An Unbelievable Promise!

In my last blog, I wrote about our relationship with the Father through Jesus, His only Son  -- that our relationship could be the same as Jesus' relationship with the Father, if we were in Him and He in us.    Today, I want to write about an almost unbelievable promise that Jesus made to his disciples the night before his death -- the promise of direct communication:

When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you (Jn. 16: 13-15).

 

The reading I was doing this morning (Give Us This Day) pointed out the difference between seeing your new grandson on Skype and holding him in your arms.  That is exactly the difference between the Old and the New Testaments -- after Jesus.  Previously, as The Book of Hebrews points out, God communicated to us through prophets, but now directly through His Son, who has come into the world.  And Jesus did not intend that only those present to Him in the flesh should hear His voice, but that all who accepted Him would do the same. 

 

God always desired direct communication with mankind, but man was afraid to hear His voice, lest they die.  From the time of Moses, man wanted an intermediary.  They told Moses, "You speak with God and tell us what he says; we are afraid!"  But God said through Jeremiah:

 

I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.

I will be their God and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,

or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,"

because they will all know me,

from the least to the greatest (Jer. 31:31).

 

So how do we receive the Spirit of Truth, since Jesus plainly said that the "world" could not accept Him, "because it neither sees him nor knows him" (Jn. 14:15)?  It is clear that not everyone will hear the Spirit through direct communication, but only those to whom Jesus sends the Spirit.  The first letter of John is very clear about this matter:

 

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God....Anyone who believes in the son of God has this testimony in his heart...He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the son of God does not have life (I Jn. 4:2 and 5:10).

 

And the beginning of John's Gospel says it plainly also:  ...to all who received Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God --children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husbands' will, but born of God.

 

So it is not the whole world that hears God speaking in their hearts, but only those to whom Jesus has sent the Spirit.  But the promise of direct communication with God is a great and unbelievable promise, and it is true!  It is also true that God can communicate with us through prophets and the written word, which is "God-breathed," but when the Spirit of God hovers over those words -- either spoken by others or written in Scripture -- the words take on life and breath and power.

 

The very first thing each morning we should do is to welcome the Voice of God, the Spirit of God, who wants to teach us and direct us.  It's a living, loving, thing and available to all who will receive it!

Here it is!

The following story appears in C. Baxter Kruger's The Shack Revisited:

One Saturday afternoon years ago, when my son was six or seven, he and one of his buddies peered around the door at me as I sat on the couch in our den, sorting through junk mail and getting ready to watch a football game.  They were decked out in camouflage, face paint, plastic guns and knives, helmets--the whole nine yards.  Before I knew what was happening, two camouflaged blurs were flying through the air right at me.  The attack was on.  For five minutes or so, we went through several mock explosions and fights before the three of us ended up in a pile of laughter on the floor.  It was then that a sort of ticker-tape banner scrolled past the front of my mind: "Baxter, this is important; pay attention."

I had no idea what the message meant.  After all, it was Saturday, and a dad and his boy and his friend were just playing army on the floor of the den.  Surely there was nothing exraordinary about that.  The first clue came when I realized that I actually did not know this other little boy at all.  I had never seen him, and didn't even know his name.  I thought to myself: Suppose my son was in the back room with our dog, Nessie, and this boy had appeared in the den alone.  Presumably he would have known that I was Mr. Kruger, but that is about as far as things would have gone.  Not in a million years would he have come flying through the air at me, not by himself.

The little boy did not know me; he did not know what I was like.  But my son did -- and that was my second clue.  My son knows me.  He knows that I love him, that he is one of the apples of my eye.  He knows that I like him and that he is always welcome and wanted.  So he did the most natural thing in the world: in the freedom of knowing my heart, he ran to me to play.  The miracle was that his buddy was right in the middle of it all.  Without even knowing what I was seeing, I saw my son's relationship with me, go inside that other little boy.  And the other boy got to experience our fellowship.  He got to taste and feel and play in my son's freedom and joy with me (pp.207-208).

As I read this story, I was stunned!  The entire message of Christianity is summed up in this story.  Here it is -- In that day, you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you (John 14:20). That's the whole message---that we, who are "in" Jesus have been taken up with Him into His very relationship with the Father:  in the same freedom and joy They have in Their relationship, we freely enter in.  There is no longer any separation -- any "Us" and "them."  We are one with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Feeling that freedom and joy is a life-long process, and there is much that works against it along the way.  But our feelings and the truth are two different things.  If we know that Jesus is "in" in Father, and if we know that we are "in" Him, we can grow toward the relationship He came to give us.  He did not come to "show us how to live."  He came to live in us to bring us to the Father.  And why not allow Him to do what He most desires to do in us?

Baptism

Wherever I go, wherever I have ever gone, I have found exquisite beauty: beauty in the mountains, beauty in the seas and oceans, beauty in the skies, in the clouds and in the cries of the birds.  I find beauty in a single flower, in a berry, in the deer coming up to my deck, and in the way the human body is fashioned.

What the animals do not, and cannot, share with us is the drinking in of beauty, or of wrapping our souls in the images of sunrise, sunset, and the drifting of clouds.  As human beings,

we do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough.  We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it....That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods.  They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into the human soul; but it can't.  They tell us that 'beauty born of murmuring sound' will pass into a human face; but it won't (C.S.Lewis: The Weight of Glory, pp 12-13)

 

Lewis's words remind me so much of the many times I have stood still in the midst of a day so gorgeous that I wanted to embrace it, hold it, become one with it.  He reminds me of the beach-walkers who cannot resist at least putting their feet into the waves.  Don't we smile at the scent of pine needles on the forest floor and the blue skies overhead -- opening ourselves to as much of the experience as we can pull into ourselves?

