Riparian Christmas

This week has brought a confluence of seemingly unrelated thoughts and channeled them onto a most unlikely Christmas post.

The first rivulet was a guy's general complaint about feeling the pressure of giving. He believed too much is expected of him. His attitude was that if he had money, he could give the gifts that he wanted. Instead, he felt guilty and gloomy.

In real life, my response dripped with suggestions of spending time doing things with and for others. Quality time produces better memories than merchandise. That answer is true enough, but the raw truth is that the guy is clueless. I did not tell him that. What he "feels" is the weight and heaviness of too much expectation is not even close to what God expects.

The next runnel to join my stream of consciousness is something that I am beginning to suspect is a societal myth. Haven't you always heard that Christmas depresses people? Google, Bing or Whatever and you will find many articles that say it is so. You won't find the case studies in their footnotes. It is difficult to find any hard proof of Christmas-caused depression. What you may find is seasonal affective disorder. The Mayo Clinic says SAD is caused by the effect of decreased daylight on neurochemicals and hormones. Blame Winter Solstice, not Christmas!

Another tributary, this time courtesy of a Facebook comment, fesses up to feeling "like I am playing dodge ball" whist Lucifer attempts to lob his munitions of depression.

All of which mingles in the unlikely estuary of finding a Christmas message in the Book of Job.

The setting for Book of Job is one of the most ancient; perhaps only the first eleven chapters of Genesis pre-date it. Near the end of the book are 123 verses of direct quotes from God, ending with a picture of God as Dragon Master. (Revelation, the book that reaches farthest into the future, shows God as the Dragon Slayer. From beginning to end, God has final victory over trouble caused by sin, death, and Satan.) When we see God in His grandeur as Master of the Universe, it helps put our problems into perspective.

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who had suffered more sever affliction than Job. He had lost seven sons, three daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and the shepherds and servants who managed his livestock. That is a lot of loss of life. Yet Job's deliverance came not in the counsels of his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, nor in the diatribe of the upstart theologian Elihu, but release came in being reminded that God laid the foundations of the earth and set its measurements.

He enclosed the boundaries of the sea and caused the dawn to know its place. He led forth the constellations and channeled the lightning. He provided food for the animals of the earth. He gave the horse its might and caused the eagle to rise upon wings.

Chapter 40 tells of Behemoth. This beastly dinosaur has strength in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly. "He bends his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze; his limbs are like bars of iron." [...] "Under the lotus plants he lies down, in the covert of the reeds and the marsh. The lotus plants cover him with shade; the willows of the brook surround him. If a river rages, he is not alarmed; he is confident, though the Jordan rushes to his mouth.


As the Lord continues to describe His creation in Chapter 41, He reminds Job that He can strip off the outer armor and come within the double mail of the dragon. (He calls it Leviathan, but it describes a dragon.) Even though the dragon's skin is air-tight and "out of his mouth go burning torches; sparks of fire leap forth; out of his nostrils smoke goes forth as from a boiling pot and burning rushes; his breath kindles coals, and a flame goes forth from his mouth"—even in all this, God can draw him out with a fishhook.

When Job gets a picture of the majesty of God, his recovery was near. Job, who had been falsely accused of sinful actions, discovered that the only thing he had to apologize for was his lack of understanding who God is.

Before, Job had heard about God. After his experience, he saw Him for Who He Is.
And THAT is what Christmas is about. Immanuel. God with us. Understanding who God is. The thing that got Job out of his funk was getting a fuller, more complete picture of who God is.


That is where the first guy in this blog got stuck on the shoals. He does not see a God in control of creation. He feels pressured to buy stuff. I should end this post now with a nice, pithy river reference. But, no. Instead, I am going to row this boat over to comment on the teaching of evolution. When kids are taught evolution only, the school robs them of the opportunity to see God in control of creation. Children who are robbed of the opportunity to see God in control of Creation are doomed to greater despair and hopelessness.

Roads end, but rivers flow on to the sea. Evolution is a dry gulch dead-ending in a desert. To deny creation is to deny the Creator. To deny the Creator is to end in desolation. God wants to be known. He went out of His way to make Himself known. He has visited His people.

