Thoughts of the Day 12/2/11

Thoughts of the Day 12/2/11

The Day:
Well I had planned to wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 am to study for my greek test. Next thing I knew it was 8 something and I was late for class. Got to class did the best I could but not sure, probably a C. Seemed like everything went wrong today, but got through it all. Although it seemed like everything went wrong, God seems to be paving the way, probably using difficulties to build my perseverance. Few things that stuck out to me today.
Inclusion in community
There are circles of community all around, but Ozark is a good time and place to analyze it. Some major observations:

1. Community changes, continually, especially at Ozark, every incoming group of students changes the dynamics of the overall community, with personality types, preferences, style, focus, everything changes the community.

2. Inclusion is important or else it isn’t God’s community. God’s rules for community is inclusion and holiness. The gospel is inclusion, the whole idea is reconciling people to God and they join his family, his holy people.

3. Holiness is to be a part of the nature of God’s community. He is holy and is bringing people to him, but because he is holy he can not compromise his holiness. Solution? Make people holy via the Holy Spirit. Sanctification. Holiness in the community is for God, it is the same idea of a husband making himself something good, making himself a blessing for his wife and vice versa. We don’t compromise who we marry and it is a reflection that neither will God. God needs a holy bride, a holy church. On an individual scale holiness’s first priority should not be guiltlessness. In other words, if our first motive to pursue holiness is for feeling good about ourselves then it really isn’t holiness. It may be a fruit that comes from it, that we feel more at ease with ourselves and our lack of sin, but we still sin. Holiness is rather a part of the nature that every individual is supposed to be. God is restoring human holiness. Our holiness is our gift to God, and God’s holiness is a gift to us. However God gave us our holiness, but our holiness is a choice, that is why we have choice. Obedience and holiness seem to be choices. Obedience seems to be in relation to our father-children relationship with him. And Holiness is in relation to our husband-wife relation to him.

The issues come when the community changes, the new people coming in cause upheaval in the dynamics. This takes patience and love to endure the changes, but not just endure but accept, embrace and dive headlong into the new relationships and possibilities, even if they aren’t what we expected.

Now the real problem is when the people entering into the immediate community have false views of what community should be, or simply aren’t living out what they believe about it. The problem is when those who were already in the community are alienated by the new comers. This can happen both ways, either the existing community alienates the new comers or the new comers alienate those who already were. The factor between the two is usually numbers, how many new comers are there and how many are in the pre-existing community. It is extremely important to both be accepting of the other and even embracing.

Now about reasons why people would not be accepting or inclusive:
I Can’t claim that I can see all sides but I can see some. Some reasons are selfishness very simply, this is probably a more over-arching theme. Fear of loss of the current community, and fear of change, fear of losing a relationship to others. However fear is cast out by God, or should be, and if fear rules then it is not love, it becomes manipulation.
There seems to be a dynamic of exclusion by floors or friend circles. There is probably a multi layer reason for this, ranging from fear, selfishness, self service, and possibly pride. If the pride of the community is a personal pride that does not compare this community to that community to derive it’s worth then it is good. But if it’s worth is drawn by the dominate thought of being better than another community than exclusion comes. I can’t personally say how community should look but through scripture we can identify qualities and character of the community and whether or not they line up with scripture.

Opinion here: I think that what it might look like in a more ideal Ozark community, is that there would be a personal pride that comes without comparing (Galatians 6:1-5). That there would be a floor pride that comes without comparison, a dorm pride, and a school pride, and a pride of the people of God.

Pride
The word pride comes with a bad connotation because of our culture over the past several hundred years. But the word a lot of times used means “vainglory”, which is glory in vain, over self, it is empty, because is sees itself as full in regard to others, but it forgets to compare itself with God. True pride that has not been twisted is simply glory. Hebrews says that we are “many sons beingo brought to glory”. True glory is measuring up with out comparison to others.
Quick analogy for pride:
If I compare dirt clods to each other and find the roundest most solid dirt clod, in comparison to the rest, it is still a dirt clod, ugly and inglourious. But when comparing a dirt clod to Gold or marble or anything else beautiful it is not glourious at all. Lets say someone could make all these dirt clods into gold or marble, perfect but not the same, formed into different shapes, they no longer can be compared the stand alone, but they are all of the same material. The same but individual all together.
Pride is the product of seeing oneself as one truly is. Skewed pride is viewing oneself by the wrong criteria and getting a skewed view of oneself. Vainglory is skewed pride. True glory is true pride.

There is also individual exclusion, or group exclusion. Individual is where an individual excludes or alienates themselves based on personal perception and choice. This can range from low self-esteem, negative judgments about others and the community as a whole, and just simply self-absorption.