 

Baptism is the outward sign of an inner reality--the truth that we desire to be immersed in something to the point of being utterly filled with it.  Somehow, along the way, our concept of "baptism" became connected to the idea of joining a church, reforming one's life, and following some legalistic patterns of life.  But Baptism is nothing more than allowing God's holiness, His goodness and beauty, and relationships to become part of us, and of allowing ourselves to be immersed in Who and What He is---loving and relational beauty.  We drink in, embrace, and become submerged in the dynamic, and ever-renewing, relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit, and in their outpouring of Divine Goodness into the hearts of men of good will. 

 

That is 'baptism:" to lose oneself and to be lost in God, to allow ourselves to become part of Who He is, so that we are re-made in His Image and likeness -- like the very Son of God who became man to draw us into Zoe: Life itself, with all its beauty.    God's own Purity, His own Humility, His own Truth is not separate from us, to be admired and worshipped but not enjoyed and tasted.  To be "baptized" in God's Zoe is to drown in beauty, in purity, in humility, and in truth -- more than we can ask or imagine. 

 

Our sacraments and rituals are not just ceremonies; they speak and image for us truths that we long for but cannot imagine might actually become real.  We are in God, and He is in us!

 



On Silence and Speech

A friend wrote on her blog yesterday that with the whirl of Christmas celebrations, and going from one set of events to the next, she enjoys it so much more if she has time to process what's happening.  I know that is so true of me that I almost cannot function if I don't have processing, or down time.

All of which, for some reason, made me think of Mary and Zacheriah (go figure!)  After the appearance of the angel, I'm sure Mary needed lots and lots of processing time to fully realize all that she had experienced, and all that she had heard about the coming Messiah.  Evidently, Mary had spent her childhood and early adolescence in the Temple, where she was sure to hear Scriptures -- and may even have had access to the prophetic scrolls if she had been taught to read.  Luke tells us that upon hearing the news of Elizabeth's pregnancy, "she rose and went with haste into the hill country."  During her journey, she probably had much time to ponder --and I'm also sure that she would have wanted to tell Elizabeth what was happening to her.  But how on earth does one say, "An angel appeared to me, and you'll never believe what he told me!"?

Fortunately, God spared Mary the agony of having to proclaim news that any reasonable person would surely doubt.  Zacheriah had had his own angel; he and Elizabeth already knew their son was to herald the coming Messiah -- and the Holy Spirit so moved both John and Elizabeth to recognize Mary as the mother of the Promised One.  Imagine Mary's great joy and thanksgiving when she knew that Elizabeth already knew!  Her long period of enforced silence was broken with the Magnificat--the result of a long period of processing all that she had experienced and heard.  And now, she and Elizabeth could freely speak together of secrets they could share with no one else.

And Zacheriah-- it seems that he was being punished for doubting the angel when he was struck mute until after the birth of John.  But his muteness was absolutely necessary for a number of reasons.  First, he had to keep his mouth shut about the coming Messiah -- imagine if he had gone about telling what the angel had told him!  Panic in all of Jerusalem and in the surrounding areas!  Then, he also needed processing time to think things through.  How was this child to be raised?  He and Elizabeth were both very old.  And now, he had three months to begin researching what the Scriptures had to say about the Messiah's arrival.  By the time Mary arrived at the house, it may be that the three of them could together look into the prophecies of old. 

And when Zacheriah was finally able to speak, his "Canticle," like Mary's, was the fruit of a long period of silence and processing the meaning of what he had experienced:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;

he has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty savior,

born of the house of his servant David.

 

Through his holy prophets he promised of old

that he would save us from our enemies,

from the hands of all who hate us.....(Luke 1:68-79).

 

Could it be that long periods of silence and reflection would also change the things we have to say?

No Room

According to the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich, who received the stigmata, and who was privileged to see the life of Mary as it unfolded on specific dates, St. Joseph reassured Mary on the way to Bethlehem that they would surely find room with his relatives in the city of his ancestry.  He was worried about her, but he had so many relatives in that city that he was sure someone would take them in.  And he was ready to offer money, as he did not think it right that they should expect people to put them up without recompense.  But the city was crowded, and as they went from door to door, Joseph's heart sank.  Then he recalled the caves just outside the city where he had played as a child.

According to the visions, Joseph's brothers had teased him so much because he preferred to be quiet and alone much of the time.  So he retreated to the caves, where he could think and pray and imagine.  He remembered how welcoming the caves were to a lonely child, and he also remembered how much room was there for the animals -- the donkey on which Mary rode and the she-ass that had been given to them as a gift.  He remembered also that shepherds often used the caves on cold nights for shelter -- and that the Essenes lived close by.

God had entrusted His own son to this man, who had been ridiculed for not being like the other children, but who had sought refuge in caves as he grew up.  Joseph knew where to go when there was 'no room' in the city, in people's hearts, for him.  God had prepared him from childhood for this mission-- but Joseph did not recognize his life-long preparation until he had been turned away from the doors where he expected a welcome.

What happens to us when we are turned away from the welcome we expected -- when there is "no room" for us?  Can we still believe that we will be led to a safe place, a refuge, where God Himself will be with us?

Reading Emmerich's visions amazes me.  I see how many wonders unfolded all over the area at the birth of this child-- how even pagans and star-worshippers were brought to adore the new king, and how shepherds were notified of the wonder in their midst.  There was no room in Bethlehem -- but how much better for the little family to be cared for by the kings and the shepherds.  They were given provisions for living by the kings -- who even distributed goods to the surrounding shepherds.  And the report of the shepherds brought the nearby Essenes, who brought food and necessities to Mary and Joseph.

When the world has 'no room' for us, can we trust that God has already provided what we need? And that He will bring people to us to support our need?

The Testimony

I entered the hospital that day depressed and worried.  I was facing major surgery the next day and a six-week recovery period afterwards.  At home, I had three small children who needed me; my youngest, at 13 months, had just started walking, and wanted someone to walk with her, holding her hand, most of the day.  Although my mom and dad were planning to take over for the next 6 weeks, I was worried that it would be too much for them.