This is the article that was supposed to post last month but didn't. The reason is simple enough: I never know who is going to read this. Since complaints tend to sound worse secondhand, it seemed prudent to do some preemptive damage control. That mission successfully completed, let the rant begin!



Christmas cheer took an early hit this year. The church bulletin announced that the Christmas Eve Candlelighting Ceremony would be on December 22nd.

It sounds to me like people want to have their Christmas cookie and to eat it too. All the fun of a candlelight service with none of the inconvenience or sacrifice. So much for the lights in the firmament of the heaven being for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. Don't find the date convenient? That's okay, we'll just ratchet our waning gibbous moon back to full.

The pagans are not so cavalier about it. I had to check, and we are okay for 2010. Solstice is on the 21st at 23:38 (or 11:38pm) UTC this year, so that gives us 22 minutes to spare. But some years, a candle lighting on the 22nd would be sharing the glow with the wiccan Sabbat of the Yule. That is just wrong.

That is not my biggest complaint though. That is just the one that sounds good.

My biggest complaint sounds selfish. My biggest complaint is that moving Christmas Eve services to the 22nd robs me of my power. If the candle lighting were on the real eve, I could get my entire family to church. With two working retail and one living a hundred miles away, it is not going to happen on the 22nd.

Ah, the irony. It seems that some folks don't want a Christmas eve candle lighting on the real Christmas eve because they "want to spend time at home with their family." That type of reasoning makes me feel like an Asperger kid. I do not connect the dots. Spending family time at home seems pretty ordinary to my kids. What would make Christmas Eve special would be going to church as a family and singing a very old and very traditional carol slightly off key. Then we would come home and have chocolate mousse before bed.

I am not stupid. I know what is going to happen. One will say, "Well, mom, since you don't have anything special planned, I'll just come over in the morning." And another, "Can I borrow some wrapping paper? I didn't wrap my stuff yet since you didn't have anything planned." Then they will be off to another room with the door shut tight. Or this, "My friend asked me to go hear their church's bell choir, and since our family isn't doing anything, I said yes."

So what would I like in a church? I would like a little support in keeping the light of Christmas Eve focused where it ought to be.


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The Halloween To-Do

Two weeks ago, the pendulum was still swinging over my Halloween proclivities; it had pretty much swung back to the notion that it is probably best if the church ignores it.

That is what my childhood church did about Halloween—nothing. Trick-or-treating was a secular thing; its hours and patrols were run by the local government. During my elementary years in public school, a Halloween celebration usually included a couple creepy stories, an art project, and a classroom costume party after the final recess. The room mothers kindly gave us real sugar cookies and did not try to 'trick' us into more healthful eating by 'treating' us with carrot sticks. (I heard all the politically correct places are doing that now.)

In my high school, observation of the holiday was nonexistent outside hallway chatter. Perhaps the administration felt that keeping it off campus would minimize the destruction of school property; who knows? Some years the community theater raised funds by haunting a local building and charging for the tour. I went to a Quaker College, and if the Society of Friends has an official position on Halloween, it was not made known.

Life moved on and the next thing I heard as a young adult was that Halloween was suddenly Evil. The bob had changed directions; Halloween was a pagan holiday and anyone who celebrated it was dabbling in the occult—or worse.

The church community was having alternative Halloween activities thinly disguised as Harvest Festivals. The kids 'harvested' candy. In hindsight, I think that was a horrible idea. There were standard announcements from the pulpit in those days: Bring in your donations of candy because we don't want our Christian kids to be left out. OK folks, what is wrong with that theology? Hint: The pretense of having an alternative was to avoid worldly things, and with the exception of dark chocolate, candy accrual is pretty worldly.

Further proof of worldliness infiltrating the alternatives is that the celebration of Reformation Day never caught on. This October 31^st anniversary of Martin Luther nailing it in Wittenberg ought to be a day of celebration for the Protestant church. To bad old Marty wasn't known for giving away sweets.

With a half century of thought on the matter, the pendulum swung back and I had decided that Halloween is a secular holiday, no matter how it is handled.

Then I found this:

Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
Isaiah 26:19

Now, isn't that just about the coolest thing ever? I think the pendulum finally struck 'dead' center.

