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I love getting into discussions, not arguments, but civil discussions about a variety of things that interest me, mostly about how & why we're here and what we're supposed to do and when this leads to the Bible, which it usually does understandably in this western world saturated with Christianity, I bounce things off of people to see what they believe. More than anything I want to know what people believe and why.
I blog when I can't contain something. Today it's about an encounter with Jesus. From my perspective and considering the events described in the New Testament, it appears that one can not avoid being changed, radically, forever, with just one encounter with Jesus.
Numerous accounts of people being healed, being transformed, continuing on to lead significantly altered lives.
As much as I question what is in the Bible as to whether it is literal or figurative. God inspired, or just advice from someone to a group concerning a specific circumstance, the one thing that still stands out is that everyone who encounters Jesus is changed.
Regardless of what I believe and what is true, in the Bible, what is undeniable is that Jesus changed me and many others like no other.
One encounter with the risen Christ and Saul became Paul and went on 4 mission trips planting churches and spreading the gospel. Subsequently writing more then 50% of the New testament. A radical change from the persecution he'd been spear-heading prior.
The woman at the well, who avoided public contact, now went and evangelized a whole town.
Bartimaeus had his sight restored, the lame walked. A lady just touched the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed after 12 years of no relief from any other source.
The learned, like Nicodemus acknowledged the evidence of God with Jesus and questioned his ideals, experiencing a paradigm shift in his thinking and understanding of this new way.
A lunatic running naked between the grave yards, unable to be held by chains, is healed and found clothed, in his right mind and at the feet of Jesus.
I had an encounter and the next thing I know I'm headed for Africa on a mission trip.
I've been to churches and seen many people who attend church whose lives do not reveal any radical changes. I do not know how this can be, in light of what I have presented above.
What about you, what has changed for you due to your encounter with the risen Christ?
Practice compassion and random acts of kindness. Let your light shine before men and acknowledge why you can't contain it.
Namaste
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Too Wonderful
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There are times when I experience something and it is too wonderful for words... so I laugh. It can be a bit awkward, like when I do it during a church service or while seated listening to a live performance of a Symphony. Imagine even in the middle of being intimate.
Some people think I'm being rude. Some have built in paranoia and think I'm laughing at something concerning them. Some wonder what is so funny and want to join me.
"Meaningless, meaningless, everything under the sun is meaningless," wrote the author of the book of Ecclesiastes. The man many claim to have been the wisest man that ever lived.
Being the "Eternal Optimist" that I am, I boldly proclaim, "wonderful, wonderful, everything under the sun is too wonderful!"
When I consider how a tree grows to towering heights and year after year, it produces leaves and those leaves provide shade and absorb toxic gas and exchange it for life giving oxygen, I laugh. Then having filled its purpose, the leaves fall to the ground to fertilize it's parent, becoming food for insects in the process. It is too wonderfully perfect for my mind as I watch the ants in file carrying their payload of nutrition for others to feast upon. Their provision from above, manna from heaven. Service to others. Its just too wonderful.
As Jesus described, if we who are capable of giving our children what they need, how much more our father in heaven would provide for our needs. Too wonderful for me.
How the stars in the sky, the planets with their moons, the comets, the black holes, the dark matter, the most powerful Quasar, and the millions of galaxies all are in perfect order as you journey to the edge of the universe, is too wonderful for me.
I love revelations, aha moments, discoveries and the feeling of purpose. Piecing together the puzzle of existence.
As I listen to a guitar or a saxophone player create and take me to a place I didn't expect, often it is too wonderful for me. It defies gravity. It is not subject to the laws of physics. It is no longer worldly.
These are spiritual moments that words can not describe. When truth comes marching in without even knocking on the door.
They are too wonderful for words for me, so I laugh. At times, uncontrollably.
A hawk in flight, a dolphin spinning through the air, the thought of the cosmic forces of good that brought my wife and I together. I can sit and contemplate and attempt to explain or understand their goodness or my fascination but I find, they are too wonderful for me and I laugh.
The way my heart flutters when my wife walks into the room, and our eyes meet is too wonderful for me. How I feel when I am in her arms and I get lost in her eyes, mesmerized. Searching for the reason that all this blessing has been poured on me, finding only endless wonder and joy. With thankfulness, I laugh.
It is too wonderful for me and I smile until I chuckle then laugh, leading to a full on belly shaking laugh out loud and finally rolling on the floor laughing with tears welling up in my eyes, because I can not contain the goodness of it. It is beyond words and the feeling so great, so unparalleled I can find no other way to describe or explain, except to say...
It is Too Wonderful...
and laugh.
---
There are times when I experience something and it is too wonderful for words... so I laugh. It can be a bit awkward, like when I do it during a church service or while seated listening to a live performance of a Symphony. Imagine even in the middle of being intimate.
Some people think I'm being rude. Some have built in paranoia and think I'm laughing at something concerning them. Some wonder what is so funny and want to join me.
"Meaningless, meaningless, everything under the sun is meaningless," wrote the author of the book of Ecclesiastes. The man many claim to have been the wisest man that ever lived.
Being the "Eternal Optimist" that I am, I boldly proclaim, "wonderful, wonderful, everything under the sun is too wonderful!"
When I consider how a tree grows to towering heights and year after year, it produces leaves and those leaves provide shade and absorb toxic gas and exchange it for life giving oxygen, I laugh. Then having filled its purpose, the leaves fall to the ground to fertilize it's parent, becoming food for insects in the process. It is too wonderfully perfect for my mind as I watch the ants in file carrying their payload of nutrition for others to feast upon. Their provision from above, manna from heaven. Service to others. Its just too wonderful.
As Jesus described, if we who are capable of giving our children what they need, how much more our father in heaven would provide for our needs. Too wonderful for me.
How the stars in the sky, the planets with their moons, the comets, the black holes, the dark matter, the most powerful Quasar, and the millions of galaxies all are in perfect order as you journey to the edge of the universe, is too wonderful for me.
I love revelations, aha moments, discoveries and the feeling of purpose. Piecing together the puzzle of existence.
As I listen to a guitar or a saxophone player create and take me to a place I didn't expect, often it is too wonderful for me. It defies gravity. It is not subject to the laws of physics. It is no longer worldly.
These are spiritual moments that words can not describe. When truth comes marching in without even knocking on the door.
They are too wonderful for words for me, so I laugh. At times, uncontrollably.
A hawk in flight, a dolphin spinning through the air, the thought of the cosmic forces of good that brought my wife and I together. I can sit and contemplate and attempt to explain or understand their goodness or my fascination but I find, they are too wonderful for me and I laugh.
The way my heart flutters when my wife walks into the room, and our eyes meet is too wonderful for me. How I feel when I am in her arms and I get lost in her eyes, mesmerized. Searching for the reason that all this blessing has been poured on me, finding only endless wonder and joy. With thankfulness, I laugh.
It is too wonderful for me and I smile until I chuckle then laugh, leading to a full on belly shaking laugh out loud and finally rolling on the floor laughing with tears welling up in my eyes, because I can not contain the goodness of it. It is beyond words and the feeling so great, so unparalleled I can find no other way to describe or explain, except to say...
It is Too Wonderful...
and laugh.
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