My hospital roommate was a 20-something girl who had just had a baby, but she was hemorrhaging and hooked up to a lot of machines.  In her only good arm -- the one not hooked up to machines-- she held a Bible, and she talked to me about how good God is, and how much He loves us.

"Something is seriously wrong with me," I thought to myself.  I tended to worry about everything, and here she was with very serious problems, not worrying.  In fact, she was joyful!  That night, she told me her story.  She and her young husband had been hooked on drugs ever since high school.  Every Friday night at their house was a drug party; all their friends would come and bring their own drug of choice.  Everyone would get smashed, spend the night and lie around all Saturday recovering.  Of course, the marriage was falling apart, fighting was constant, and their lives were coming unglued from the center. 

In utter desperation, she agreed to go with a friend to her non-denominational, charismatic church.  There, for the first time in her life, she witnessed people being prayed over for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  She was afraid, and would not go forward, but the preacher singled her out from the front of the church.  Did she want prayer too?  Embarrassed, she walked to the front of the church, submitted to prayer and received a power in her life that changed her forever.  The next Sunday, she brought her husband, and he too received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Now, Friday nights at their house was Bible-study night, and their friends came to study and pray together.

That was a pretty amazing story I heard that night, but the evidence of change was right in front of my eyes.  She did not preach; she just told me what God had done for her.  The next morning, we both awoke early.  I was still worried about the effects of a general anesthetic, as my body did not react well to medicines.  She offered to read the psalms to me, and as she read, I heard myself saying, "I want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit."  I was surprised to hear those words coming out of my mouth, because they had not been in my head.  But when I heard myself saying them, my heart immediately assented:  " Yes, that is what I want." 

I knelt on the floor beside Dinette's bed as she laid one hand on me and prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Immediately, I was enveloped by what felt like liquid love and the greatest peace I had ever experienced in my life.  I was no longer worried and anxious; everything was in the hands of God, and for the first time in my life, I actually trusted Him. 

There is much more to this story, but for now, know that it all came about because of one changed life and God allowing me to hear that testimony.  Whatever had happened to her was something I wanted in my life too. 

...and if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him."

Repeat Prayer

I posted this prayer about a year ago, after a friend sent it to me, but I am re-posting today for those who have never seen it.  It is one of my favorites.
 

                                                 O Holy and Astounding Spirit,

                                         You catch by surprise at least once a day

 with the freshness of Your love and the unpredictability of Your presence,

especially in the humble things that somehow give me immense joy. 

Some moments are completely new, full of joy, as uplifting as the dawning sun,

and those moments come from you day by day. 

Stand behind me today when I am right and ought to be more determined,

 and block my way when I am being stupid and ought to back off.

Teach me true compassion for those in need, so I can be of genuine help to someone. 

Bless me today, Holy Spirit, and astonish me again. 

Amen.























lo

















Amen.

One thing I have asked of the Lord,

and this I seek.....Ps. 27

 

How would we finish this statement?  What is the "one thing" we would ask of the Lord; what is the one thing we seek with all our hearts?

Looking back on my life, I know the "one thing" the Lord has given me, and that is Himself.

I know that He has given me Jesus, in Whom is hidden all the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge and power of God (Romans 11:33).  What more could He give?  And what more could I ask of Him? 

The psalmist says, "Like a weaned child on its mother's knee, so is my soul within me."  What a beautiful image -- and how appropriate!  That is how I feel now.  There is nothing else I desire -- except that the Lord would pour out on my children, on my friends and my students, on everyone I know, even remotely, the same gifts He has given to me!

 



Knowing God



The reason we don't know the Father of heaven and earth

is that we don't know the Son.

 

And the reason we don't know the Son

is that we have not yet received the Spirit.

 

And the reason we have not yet received the Spirit

is that we have not yet asked for Him to be poured out upon us.

 

The church was born on Pentecost Day, when thousands of faithful Jews crowded the city of Jerusalem in observance of the "Feast of Weeks."  The Festival was one of three main Jewish feasts which required all who could to travel to Jerusalem to observe the feast.  Pentecost refered to the 50th day "after first putting the sickle to the corn."  It was the harvest of "first fruits," kind of like our Thanksgiving observance.  In the ceremony, the priests were required to wave a sheaf of first fruits before the Lord, and it was to occur on the 50th day after the Sunday following Passover. 

 

After His resurrection on Easter Sunday (the first Sunday following His Passover -- when the sickle was first put to the harvest), Jesus appeared to many disciples and His apostles for 40 days, showing them that He was indeed alive and not a ghost.  Then He told them to go back to Jerusalem to await the "Gift of the Father," and not to leave until they had received what was promised.  The practice of a novena in the Catholic church derives from the 9 days the disciples, including Mary and many women, spent in prayer, awaiting what was promised.  On the 10th day, the "Festival of Pentecost" -- first fruits -- the Spirit descended.

 

On that day, 3,000 Jews received the Holy Spirit and for the first time heard about Jesus.  When those 3,000 left Jerusalem several days later, they were on fire with the love of God and returned to their home towns speaking of all they had seen and heard in Jerusalem.  By the time Paul and the other Apostles began traveling -- as a result of the persecution in Jerusalem from the Jews -- there were already "Christian" communities planted as seeds in every village and town in the known world.  They were eagerly waiting more teaching; they were already studying the Scriptures they had known all of their lives to see whether Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah; they were gathering in prayer on the Lord's Day, as well as continuing to observe the Sabbeth in the synagogues. 

 

We tend to think that the Apostles spread the early Church; we forget that the Spirit of God gave birth to 3,000 Christians on the Day of Pentecost -- the "first fruits" of the Spirit of Jesus --  and sent them back to their home towns as missionaries, even before the arrival of the evangelists. 

 

"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5).

"How much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him" (Matt 5 and Luke 11).

"If you really knew Me, you would know my Father as well.  From now on, you do know him and have seen Him" (Jn. 14).

"Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn. 14).

 

If we would be set on fire with the love of God like those 3,000 Jews in Jerusalem that day, if we would know Jesus as the Messiah sent from God, if we would know the Father of heaven and earth, let us, like the disciples, remain in prayer, asking for the Spirit of God to be poured out on us.  There is just no other way to know God.

The Secret Life of Joy

And lo!  I am with you always, even to the very consummation of the world (Matt 28:20).

 

Other than the last words in Matthew's Gospel, the last words of Jesus on earth, how do we know He is still among us, with us?  Of course, every Christian will say that we know from Scripture, by faith -- and that is true.  Faith is a kind of knowledge unknown to those who do not experience it. 

 

But to those who know how to see spiritual realities, there is another way also of knowing that Jesus Christ is still among us.  The joy He promised to the believer is evidence of His Presence.  St. Dominic Savio, who died in his youth, said, "Joy is the surest sign of the Presence of God."

 

Jesus said at the Last Supper:  Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy (Jn. 16:22)....I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace(v.33)....I say these things while I am still in the the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them...I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them (17:13 & 26).

 

Here is what I have observed:  wherever we are --- whether on the side of a moutain in Tennessee, on a cruise ship in the middle of the Carribbean, on in the backwoods of Mississippi -- it is possible to recognize almost instantly the followers of Jesus by their peace, love, and joy.  The peace and joy they carry within them is not related to the circumstances of their lives or their financial condition or the church they attend.  They face the same circumstances as those who do not follow Jesus, and yet their joy is evident to all around them. 

 

Here is the entry for December 16 from God at Eventide (God Calling 2):

 

Poor indeed is the life that does not know the riches of the Kingdom.  A life that has to depend on the excitement of the senses, that does not know, and could not realize, that delight, joy, expectation, wonder, and satisfaction that can be truly obtained only in the Spirit....I, Who change not, can supply the soul of man with joys and delights so varied as to bring ever-changing scenes of beauty before him.  I am truly the same yesterday, today, and forever; but man, changing as he is led nearer and nearer to the realization of all I can mean to him, sees in Me new wonders daily.  There can be no lack of glad adventure in a life lived with Me.

 

I have always said that walking with God is the greatest adventure in life, growing always in peace, love, and joy.  Other adventures are spectacular, but fade with time.  This adventure constantly surprises and delights, and never fades.  And perhaps the best part is that it allows me to recognize on sight those who are sharing the same adventure with me.  Within moments of meeting someone, my heart leaps with joy as I recognize within them the Spirit of Jesus, and His own peace, love, and joy.  This is what the Bible calls "fellowship," a word I never heard in the Catholic church, but which I have been experiencing ever since the first moment of my baptism in the Holy Spirit. 

 

As a child, I thought that heaven might be a boring place, but now that I have seen that it begins now, on earth, and now that I have experienced meeting other people who love Jesus and have heard their stories, I know that heaven is but the extension of this life -- with its continual renewal of joy, love, and peace in all we meet there.



Who is the Holy Spirit?

Throughout Christian history, the Holy Spirit has been considered some kind of "force" or "energy," but not often as a real Person.  But as Baxter Kruger writes in The Shack Revisited,

Star Wars notwithstanding, you cannot grieve a force; you grieve a person.  A mere force, however strong, does not speak.  A power does not refer to itself as "I" or "me," search the deep thoughts of God, or lead prayer and worship.  A power does not love, or bear witness with our spirits that we are children of God. 

 

In the New Testament, the Spirit has her own mind, will, and ministry.  She speaks, informs, leads, guides and instructs.  She evaluates, appoints leaders, makes decisions, and gives gifts -- wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing.  She inspires witness to Jesus, convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; makes known the mystery of Christ; cries "Abba! Father!" in our hearts; and bears fruit in human life.  She strengthens, helps our weakness, comforts, brings liberty and freedom, gives fellowship, fills with joy, and produces life and peace.  [She teaches us to pray and prays in us when we don't know what to say -- my addition.]

 

She is referred to variously as the Spirit of God; the Spirit of truth; the Comforter or Helper; the Spirit of Jesus, of him who raised Jesus from the dead; the Lord; the eternal Spirit; the Spirit of adoption; the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; the Holy Spirit of promise; the Spirit of grace, of holiness, of glory; the firstfruits, pledge, or down payment.....

 

She loves and shares love, and creates fellowship with the Father and the Son, as well as among the people of God.  She has her own mind and will, has joy and gives joy.  In her presence, people come to know that they are loved by God; they are set free, and community forms around them.  The Spirit is profoundly other-centered, humble, patient, and good.  She loves communication, fellowship, and togetherness.  She is passionate for communion.

 

The Holy Spirit knows how to make the cosmos dance.  She found her man in Jesus, and now in Jesus, she has found us.  Her great joy is that she gets to be in the middle of it all and enjoy the love, healing, and abundant life she brings about in others (pp.103-105; selections).

 

I am so glad I'm reading Kruger's book, as I've found all these Scriptures about the Holy Spirit and known them to be absolutely true, but I don't think I could ever have put together all that I've experienced about the Holy Spirit in this way.  I needed to share this with everyone I know!

The Gift of Nature

Yesterday, I wrote about the danger of receiving images (from television) without reflection, or processing by the left brain.  Those who are privileged to have time for reflection, however, lead rich and joyful interior lives, full of the beauty of imagination and meaning.

Andrew Wyeth, one of the greatest American painters in my opinion, said that he did his best painting not when he was in the studio, but when he was walking through the woods and noticing the play of light upon a leaf.  That image (and others), caught by his "right brain," and mulled over by his "left brain" was the source of his creativity and talent.  In the same way, I believe that idle, unscheduled, time for children is the source of their own creativity and talent, a rich source of imagination and pleasure.