Pursuing
Absolutely the most frustrating thing EVER. I hate pursuing a girl, it is confusing frustrating and terribly ambiguous. Why can’t we just be acquainted with a girl, spend a little bit of time with them and then proceed to ask them “I find you interesting and am attracted to you, can we spend some time together to see whether or not we should proceed in dating?” then go out on a few dates to get to know each other and if there seems to be not major issues become boyfriend and girlfriend.
Dating today is far too sporadic, and spontaneous. Romance movies do us an injustice and make relationships seem like they come out of chaos and that two people find each other and this miracle happenstance is what makes it meaningful. But this view of a relationship is hollow, self absorbed and not true. I’ll compare and contrast the views

Spontaneous Vs. Intentional:
• Self absorbed vs. outwardly focused- It views it’s importance and existence more important than the world around it and will treat itself as something to be preserved at the cost of everything else. God will preserve it if it is to be and if we cooperate with him in dying to ourselves and serving others. It also has an us-and-them perspective. It is us against the world, there is some truth to this, but it is how can we serve people and give the gospel to the world not defend themselves from the world, the only defending should be of impurities that try to rot the relationship. But people are not what should be kept out. Now people don’t have the right to speak into the relationship unless asked but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I was talking about relationships isolating themselves from the world around them

• Hollow vs. meaningful- it is void of meaning. It is existential in that it tries to give value to itself rather than taking on the value that God desires for it. There is some freedom in deriving meaning but it can not affect identity or else it derides us from God’s plan for identity. A relationship should reflect God’s pursuit of us. Romance movies paint that a relationship is a miracle out of happenstance, but it shouldn’t be. The miracle rather should be the mystery of how a man and wife become one flesh and that two broken individuals can join together and love each other regardless of their sin and iniquity. Relationships are purposeful pursuits, the man reflects God and the woman reflects the church. God pursued the individuals in the Church, it wasn’t random happenstance. So men should pursue women purposefully with a plan but with passion. The passion gives them the endurance and perseverance to pursue regardless of how the plan is going. The plan should be loose, and able to change, and it will change.

• True meaning- true meaning and significance in a relationship is that either party was chosen. There was a commitment to pursue and a commitment afterward in being a boyfriend and girlfriend, then there is a commitment in engagement and the final lifelong commitment of marriage.

I don’t understand the pursuit part. It is full of risk, if it’s not worth fighting and suffering for then it can’t be worth much can it? You have to keep a realistic perspective because optimistic will lead you astray and cause you to place hope in something that you don’t yet have.



Growing up in adversity
Jesus says a lot in the beatitudes about people living under adversity. Poverty, injustice, the hungry. Several things and then he says that they are blessed, this has to change our view of what a blessing is. The blessing comes with a promise, that they will be, do or gain something. The meek inherit the earth because they have power but restrain it, and they can rule the earth because they were good stewards of everything that they had authority over in life. I think that we gain a perception that will drive us in a good direction in life, adversity gives us proper perspective. In adversity we gain a proper perspective, we see brokenness and we can understand what should be. When being raised in a perfect home without adversity we see things as perfectly fine and we accept the way things run because we are comfortable, so we don’t strive for certain things and we don’t control ourselves in certain aspects because we never saw that there was any other way of living. But I think following Jesus will bring suffering in these different areas, giving us a meekness and hunger for righteousness. The children who grow up in adversity will hunger deeper, suffering causes great joy to fill it’s place.

Theology from lion king
“he lives in you”
Jesus lives in us and we forget that he is transforming us. Simba is a pathetic representation of his strong, powerful kingly father, and he must be conformed into the image of his father, his king, into a king.
“you have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me”
We forget that we are sons and daughters of God, and so we forget that there is even a god in the first place, we forget that we have a father.
Simba is like Jonah, he runs from his calling to rise up as king.
He then goes into the wilderness to try to live without worry. He runs into nala which is like God rebuking him, and calling him back. Jonah was in the belly of the well, and Simba has a time that is a “dark night of the soul” similar to the belly of the fish. It’s metaphor is that it is dark, starry, quiet but full of discontent and conflict and he has his God encounter and then it all turns around.
Pride rock is representation of pride. Pride was good under authority of the good rule, mufasa. But when satan, scar, gets ahold of it, it becomes perverted and desolate.
Scar is also a good example of a depraved human, he refuses to leave his pride, pride rock, because of his pride. He refuses to believe that his pride has turned to vainglory.

Simba takes responsibility, scar is the accuser. Simba’s negliegience got his father killed. Our sin got jesus crucified. But Scar accuses and says that it was his fault, and plants seeds of guilt. The truth is that the father loved the son came to rescue him, the childs negligence was deserving of death, he got himself in a position of death, of being trampled. But the father had mercy and decided that it was worth dying for and risked himself. The resurrection comes through the son, samba. So the resurrection here is not direct but it is there.
Scar dies by his own implementation, his minions turn on him. His attacks get him thrown off a cliff and send him to his impending doom. Satan gets his.
“Truth is in the eye of the beholder” –scar, (satan)


He gives us strength and peace
Glory be to God the father
Forever and ever
Amen