A CRAYON ON HIS HEAD... CAN SIGNIFY WISDOM

At the library, Saturday,
waiting for a friend.
People come & pass that way;
some run, some walk, some wend…

Partners holding hands went by,
children with their dads,
scooters, skateboards, bikes, and I
must have noticed “heads”.

Maybe some redheads, and black,
curly like an afro.
Brown & black hair holding hands.
All hair-kinds we know.

Then a pair of “twins” came through.
Not really twins you see.
In years gone past it wouldn’t do
what now it did in me.

It seemed like a high-lighter
had taken to each head.
Or even something brighter,
yet regal, and bless-ed.

A pearl crayon on his head
matched the same on hers.
I wondered if the colours bled
each year as life occurs,

and wanted, as I grow old,
to grow in what would match
such a crown of pure white-gold;
O, gracious-wisdom hatch!

In response to Sam's praise of good songs...

How good to hear
goodness, appear,
and savoured. We're
helped. With you cheer!

Hearing you brings
some sim'lar things:
image with wings,
which happy, sings!

Sam, you've helped me
again appre-
-ciate songs we

sing when happy,

or sad/ lonely.

Lift eyes and see

ears hear that we

have, with mouths free!

Thank you to all.

now from this Paul.

I'll stop my stall,

and start to fall

down. And then call

for help in all

my work, to crawl

back to his "shawl"*.

I've been appall-

-ed at how small

the Great-Good-Hall

shrinks in my world

to be a stall

that hocks with gall

what's free to all

who heed his call

God you've striven,

and you've given

good from heaven.

We say thank you.

And all you do

which we see too

makes us glad who

've been given YOU!

* prayer shawl, with a knaff (hem).

It just ain’t happening ... (Part 12 - of 12) ...

It just ain’t happening ... (Part 12 - of 12) ... faithfulness, wisdom, & prayer...when the miracles don’t come. Mark ch9v14-29 (to open in a new window, hold control down as you click the link)

 

Time to make a response to what you've learned & post it here as a comment :

I'll have a go too. 

(Hint: First, read through Mark ch9v14-29, again & let it affect you as a message from God, in the light of it's back ground, then...

... we'll see what happens)

PW

She asked for our prayer... .. She was finding things hard... .. Glad he's with her there, while we're in our yard.

I love you Milly,
and appreciate
your lovely frankness,
though feeling silly
to negotiate
sadness or blankness.

Don't fret those feelings,
fretting's the problem
(Milly my daughter),
it's counter healings,
and like a goblin
it dain't like water:

dain't like pure drinking,
dain't like clean washes,
dain't like good mourning.
Drink cool, pure thinking,
remember the Toshes,
and Jesus' warning

'bout; those who now laugh
(better his comfort),
and those "together",
they won't have prayed half
nor sung like Mumford
& Sons. Our tether

can be what trains us
to look up, beyond
our capacity,
and he who blames us,
through that tree-wand,
to who sets us free.

It just ain’t happening ... (Part 11 - of 12) ...

It just ain’t happening ... (Part 11 - of 12) ... faithfulness, wisdom, & prayer...when the miracles don’t come. Mark ch9v14-29 (to open in a new window, hold control down as you click the link)

 

Final remarks:

Various OT references^[1], & an earlier pericope in Mark’s story (Mk 6: 1-13) help us form a picture of the Jewish mindset^[2] which was likely to see Jesus’ power to heal as an expression of God’s wisdom: “What’s this wisdom that has been given him that he even does miracles?” (Mk6:2). In the light of this, & also Jesus’ wise responses to this unclean spirit’s tricks, another commentary on this pericope - again pulling together both “faithfulness” & “prayer” -  might well be James’ admonition:

² My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, ³ for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. ⁴ Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. ⁵ But if any of you lack wisdom, you should pray to God, who will give it to you; because God gives generously and graciously to all. ⁶ But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown about by the wind. ^7-8 If you are like that, unable to make up your mind and undecided in all you do, you must not think that you will receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:2-8).