In her Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Anne Catherine Emmerich, a visionary, tells of her own life as a child: 

For when I was a child, whether in the woods, on the moors, in the fields, with the cows, plucking ears of corn, pulling grass, or gathering herbs, I used to look at every little leaf and every flower as at a book.  Every bird, every beast that ran past me, everything around me, taught me something.  Every shape and color that I saw, every little veined leaf, filled my mind with many deep thoughts.  But if I spoke of these, people either listened with surprise or else, more often, laughed at me, so that at last I accustomed myself to keeping silence about such things.  I used to think (and sometimes think still) that it must be so with everyone, and that nowhere could one learn better, because here God Himself had written our alphabet for us.

 

So now, when I followed again in my visions the boy John (the Baptist) into the wilderness, I saw, as before, all that he was about.  I saw him playing with flowers and beasts.  The birds especially were at home with him.  They flew onto his head as he walked or as he knelt in prayer.  I often saw him lay his staff across the branches; then at his call, flocks of bright-colored birds came flying to perch on it in a row.  He gazed at them and spoke familiarly with them as if they were his schoolchildren.  I saw him, too, following wild animals into their lairs, feeding them and watching them attentively (Chapter 27).

 

Anyone who has ever heard of Francis of Assisi will recognize in him the same spirit and charisma that Anne Catherine Emmerich saw in John the Baptist.  According to her visions, the boy John was taken to the wilderness by his mother Elizabeth because of Herod's determination to slaughter all the young boys around the age of two.  In the wilderness, John, at first, was hidden and cared for by the Essenes.  Later, he was a naturalist who learned to survive on his own; he was at home in nature.

 

Emmerich's descriptions of John reminded me of my own brother, who spent most of his life roaming the woods -- and taking me with him.  There, we looked for snake eggs, built tree houses, crawfished in the nearby canal, and once even dragged home a baby alligator from a nearby golf course that housed a pond.  My brother learned nature from nature, and he taught me about the kinds of clover, the different birds, berries, or whatever we found in the woods.  We climbed trees and just sat there, listening to the sounds of the forest all around us.  It was from him that I acquired my sense of peace in nature and the ability to reflect there on the many gifts of God.

 

How different for my own children who grew up in an urban setting; for them, there were no woods to roam in silence or trees to climb.  The snakes and other wildlife had been driven out by housing developments, and television was much more interesting than anything outside the house.  God bless those parents who still take their children camping, canoeing, and hiking.  They are giving them the most precious gift of all -- the gift of nature.

Right Brain; Left Brain

We are made to think, to reflect, to wonder and make sense of the things we see.  The so-called "right brain" embraces and imprints images without knowing what they signify; it gathers in everything we hear and see without discrimination.  It is up to the "left brain" to make sense of the images we collect, to connect them to something we already know, and to derive meaning, or to make sense of, and to "name" what we are seeing.

Perhaps this process is the meaning behind Adam's experience of naming the animals in the Garden of Eden.  Whatever he called them, that was their name (Gen. 2:19).  So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field.

Whatever we call things, that is our reality.  We are made in such a way that we live in a world we "name," or make sense of.  The right brain does not "name" things; it accepts them.  So it stands to reason that if we can shut down the left brain -- prevent, or slow down, reflection -- we can re-shape reality through images imprinted on the right brain.

In The Art of Changing the Brain, by James Zull, the author graphically illustrates what I mean here.  Zull shows (p.144) a photograph of the visual cortex --part of the brain-- which has been cut out of a monkey who was euthanized while gazing at a picture of a half-wheel with spokes.  One look at the visual cortex taken from the dead monkey is enough to convince anyone that, as Zull says, "the visual world is literally and physically mapped in our brains."  Imprinted on the cortex are active brain cells arranged in a geometric pattern that converge in the center, just like the image of the half-wheel the monkey was seeing just before it died.

Zull goes on to explain that teaching is the "art of directing and supporting reflection [--or "naming"] the meaning of the images we see.  Part of being human is the ability to make sense of our world -- and once someone like Einstein, for example, 'names,' or makes sense of what we are seeing, we can all build upon, use, and extend the meaning he has named. 

Once we remove reflection, or learning, or naming, from the process of seeing, then it falls to other people to make sense of our worlds -- to "name" and to "define" reality for us.  Here is the danger of television, especially for young children.  There is no time to process, to reflect upon, and to make sense of one image after another, interrupted with powerful images and sounds of commercials, so the child becomes passive, rather than reflective.  The child is not, like Adam, "naming" reality for himself, making sense of what he is experiencing.  Someone else is naming his world for him. 

What we have created is a passive society:  tell me what to think, and I'll think that!  We have implanted images upon images without reflection.  If you doubt what I say, I invite you to notice what happens the next time you go to bed immediately after watching your favorite tv show.  Upon waking the next morning, I'll bet you dollars to donuts that your brain immediately goes back to the tv show, mulling it over, reflecting on what you've seen, processing it until you can make sense of it in your own mental framework. 

By our physiology, we are driven to reflect, to make sense of the images we take in.  That process is best supported through reading and language, rather than by stuffing in more images before we have named the first ones.  We are not made to watch tv, but as adults, we are able to handle it better than children, partially because we have already "named" our world and made sense of it.  Do we want tv producers and advertisers to define for our children what the world means?

Einstein on God and Faith

About once a year, I pull out some notes I once made on Einstein.  His comments on God and Faith always inspire me, because his faith emerged from his deep study of the universe.  Romans 1:20 says, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what is made, so that men are without excuse.

Einstein's faith is a good example of what we can know about God without revelation.  As a Jew, he did not believe in a 'personal' God who involved Himself in the lives of men, but still, Einstein had a reverence -- what the bible calls "the fear of the Lord" -- for the designer and creator of the universe:

The cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research...

Science can be created only by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding...Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.

 

There are people who say there is no God, but what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.

 

Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe -- a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.  In this way, the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiousity of someone more naive.

 

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science.  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.  To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly; this is religiousness.  In this sense...I am a devoutly religious man.

