 
Vivat Vita in Camera (Long Live Life on Camera)
Aug 15
Posted by Jim Grieme
Vivat Vita in Camera (Long Live Life on Camera)
The post Brit/Pop, alternative rock, pop group Coldplay has been active (according to Wikipedia, et. al.) since 1997. They originally called themselves Big Fat Noises, then Starfish before settling on the name Coldplay. For the sake of recent news and my blog, I’m glad they changed from their original moniker since “The Big Fat Noises” Kiss Cam would not be nearly as catchy.
The infamous Kiss Cam incident of July 15, 2025, quickly became the bane of the couple depicted before the world in this not unfamiliar technology. I’m certain this couple regretted attending such a well-known band with the following of Coldplay; I’m equally certain they attended this concert for the same reasons of that following.
There exists a strong attraction to the forbidden. One of the ancient texts I regularly study tells of a man and woman who had everything any of us could ever imagine (but not quite) yet they chose to do the very thing they were prohibited from doing. It was sadly the only thing they were told not to do. The “forbidden fruit” for this ancient couple was literally a fruit, unlike the couple on the Kiss Cam who were discovered during a secret tryst.
Even in a society and culture such as ours in the United States, which has come close to mandating never to judge anything as wrong, there are many activities even those doing them understand the impropriety. Interestingly, there exists something akin to a genetic attraction to the prohibited—even if that prohibition only exists within ourselves. The same text recounting the eating of the forbidden fruit by the progenitors of humanity testify to their attraction to what they knew to be improper, even though it seemed to be good in their sight.
This brings us back to Coldplay. Their song Viva la Vida (long live life, 2006) provides an interesting backdrop and context for the pain the Kiss Cam culture brought into the lives of this couple during an affair they desired to “long live.” The song Viva la Vida, co-written by Coldplay’s vocalist Chris Martin, tells of one who looks back on the glory of past days when “I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word.” Yet it is the perspective given in the song applying in the context of the Kiss Cam: “Now in the morning, I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own.”
The ancient text referenced earlier, the Holy Bible, records story after story in its Old Testament (so named for its age not its obsolescence) of the attraction and passion for sin. Again, our culture does not wish to label choices as sin; instead, they often seek to “cancel” that regarded as inappropriate. Whereas the Bible from in its beginning provides a means to gain forgiveness, many in our society seek to respond with destruction of those who choose what they deem as wrong.
Viva la Vida’s singer longingly recalls “feeling the fear in [his] enemy’s eyes” as he “used to roll the dice” and all played out in his memory “as the crowd would sing.” Just as the singer in this ballad realized “one minute, I held the key, next the walls were closed on me as I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.” Martin’s voice causes the listener to lose any perspective of time, yet in the context of this essay, when did this couple learn their “castles [stood on] pillars of salt and pillars of sand?”
Comprehension dawns on the singer amid memory’s reverie. Those days were “a wicked and wild wind [blowing] down the doors to let me in [and] shattered windows and the “people couldn’t believe what I’d become.” As quickly as the passion of those moments dissipated, the scene changes from the thirst found in moments to a swelling revolt rising from the smoldering ashes of a now public tryst. “Revolutionaries wait for my head on a silver plate, just a puppet on a lonely string.” The singer’s realized finale faces this new reality with resounding regret. “Aw, who would ever wanna be king?”
Humanity finds itself seeking solace and consolation when the passion of the moment is gone leaving only the tinnitus aftereffect belonging to a memory. The accusations begin—not from the crowds who have rendered their judgment’s desire for a head on a platter, but from the icy looks that once held the heat of a lover. Long forgotten memories on stories heard in a church grasp the coldness of what has been rejected. “For some reason I can’t explain I know Saint Peter won’t call my name.”
Jesus, in the Bible I mentioned, says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Go to him.
Posted in Social Commentary
Leave a comment
Tags: "Long Live Life on Camera", advice, castles, choices, Chris Martin, Coldplay, Come to me, forbidden fruit, head, improper, inspiration, Kiss Cam, labor and heavy laden, pillars of salt, pillars of sand, progenitors, prohibition, religion, rest, Saint Peter, silver plate, sin, Viva la Vida