This statement, originally addressed to collective Israel, was metaphorical as it addressed her deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation; it can be literal as it applies to the near and coming end times. Better still, a literal interpretation goes world wide.

Metaphorical support: Ezekiel 37: 1-14, valley of the dry bones
Literal support: Daniel 12:2, "Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake – some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence."

Secular All Hallow's Eve: Boo!
God's All Hallow's Eve: Woo-hoo!

Clothesline.

Laundry is one of the more mundane things in life. I was hanging clothes on the line this week and I suppose some folks would, beratingly, call me obsessive/compulsive about the way that I did it, but this is very simply the way that I think.

Let me back up a little...

I often hear people describe things, just general stuff—I'm talking water cooler chit-chat or church pot-latch dinner conversations—and I'll start feeling like I am from another planet. These common, everyday things are so not my experience. For example, I will hear some mom say that she can hardly wait for school to start so that the kids will be out of her hair. I cannot relate. Or some guy will say that he can't go fishing because his wife is making him finish her Honey-do List this weekend. Really? That is completely outside the realm of my experience. Where do these wives get this power? I would never be able to get my husband to ever agree to a Honey-do List, especially if it would mean sacrificing something that he wanted to do.

I'd say that I have a hard time relating to about a quarter of scenarios offered as examples by motivational speakers and in sermons. Doing things that are normal stuff for others, I will be attacked for. I once had a small, well-contained, perfectly legal leaf fire burning, when Jeannine, the demon-possessed neighbor, called the fire department on me. The firemen drove right past our place at first; the driver said he had driven past three larger leaf and brush fires on the way to this call and had had a hard time finding this fire. He wondered why it had been phoned in.
I have a lot of stories like that. I'm totally legal. I'm totally innocent. I'm totally attacked by hypocrites who do far worse. That is my reality.

But today's blog is about the clothesline.


At this time of year, past the autumnal equinox, the clothesline gets only a few hours of midday sun at the western end. Due to the position of a towering water oak, the east end gets less. I hang the slow-to-dry heavy socks and jeans at the western end and the quick drying polyesters at the east. This is normal for me and makes sense. It is not something I stopped and contemplated, I just did it. Everything gets dry this way. If jeans are hung on the east end, they will have damp crotches and pockets whist the flimsy stuff on the western front would have been dry much earlier.

I don't get why anyone would think that is odd. I think making jokes about "getting shed" of your kids when school starts is odd.



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Autumnal Equinox – Harvest Moon

It is 2010, (at least it is on the most common of Earth's calendars,) and this year the autumnal equinox and the harvest moon occurred within hours of each other. Calculating the sun's position relative to the earth, fall began on September 22 at 11:09 PM Eastern time and the moon became fully full (or if you wish to sound like a scientist, it achieved maximum illumination) within hours, early on September 23. It will be nineteen years before we come close to that again.

Aesop's Fabled Winning Strategy

You have heard the tale since childhood, and if you heeded it, you learned one of the greatest business strategies while you were still in the nursery. The Tortoise and the Hare have a race, and even though the hare is a much faster animal, the steadiness of the tortoise prevails and he crosses the finish line first.

This principle was exemplified in the life of NCAA basketball coach and lecturer John Wooden, winner of ten national championships, who counted among his favorite maxims, "Be quick, but don't hurry." He was known for putting his most consistent players into the game.

Consistency is a trait that is easy to find among the success stories of all varieties. Michelangelo painted the ceiling and altar wall of the Sistine chapel with it. The Pilgrims survived where other settlements had failed because of it. Edison found an improved light bulb filament with it. Lincoln ended the Civil War with it. Walt Disney built an entertainment empire with it.

That was something I wrote for a business client late last spring. (You can tell that I wasn't writing it for myself because it mentions the late John Wooden.) The article goes on to talk about consistency and dependability being essential for building a base of repeat customers. It then took off in the direction that in Aesop's fable, the Hare boasted of never having lost a race and the Tortoise was ridiculed for being slow-moving. The verbal hype may not have directly affected the outcome, but it did create an unpleasant atmosphere at the starting line.

I am not here to discuss employee character issues or why the tortoise was the better business man though. It is Labor Day weekend, and after a two-month recess from this blog, it is time to get back to some semblance of consistency in posting.