 

I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene...No one can read the Gospells without feeling the actual presence of Jesus.  His personality pulsates in every word.  No myth is filled with such life.

 

All of these quotes have been taken from the wonderful biography Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson (2007).

 

Tomorrow night, we experience the Geminid, the marvelous shower of meteors that will be visible everywhere on earth.  Reading these sentiments from a great scientist is a wonderful preparation for contemplating the mysteries of the universe and of the God Who made it.

The Goal of Our Faith

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth....

 

What is the goal of our belief?  What does it matter that we believe in God, the Father, the Creator?

If our purpose is to define what we believe only, as if we said, "I believe that George Washington is the father of our country," then why should we say it over and over again?  What difference does it make what we believe -- unless there is some further end to our belief?

 

In the Greek legends and myths, the gods walked the earth, unknown and unrecognized.  They had a glimpse of the truth, but unfortunately, in Greek mythology, man existed to serve the pleasure and comfort of the gods.  If the Greeks were hospitable to strangers, it was that they did not want  inadvertently to displease one of the gods, who may be appearing as a stranger in their midst.

 

If Jesus revealed to us the Father, He revealed God Almighty as the servant of mankind: the Son of man comes to seek and to save what is lost and to give His life as a ransom for many.  The Son of man comes to serve, not to be served.

 

It is true that God wants us to serve Him, but not until He has first served us.  The goal of our faith is the exchanged life.  Our God has entered this world, not like the Greek gods, wanting to be served, but to take up all the burdens of being human:  Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were hungry, thirsty, cold, and fearful during the days of their escape-journey from the mad Herod.  What they learned along the way was that God was there, with them.  He provided for their needs with the gifts of the Magi; the Essenes fed them in the wilderness, and they were protected from predators on the way.

 

God wants us to give Him our burdens so that He might give us His life in exchange for ours.  As someone on FB put it the other day:  breathe out fear; breathe in confidence.  Once we enter into the Trinitarian life of exchanged love, once we know we are loved and cared for, we, too, can learn to serve God and others as He does for us, moment by moment. 

 

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth -- who has taken me ---me!--into His arms, Who walks with me -- me! --- daily; Who forgives all my sins and shows me the path of eternal life; Who re-arranges the atoms of the universe to serve my needs; Who teaches me through the Holy Spirit -- His own breath breathed into me; Who sent His only Son in the flesh to experience my -- my!-- life and to bring me home to the Father, the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Sensitivity to God

Even in his mother's womb, John the Baptist was sensitive to the Presence of God.  When Elizabeth heard the sound of Mary's voice in greeting, the baby lept in her womb.  Later, in his ministry, John's heart lept when he heard the sound of Jesus' voice; he may have been the only one who saw the dove descend from heaven at Jesus' baptism.  John's mission -- to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness -- was based on his sure and certain knowledge that the salvation of God was near, that the long-awaited Messiah was about to arrive.

How wonderful it would be to be sensitive to the work of God.  We know that God is always at work, but we do not always know what He is doing in our lives.  I know someone whose gift is that of recognizing what God is doing in the lives of other people.  Like John the Baptist, she is able to point out: "There He is; behold, the Lamb of God."

One of the bishops who attended the Second Vatican Council wrote in his notes that the Church had always believed its mission was to carry Jesus to the heathen who did not know Him.  After listening to one another at the world-wide council, however, what the bishops slowly came to realize was that God is at work in all peoples, all nations, all cultures.  The "heathen" ceremonies that have been observed for centuries often have within them the elements of Christianity; they embed within their pagan rituals the truths that God has fully made known in Jesus Christ.  If that is true, then the task of the missionary is to be sensitive to God, to see where He already is at work in the lives of people and cultures.

Let us pray that God will open our eyes and our hearts to recognize Him hidden in ways foreign to us, unfamiliar to us.  Like John the Baptist, may we also have the gift of saying to others, "Look! There is God at work in your life!"

Living Water

Jesus answered her:  If you knew the Gift of God and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water (John 4:10).

 

Have you ever wondered, "What is this 'living' water of which Jesus speaks?"  We can catch a small glimpse from our everyday lives.  If we allow a glass of water to sit on the kitchen counter overnight and then take a sip of it the next morning, we will know what "living water" is not.  I have three cats, who are always searching for "living" water; they are very sensitive to, and always reject, 'non-living,' or stale water.  I have a fountain for them that is supposed to circulate the water, but it repeatedly gets clogged up and fails to do what it is supposed to do.  One of my cats sits before the fountain, pawing at it, trying to get it flowing again.  Another one will sit in front of the bowl of water which I am supposed to refresh each morning and cry until I put in fresh water.  She will not drink stale water.

 

Spiritually, though, I think most human beings are not as smart as cats when it comes to 'living water.'  Most of us seem to be trying to live on spiritually 'stale' water -- the water that was offered to us as children, or even the water that satisfied our spiritual thirst some years ago, but which has now grown stale.  We wonder why the old water does not satisfy our thirst today.  Like the manna God provided in the desert, it is not possible to gather water for more than one day and expect it to satisfy us in the days to come.

 

God does not speak to us one time from Mt. Sinai and expect us to live forever on that word.  The word of God does indeed "go forth" from Mt. Sinai and from Jerusalem, just as manna went forth from the desert for the Jews on the way to the Holy Land, where they were to settle.  The manna in the desert was a living lesson that God would provide for them on a daily basis, that He would never desert them or abandon them.  But the manna he provided in the desert ceased once they entered the land "overflowing with milk and honey." 

 

Hebrews 4:12 says, "The word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."  Now the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts as children, or those of many years ago, or even those of yesterday, have changed.  Our life situations, the problems we face today are not those of yesterday, or those of when we sojourned in the desert.  It is today that we need to meet Jesus and to receive from Him that "living water" that will satisfy our thirst today.  Today, we need to hear His voice speaking in the depths of our soul.  Today, we need a Scripture that shouts or whispers, "I am God's voice, God's living word, for you today." 