 

---

^[1] Gen 41:38-39; Exod 28:3; 31:3-5; Deut 34:9; 1 Sam 18:14; 1 Kings 2:9, 3:9, 7:14; Proverbs 3:13-19

^[2] from the Jewish Encyclopedia we are told that  Wisdom is “...the mental grasp which observes and penetrates into the nature of things, and also the ability skilfully to perform difficult tasks.” And from an article on The concept of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible – A comparative-philosophical analysis: “In the biblical context,... the phenomena of wisdom and understanding and/or knowledge often appear in parallelism: For Yhwh gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Pr 2:6) ... The blessing and cursing for keeping commandments (Deut 28), and the moral interpretation of Deuteronomistic history assumes that wisdom and actual successful living go hand in hand. …”

We stayed, she prayed!

Thanx Hun,
My door-
-ta; fun
& more

is in
store for
your win
'gainst sin.

Thanx God
("The Wild"),
who shod
his child

with skin
that won't
let in
what don't

bring life
more than
bad strife.
OUR MAN

Jesus
loves (us).
We're glad
his dad
does too,
Yee-hoo!

In a place of prayer

A big few days last Fri, Sat, Sunday, but a beautiful refreshing retreat with God on Sunday night brought strength and shalom. These were some slightly disjointed thoughts at the end of that time.
 
Life in the Word,
Life In The Wind
life that is spurred
and won't be hind-
-ered - like a bird,
by a fiord;
or a for-rest.
He is our lord
and he's our nest!
Lord, by you we're blessed!

You who has stirred
in our hearts now,
whom we have heard
to whom we bow,
(a bower bird)
we see your hues
throughout your world
and will not refuse
your blue sky unfurled!
- under which we're curled.

It just ain’t happening ... (Part 10 - of 12) ...

It just ain’t happening ... (Part 10 - of 12) ... faithfulness, wisdom, & prayer...when the miracles don’t come. Mark ch9v14-29 (to open in a new window, hold control down as you click the link)

We have been so far interpreting the prayer of Jesus (and potentially James, John, & Peter), in that broad sense of an openness to God; but it is worth noting as God’s prophet Hosea^[1] noted, that hearing the word of God is the only way forward for the faithless/untrue people of God, and as Peter’s speech at the Jerusalem council might be paraphrased^[2], regarding the inclusion of the Nations amongst the faithful;

“..it was through hearing the word of the euangelion that they became faithful,... it was through faith in the loving favour of the one who ruled (even over Caesar,) as “Lord” & “Saviour-of-the-World” (Jesus), that all nations can now be counted as his people.”

From Peter’s statement, “hearing the word of the euangelion” is analogous to God’s prior statement to Peter; “Listen  to  Him”, the one whose announcement is present (in Rome/Sydney/Dubbo) at any time people are hearing this gospel. To hear Peter saying that he is “Lord” & “Saviour” (contrary to Caesar’s many claims to these titles, culminating in “Son of God” - on all the billboards & coins, & in all the proclamations of the imperial heralds at the time of Mark’s writing) is analogous to the announcement from heaven; “This is my Son, whom I Love” = “The Son of God”. But in the Transfiguration pericope Jesus is not only announced to be this by those under him, but also by the only ONE over him. This gives the WAY forward for the unfaithful identified in our  pericope, that they too might become faithful. 