It got me to thinking about the balance between innovation and consistency, and I realized that God has both things going on. One has to admit that the creation of a universe by fiat is innovative. Yet He is probably most loved for His consistency—the God who changes not.

Independence Day

I recommend this set of videos where Newt Gingrich talks about the importance of defending one's Christian Identity. If you are short on time, at least watch segment 2, We Are Where Paul Was.


http://www.torenewamerica.com/gingrich-nh-renewal-project

I had planned to write a bit, but this is better.

Midsummer Eve

If you haven't celebrated Midsummer's Eve yet, tonight is your last chance. Apparently the holiday is fairly fluid on setting dates. Strictly celestially speaking, this year's summer solstice occurred June 21st at 12:45 AM EST. That means Midsummer Eve's earliest date this year was sundown on June 20th. That is the one that is most widely recognized, However, there are other ways to calculate Midsummer Night. Sometimes the birthday of St John the Baptist is used; that would make it June 23rd. Another way to calculate it is by the Full Moon nearest the summer solstice, and that is tonight.

Why?

Why is it that the people who use you as a doormat get angry when you don't say, "Welcome?"

God, Arbor Day, and Ents

It was there in the beginning…
Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden ~ Genesis 2:9

And it will be there in the end…
On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ~ Revelation 22:2

Unless you live your life hanging out exclusively with Ultra-labeled fundamentalists, someone will be quick to tell you that the Tree of Life is allegorical. Convinced that no one tree could really give immortality, they will argue that for it to be a literal tree, it would require huge differences between the laws of nature that govern Eden and Heaven and those that govern Earth. They will claim a literal interpretation requires an equally vast difference in God's dealings with man.

To which I say, yes, that is the point, isn't it? Eden was and heaven is different than Earth.
But as it turns out, it really isn't all that much about the tree's genomes anyway. Its about the water.

And how does that work? Not a clue. … Well, maybe one clue. That clue is in Ezekiel 47:12
"By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing."

The fruit gains its healing properties because their water flows from the sanctuary, a consecrated place.

Ent-draught (to be continued)

Earth Day ~ A day late & a dollar short

It occurred to me that the way most people celebrate Earth Day, if indeed it's a celebration at all, is by dwelling on lack and shortages. That is a peculiar form of celebration; instead of rest, gifts and laughter, it is a day of work, sacrifice, and lecturing. It is sort of like an un-Thanksgiving.

And who is there to thank on Earth Day? Gaia? Hardly.

Earth Day is an event spawned from evolutionist thinking.


The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
sings the psalmist of №24.


The difference in perspective is substantial. Evolutionists serve the earth rooted in fear that it is running short, wearing out, and getting dirty. Creationists preserve the earth to honor the Creator.

April Fool's Day

It has been a rugged winter, but March finally went out like a lamb.

Remember how you are supposed to let sleeping dogs lie?
These sled dogs are provoking me to jealousy.

Spring Poetry

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus -
Crocus.
~Lilja Rogers


Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"


So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth.
Hosea 6:3

Happy Pi Day

There is no compulsory education in Singapore, but their
school attendance is 98% and their aggregate literacy shames
America’s. Prior to compulsory education in America, 100
million sets of Noah Webster’s Speller were sold in the years
after 1783 (this was also a time when scholarships for the
poor were pervasive), and the six-volume Eclectic Readers by
W.H. McGuffey sold 120 million sets during the decades after
1836. These are astonishing numbers given the US population
during that era. Non-compulsory education once gave our
nation its highest literacy rates, as documented not only by
Alexis de Tocqueville, but also by the study Thomas Jefferson
commissioned DuPont to conduct in 1800, which showed
national literacy standing at 99.7% (compared to today’s 80%
figure for high school graduates, which doesn’t even include
the one million dropouts produced every year).

~ Martin G. Selbrede

Snow - a woods in grayscale

Georgia has a wonderful snow today, and by that, I mean that we had snow that left the woods looking full of wonder.

I have seen a lot of snow over the years. Today's snow was spectacular. My son who has lived all his life in the South does not understand. Oh, he is enthralled by it, but he assumes that this is commonplace in the north. It is not.