 

Each day, God gently invites us into His Presence to listen, to hear the word He speaks to us today--not the word spoken to the nation of Israel as it sought to establish its identity -- although that word is eternal and everlasting, and it will never go 'stale.'  It stands forever, as fresh as the day it was spoken to Moses.  But even as Jesus taught in parables and some went away shaking their heads, not understanding the words He spoke to them, the disciples went to Him saying, "Explain to us the parables." 

 

We, too, like the disciples, need the 'living' explanation -- the Rhema, or 'spoken' word of God that refreshes our souls:  the word that says, "I am speaking to you as I spoke to Moses on the mountain."

We need to know in the depths of our heart the living word of God, the word that divides the soul and the spirit, the natural man from our spirit man.  We need to hear the Voice of God speaking in our hearts, not just the voice of someone else quoting the Scriptures --- even though that may be the way God needs to use to 'open our ears' to hear Him speaking to us.

 

Jesus opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf.  That was not just for "then" and for "them."  We are all spiritually blind and deaf until our eyes and ears are opened by the Spirit of Jesus saying to us Ephphatha: Be opened!  The miracles are "now" and "for us."  We need living water even now, and we need to ask for spiritual sight and hearing to be able to see and hear what God wants to say to us today. 

 

I once met a woman -- now I think it might have been an angel sent to teach me -- who knew the Word of God so well that my heart was 'burning' as I listened to her explain the scriptures.  "How did you learn all this?" I asked her; "did you go to ministry school?"  "Whenever I don't understand something," she answered, "I stop reading and pray that the Spirit would reveal to me what I am to understand."  From that day, I learned that the Scriptures must be, like Mary, overshadowed by the Spirit of God if they were to leap off the pages as the "Living" Word to us. 

 

We need to drink 8 glasses a day of fresh, not stale, water -- or so the experts tell us.  Most people, I suspect, live in a state of partial dehydration.  Spiritually, too, we are probably slowly dying from dehydration if we are attempting to live on 'stale' water.  Fortunately, we know the Source of Living Water, and He has made it easy to approach Him daily for the Living Water He so wants to give us, not only to satisfy our own thirst, but to become "rivers of living water flowing out from our bellies" to a thirsty world around us. 

 

It has been predicted that fresh water will become the world's next crisis, that we are running out of usable water because of pollution.  Such a crisis is only a mirror of what has been happening spiritually for ages -- we have run out of fresh water because we have failed to recognize and acknowledge the Source of all Life and the Living Water that sustains our life.

A beautiful prayer

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Years ago, I pondered the theology behind this feast in light of criticism from other sects, and I came to the conclusion -- or revelation, as I now believe it was -- that, to the extent we have the slightest sin (or fullness of self, rather than of God), we cannot receive what God has to offer us.  Thus, in order to receive the fullness of God, Who is Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the world, Mary had to be sinless -- immaculate.  Only she-who-was-empty-of-self/sin could have received the fullness of God Himself.

Here is a beautiful prayer I found today:

Mary, pray that I may treasure life

beauty

goodness

opportunity

truth.

 

Mary, pray that I may ponder

how to defend life

how to see and hear beauty

how to affirm and share goodness

how to grasp and utilize opportunity

how to seek and proclaim truth.

 

Mary, pray that I treasure what I have

and ponder what I might become.  Amen

 

[p. 66, The People's Prayer Book]

Dynamite!

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you (Acts 1:8).

 

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God -- having a form of godliness, but denying its power

 (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

 

In the New Testament, the Greek word duonmis is translated into English as "power."  In fact, the Greek duonmis is the source of our English word "dynamite."  But, growing up, have any of us heard anything about the "power" of religion?  Religion was supposed to be obligation and commandments, not "power."  I would say that one of the defining marks of Christianity is that it is supposed to impart power to the believer through the Gift of the promised Holy Spirit. 

 

Just as in the early church, as we see in the Letter to the Corinthians, some people who catch a glimpse of the the "power" imparted by the Holy Spirit will attempt to use it for their own glory, giving Christianity a bad name.  But the power given to us is the power in Jesus Christ---power to overcome ourselves (the natural man), power to love our enemies, and to do good to those who persecute us.  I John says, "Anyone who loves God has overcome the world" ---  The world of personal ambition, of pride, of natural revenge and hatred, the world of natural barriers and differences, the world of hostility toward those who are different or weak.  If we want to know what kind of "dynamite" we have received from the Holy Spirit, we need to continue gazing at the Spirit in Jesus Christ, who when accused did not answer back, Who lifted up from the dung heap the outcast, the scorned, the sinner.  This is our power too.

 

The book of Ephesians tells us to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power....for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  Paul, from his prison cell in a dark hole in the ground, watching Roman soldiers daily putting on their armor, tells us to put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand our ground.  This is "dynamite;" this is power and strength. 

 

The world in which we live does not recognize or acknowledge spiritual powers, whether evil or good.  We think that is the way "they" (in times past) dealt with unseen and unknown forces.  In our "chronological snobbishness," (C.S.Lewis' term), we think that we understand the causes of evil today.  We believe that science has the answer and the cure is just around the corner.  Until we see the force and strength of evil, we probably will not "need" the power given by God to overcome the world -- or at least, that's the way we think.  But if we have never known the power given to us by the Holy Spirit, we have no chance to stand against the "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

 

Would that we could get beyond the obligations of religion and the facade of "living a good life" to enter into the full gift of God given to us in the Holy Spirit.  A great place to begin is by reading Ephesians Chapter 6 until we begin to feel the power of God in our own lives!