Next, we see that our pericope embodies what came to be seen as the core of the Christian message. The Apostle Paul writes^[3] to the representatives of Jesus’ new Government^[4] being set up in Rome, that his message is one of faithful responsiveness (=LISTEN) to Jesus (not Caesar) as the ultimate (well, penultimate) LORD! (= “My Son” - when said from Heaven). His words might be paraphrased (and commented on with respect to our passage in its context) thus:

...declaring with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord (even over unclean spirits?) and believing in the heart-of-your-being that God has raised him from death (cf “suffer much, be rejected, killed, & raised”) …   “Because what Isaiah said was true: ‘The one who trusts in Him will not be disgraced or put to shame.’” (the nine disciples who asked “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” would probably see the relevance of these words of Isaiah) ...“He is Lord over all things (yes, even unclean spirits!), and He is rich to all who invoke His name ( as the nine presumably had) because as Scripture says, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will have him as their saviour.’ (remember, saviour = “Deliverer”; and the father did find this, for his boy) Faith comes from hearing the report of the word of God/Christ^[5] (We can see that for Peter to listen to God, would mean that he’d have to listen to the son of God, because that is what God told him to do. We can see that for the nine to listen to Jesus’ word to them would be to trust his word of authority given to them and use his world-view/wisdom/mind-set to overcome the wiles of the devil.)”

---

^[1] Hosea 4:1;

^[2] Peter’s summary announcement to the Jerusalem Council as recorded by Luke in Acts 15:6-11

^[3] Romans 10:9-17

^[4] if we take Jesus’s wholistic plan to set up his own ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) to mean not only a new approach to God, but a whole new Government of the world, and way of governing, a new approach to the Legislative… ... Assembly.

^[5] (At the end there is a textual variation between “word of God” & “word of Christ” - but both work well when you realize that Christ is the perfect image/likeness of God) Rom 10:16-17 τίς ἐπίστευσε τῇ ἀκοῇ ἡμῶν; ἄρα ἡ πίστις ἐξ ἀκοῆς, ἡ δὲ ἀκοὴ διὰ ρήματος Θεοῦ. “Who has believed our report? So then, believing/faith come from listening to the report of the word of the God”

 

It just ain’t happening ... (Part 9 - of 12) ...

faithfulness, wisdom, & prayer...when the miracles don’t come.

Mark ch9v14-29 (to open in a new window, hold control down as you click the link)

Faithfulness (& Prayer):

From a blog using the matrix as a parable (more than 10 yrs ago)^[1] we hear:  “…through prayer we can commune directly with him who loves us and desires all good things for us. Through faith we can rest assured that we will be saved from the final destruction. Through our real and living relationship with a real living God we are given the means to stand against and defeat all manner of evil. Considering with the faith of a mustard seed mountains can be moved (Matthew 17:20). Is this exaggeration? No, for he says greater things than these will you do. (John 14:12) Did anyone see Neo move mountains? Consider Philip's apparent teleportation. (Acts 8:39) The raising of Lazarus from the dead. (John 11) What do all these things have in common? They are all done by the power of almighty God, and accomplished by faith in Him.”
“There is one thing that stands against this faith. It is the lie, the Deception, the matrix. We begin to believe in it and not in God. Our faith is destroyed and we are separated from God. His power can no longer operate in our lives. We are literally trapped in the matrix. Our only hope of escape is the realization that it is a lie, that God's word is true, and He is who He says He is.”^[3].

---

Some other  contexts:

Jesus had had 3 similar situations of apparent impotence in his own healing ministry in the past, & his response was not to “back down”, but to continue, or to hit harder.

a) the legion of demons in the man “over the lake”, didn’t immediately jump, but begged etc.

b) the time at his home town,

c) the time with the blind man who was brought to Jesus & when he rubbed the mud on his eyes & asked him if he could see, the man could “half see”, so Jesus did it again.

Part of Jesus’ response to the time at his home town, (according to Mark’s telling) seems to be to go elsewhere & give his authority to 12 others too, then follow through the places they went. (presumably to fix up any difficulties - like with this situation after the mountain-top experience). So, before the above instance with the spirit in the epileptic boy, Jesus had already given the apostles authority to drive out demons (& heal sick people):

Mark 6

5-6a And he could do nothing miraculous there apart from laying his hands on a few sick people and healing them; their lack of faith astonished him.

