affluency

more than wanting what you don't have is a problem, having what you don't want seems worse...

thoughts on John 7:1-9

"After this, Jesus stayed in Galilee, going from village to village. He wanted to stay out of Judea where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. But soon it was time for the Festival of Shelters, and Jesus' brothers urged him to go to Judea for the celebration. "Go where your followers can see your miracles!" they scoffed. "You can't become a public figure if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things then prove it to the world!" For even his brothers didn't believe in him. Jesus replied, "Now is not the right time for me to go. But you can go anytime, and it will make no difference. The world can't hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of sin and evil. You go on. I am not yet ready to go to this festival, because my time has not yet come." So Jesus remained in Galilee."

the opposition of family
it is hard for me to reconcile how the church today has become an institution where the primary focus seems to be on family values. while i agree that the role of the family is critical both within churches and within families in general, i see Jesus regularly overlooking his own family for the sake of the church and for the sake of the Way. There is another passage in Matthew 12:46-50, where Jesus refuses to speak with his own family claiming that anyone who believes in him are his 'mother and brothers'.
i am by no means saying that family values and the relationships we build there are not really that important, but I am perhaps a bit surprised to see that even Jesus did not have 'peachy' relationships with his own brothers. It's almost comforting to see this part of Jesus. God as a human had trouble getting his own brothers to believe in him.
were the brothers too familiar?
were they too jealous to be able to see the miracles he was doing were from above?
what exactly was the problem?
i have no answer, only comfort.

the importance of timing
in the book "the Jesus i never knew" by philip yancey he makes the following point about when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert (Luke 4)... the temptations were temptations of urgency:

• stones into bread? ... will you WAIT for your food when you can have it now?

• the adoration and worship of the world? ... will you WAIT for the end of the age when every knee will bow?

• the respect and belief of the religious leaders? ... will you WAIT for that?

it seems that Jesus knew how to wait. it seems to me that waiting was critical to him when it came to pleasing his father.

the number one danger for christians today is to want the right thing too soon because we doesn't even see it as a temptation from Satan. the right thing in the wrong time is perhaps more dangerous than the wrong thing to begin with.

in your time, Jesus. thank you for this journey. everything in my life has brought me to this point and now i wait on you for the things that only you can make clear to me as we go along this path together.

the day facebook replaced my email

so i open up my email application- i get a few mails streaming in... none, if i'm lucky (sorry for the cynicism)

just when i think it is over i become aware that checking your email inbox is still only halfway to being done. flippin facebook. now i have to log on and see what people have got vampire hugs to give me and have to deal with all this likeness rubbish that makes me feel less and less unique everytime i see it.

there it is... "inbox (1)".

my neighbour from when i was 10... "hey! howu?"

what nonsense.

all that for that.

music

she sings and she stops
she shouts but she's not
listening to the notes

she sings ok i guess
but she doesn't move me

one must ride the wings
of the wind that is already there

when you try to create music you fail
when you hear her voice and move with her
you lose yourself in her arms
and that's when people hear her

your talent is just the avenue
people want music not you
and if you move with her
they move with you

learning to pray

so here are a few thoughts on Luke 11:1

“Lord, teach us to pray”

1. Jesus had just been out praying when they asked this question. he could answer them because he knew from experience. he had integrity.
2. The disciples came and asked. they were hungry for it. they must have seen some fruit in Jesus’ life and the way a prayerful life made him operate, made a connection somewhere that it was because of his prayerful life and then they asked if they could have the same.
3. The Lord’s Prayer comes down to:
   - adoration
   - asking
   - wanting to stay pure

Furthermore, Richard Foster, in his book, The Celebration of Discipline comments on this passage by saying the following: The disciples ‘had prayed all their lives but something about the quantity and quality of Jesus’ praying caused them to see how little they knew about prayer.

He goes on to say that learning to pray is a learning process and that we should feel free to grow and learn as we pray. I see my prayer life (when it is in operation) as a wonderful chance to learn how to pray better. It has taken me a long time to see it this way and up until very recently I have always felt under pressure to already know how you should pray and therefore to have an awesome prayer life. I feel released by the fact that I have so much more to learn and that today i can pray as i know how and there is nothing wrong with that.

I'm starting at 10 minutes again. I am free to practice. To lose track of time rather than measuring prayer against the clock.

For the Christian, prayer should make us think of liberty, victory, change and joy. I fear that we see it too much as an obligation. At least that's the way I have seen it for too long now...

Last quote to keep us thinking: "A man prayed and prayed and at first he thought that prayer meant talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realised that prayer is listening." Soren Kierkagaard

meekness

quite recently i heard someone describe meekness the following way:

...when you have the chance to get back at someone who has wronged you but you choose not to.

if that be a correct definition then surely meekness must rank as one of the strongest characteristics a man can possess?

i see a world pretending

obscure eyes
hurried glances
what is in your soul that your window won't show?
what hurt carry you in the hands of today?

yesterday has closed his fist
but today holds a change for you yet
be it true that you may have to wrestle
be it sure that good things don't come easy

i sit here scribbling
criticising them
prisoners of illusion
those confident cowards

they trample through this palace of illusion
artificial light paying homage to their dark
wondering who is looking at them they pretend
if only they knew that we cared naught anyway

sideways glance, you look my way
and there i am caught looking away
what is it within me that can't hold your gaze?
i'm the same. obscure. caught in the haze

my palace of dreams holds the mare of the night
the dark stallion, strong yet easy to fright
we are all as he: afraid of our strength
we write the summary instead of writing at length

in no hurried terms i will now conclude
these thoughts i think that so sway my mood
they feud within me. each has his own voice
but the choice is mine to escape this noise

this conclusion brief but the argument many:
let your light shine- if you have any.