Today's snow was relatively warm—for snow, and had large flakes. It fell without wind. We have a 10# fishing line strung between two trees and the snow stacked a half-inch deep in it! On a twig with a 3/8 inch diameter, it stacked over an inch!

The sky was a pearl white. There were no shadows. It was as if the entire woods was lit with a photographer's reflective umbrella.

Spellbound.

Groundhog Day

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~Maori Proverb

...to be continued.

1s¹

Someone has blown up an atom.

Oh, not in a bomb kind of way. They decided to make a web page model and blow up an electon to the size of a single pixel.

http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/atom/#electron

A scroll bar slide runs along the bottom. It is easy to miss because it almost looks empty, but if you use it, you can take a virtual journey from a hydrogen proton out to its encircling electron. As the disclaimer warns, the scenery along the way is pretty bleak. Even once you are there, there isn't much to see. It's nothing that is important. I mean, it's nothing that is important.

Susan's Bear

Susan's Bears is a story by Mildred Lawrence. It was in the first real storybook that I ever remember reading all by myself, The Tall Book of Makebelieve.

The book belonged to my big sister, who happens to be a Susan herself. Nearly all my childhood favorites came from that one book— Eugene Field's Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Sandberg's Village of Cream Puffs, and the artwork for Stevenson's The Land of Counterpane that turned a bed quilt into a magical battlefield.

But 'Susan's Bears' was about finding courage to meet the fears of the dark, for a family of bears lived behind the bedroom door at her aunt's house. The bears began leaving Susan letters which helped her to overcome her fears until at last, she found a real teddy bear behind the door. All fear was gone.

This Christmas we decorated an old pot-bellied bear with a jaunty velvet and fur Santa cap. It sat on a little antique stool tucked behind the curve of the couch. The only viewpoint from which the bear could be clearly seen was at the end of the hallway.

Every time I exited the hall, I'd see it sitting there half hidden. I came to regard it as Susan's bear. Now it is time to pack up the Christmas gear for another year, but I don't think this Teddy will go back in the attic. I will find it a scarf and let it keep sitting there because I think it keeps the spirit of Christmas Past very well.

Perhaps next month he will see his shadow.

Time

New Year's Day naturally lends itself to the topic of Time. I was reviewing my old notebooks where I outline and keep notes for articles that I may wish to write someday. I was not looking for a topic to blog about. However, that is what seems to have providentially occurred. Because this particular set of notes was written as the background for a potential Bible study, that may overshadow the tenor of this blog. But I promise, I'll try really hard not to sound too religious, even though there will be quotations from scripture.

And in that vein:
He made known to us the mystery of His will with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times… Ephesians 1:9, 10a

First, understand thet some adverb and prepositional phrases were omitted because, the title of this blog not withstanding, they would lead to a rabbit trail that I don't wish to follow at the moment. Rather, I'd like to emphasize "an administration suitable to the fullness of the times…" You are welcome to go look it up on your own if you are worried that I'm taking something out of context. Far be it from me to stop anyone from chasing down a bunny trail! But the main point for now is that Time is under jurisdiction of God the Father. In fact, one of the names for Him is Ancient of Days.

...thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His vesture was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool
His throne was ablaze with flames
~from Daniel 7

My notes continue for several pages, giving examples of "proper time" for seeding and harvest, the appearing of Christ, the testimony, the gentile age, for hope to be manifested, for taking possession of the kingdom, and so forth—all laying a foundation to show that set times are integral in God's plans.

And then there was this:
...He will … wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times… ~from Daniel 7:25

The antichrist will attempt to change God's timing. That has to be diabolical.

Imagine that, as Creator of the Universe you had certain asteroids lined up on precisely calculated trajectories so that you could pull off the fulfillment of the revelation that you'd leaked to John so that it will look like a huge mountain, all ablaze, being thrown into the sea. You've balanced the stresses along the fault lines so that your earthquakes will occur exactly when it's time to return. You've structured the elements of the atmosphere to coalesce into hailstones at the particular instant that enemy armies will be pulling flanking maneuvers past Mount Megiddo into the Jezreel Valley. And here comes this immortal enemy hell-bent on altering the schedule.
Just who does the antichrist think he is anyway, God?

… oh, yeah. I guess he does.