 



Praying With the Eyes of Faith

One of the greatest gifts that has come to me from reading the Bible is the ability to "see" -- and thus, to pray -- with different eyes.  Yesterday, I wrote about Prison Camp #14 in North Korea.  Since the evil in that geographical region of the world (we were shown a map with a specific location) is so profound, so deep, and so graphic, it is natural for me to "see" it as the original abyss, the "wild and waste" condition of the earth "when God began creating the heavens and the earth."  This is the original chaos over which the Spirit of God "brooded," as the Hebrew tells -- like an eagle hovering over its nest.

I am haunted by the cruelty I see there, the lack of love and of light, the hopeless despair of human beings without hope, without light, without love.  Shut off from the rest of the world, there is no hope of escape, or of redemption from the outside world.  But as I pray, I "see" the Spirit of God "hovering" over the abyss, "brooding" over the formless deep.  I "see" the Word of God leaping forth: Light! Be!  And I see the Light of the World descending into the depths of despair, into the destruction of the earth:  The reason the Son of Man came was to destroy the work of the devil (I John 3:18).  That which is impossible for me to touch or help through my own resources is possible through the work of God.  From reading Scripture, I know in the depths of my soul that what God "did" in the beginning, He "does" always.  He is not bound by time or circumstance; He is the same now as He was then.  With faith, I can look up and "see" the Word of God descending into Camp #14 as the Light of the World.  I can see that camp dissolve and its prisoners set free because of the mighty breath of God, the "Ruah" hovering over the abyss, and the wind arriving with tongues of fire. 

Ephesians 6 tells us that when we have done all we can do, to put on the armor of God and to "stand....for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (6:10-18).

As I have written every year at the start of Advent, as a child, I could never understand why we were pretending to wait for the Savior of the world when He had already come.  As an adult, I well understand that we are not pretending -- the world lies in darkness, overcome by evil and despair.  He has not yet come to North Korea, or to the woman who cannot leave her abusive husband because she has nowhere to go, or to the child whose life is a living hell because of an alcholic father who beats him/her.  In the book of Revelation, John writes: The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come!" [Lord Jesus].
Those who can see the evil that still exists on earth, the unredeemed places, the darkness that envelops mankind cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!  Light of the World! Spirit of Truth! Come!" 

That is Advent!  A dark world awaiting redemption!  "See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you!" (Is.60: 2).
That is my prayer for Prison Camp # 14!  I can "see" it with the eyes of faith---knowing what God has done in the past, He will certainly do again!  Come, Lord Jesus!

Deliver Us From Evil

Judge nothing; you will be happy.  Forgive everything; you will be happier.  Love everything; you will be happiest of all.  ----Sri Chinmor

Until we have seen the evil in human nature, we cannot know or appreciate the redemption offered to us in Christianity, in the Gospel/ 'good news' of Jesus Christ.  Because we have grown up in a civilized society, we have no idea of the utter corruption of human nature.  Isaiah puts it this way in terms of Israel:

Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt,

a brood of evildoers,

children given to corruption....

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head

there is no soundness---

only wounds and welts and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil (1:4-6).

 

Because of the influence of Christianity on our nation, civilization, and culture, we have forgotten -- or never knew -- the utter desolation and evil that human nature, when left to itself, is capable of. We tend to think we are basically "good people who sometimes do evil things."  But, as I wrote a week or more ago, Genesis 2-11 tells a different story.  As the backdrop to the call of Abraham, these chapters portray the gradual dissolution of human nature from one generation to another.  What began as tension, division, and blaming between Adam and Evil develops in the next generation to murder between brothers, greater confusion and lack of productivity in the fields of earth, and a reversal of all the blessings of creation.  Chapter 4 of Genesis ends with Lamech saying,

 

wives of Lamech, hear my words.

I have killed a man for wounding me,

a young man for injuring me.

If Cain is avenged seven times,

then Lamech seventy-seven times.

 

The story of the flood is an "uncreation" story, or the descent back to the original chaos before creation itself, as a result of the evil in men's hearts and the resulting corruption on the earth.

 

In the flood story, God chooses one man in whom to preserve the human race.  In the story of Noah, in the story of Moses, in the story of Jesus, we see the pattern:  The Lord gets one person to listen to Him, and then he uses that person to lead His people forward on the journey of faith...and that's the way it always is in Scripture.  God simply says, "I will be with you." and that's all...Nothing more than that.  Moses' power is in the presence of the Lord, and the directions come as he walks the journey (Richard Rohr: The Great Themes of Scripture, p. 21).

 

Now Scripture tells us what happens as much as it tells us "what happened."  Without that one person listening to God, human nature still devolves into corruption and evil, generation after generation. 

 

Nowhere on earth today is this pattern more evident than in North Korea, a country almost untouched by Christian influence.  On Sixty Minutes last night, there was a story of a young man who had been born into a prison camp in North Korea.  Should anyone believe that the Genesis account of Lamech is "made-up," or exaggeration, we see the same story lived out in North Korea today---literally.  The prison camps exist to "purify" the next 3 generations from the sins of a grandfather or great-grandfather against the prevailing ruler.  Any dissention or dissatisfaction shown in one generation is punished for at least 3 generations following---the children, the grand-children, the great-grandchildren.  And the "punishment" is horrible: torture, starvation, cruelty that we cannot imagine.  Read Escape from Camp 14 (I missed the opening of the program, so don't know the author's name.)

 

This young man featured on Sixty Minutes had been starved, tortured, almost worked to death all his life.  He had no concept of love or of family, only of survival.  He did not desire to escape because he believed the entire world lived the way he did, until one person who had seen the outside world told him that there was another way of life.  Then he began to desire something more.

 

Today, most of the world is fortunate enough not to have known the brutality of civilizations prior to Christian influence and laws based on Gospel values.  Until we see a society where human nature and evil is the rule of life, we cannot know the meaning of "Deliver us from evil."  It has been said that the Buddha closes his eyes against the evil he sees and enters into Nirvana, or escape.  The prophet of God is pictured with his eyes wide open in horror at what he sees and cannot escape -- the evil of a civilization that refuses to listen to God.