6b-11 Then he made his way round the villages, continuing his teaching. He summoned the twelve, and began to send them out in twos, giving them power over evil spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a staff—no satchel, no bread and no money in their pockets. They were to wear sandals and not to take more than one coat. And he told them, “Wherever you are, when you go into a house, stay there until you leave that place. And wherever people will not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, leave them and shake the dust off your feet as a protest against them!”

12-13 So they went out and preached that men should change their whole outlook. They expelled many evil spirits and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Matt 10

1-4 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to expel evil spirits and heal all kinds of disease and infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles were:...

5-8 These were the twelve whom Jesus sent out, with the instructions: “Don’t turn off into any of the heathen roads, and don’t go into any Samaritan town. Concentrate on the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven has arrived. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, drive out devils—give, as you have received, without any charge whatever.

Luke 9

1-5 Then he called the twelve together and gave them power over all evil spirits and the ability to heal disease. He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick, with these words, “Take nothing for your journey—neither a stick nor a purse nor food nor money, nor even extra clothes! When you come to stay at a house, remain there until you go on your way again. And where they will not welcome you, leave that town, and shake the dust off your feet as a protest against them!”

6 So they set out, and went from village to village preaching the Gospel and healing people everywhere.

Since then, Jesus had extended his commission to his apostles, from heralding, healing, expelling demons, (even raising dead - according to Matthew), to feeding 5,000 people (with enough to feed a boy), [they fail initially, though he helps them to do it anyway] then he gives them a second shot it it with 4,000 people & 7 loaves & a few fish.. [again they fail initially, though again he helps them to do it anyway] . Then he had let (only) them see him walking on water too, kind of to get them to lift their eyes to higher horizons & allow for greater possibilities.  And just before this incident with the epileptic boy & father with not enough faith, the inner 3 had “witnessed” Jesus’ communion with Moses & Elijah (& God), as they slept on, & off (instead of according to Luke, praying).

Matt 17:20f says

20 ὁ δὲ [q]λέγει αὐτοῖς· Διὰ τὴν[r]ὀλιγοπιστίαν ὑμῶν· ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν ἔχητε πίστιν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐρεῖτε τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ·[s]Μετάβα ἔνθεν ἐκεῖ, καὶ μεταβήσεται, καὶ οὐδὲν ἀδυνατήσει [t]ὑμῖν.

which is translated by more literal English translations (look at the footnotes):

NASB:20 And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith [i]the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 [[j]But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”]

[i]Matthew 17:20 Lit as

ESV: 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”[e]

Luke 17:5f

5 Καὶ εἶπαν οἱ ἀπόστολοι τῷ κυρίῳ· Πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν. 6 εἶπεν δὲ ὁ κύριος· Εἰ ἔχετε πίστιν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐλέγετε ἂν τῇ συκαμίνῳ ταύτῃ· Ἐκριζώθητι καὶ φυτεύθητι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ· καὶ ὑπήκουσεν ἂν ὑμῖν.

which is translated by more literal English translations (look at the footnotes):

NASB: 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”6 And the Lord said, “If you [e]had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would [f]obey you.

ESV: 5 The apostles said to the Lord,“Increase our faith!” 6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

“Faith like a mustard seed”, obviously a small thing, but the key is that it is a small living thing & will eventually grow to be massive - if it persists, it will take over! A very appropriate simile for the Australian setting might nowadays be “If you have faith like the minute gum seed in a small gum nut …” 

James, Jesus’ little brother speaks, like his big brother, with a shrewd country down-to-earthedness & he also makes a distinction between two kinds of “faith”, the only one worth anything in his estimation is a faith that is “living” as distinct from a “dead” faith. The amount is irrelevant if it is a living growing thing.

---

^[2] http://appallinglife.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/maybe-wasting-time-with-god-is-what.html

---

^[1] Thursday, May 22, 2003. The Matrix Redeemed :