Month: April 2017

We will fall…

After the supper the apostles were joyous and sang. 

Jesus then said they would all fall away. 

When we worship do our lives ces reflect the image that we create?  Are we transformed?  Do we simply return to the way of life we had?

Our energies are high when we are in the direct presence of God. But we quickly fall away. 

Finding Yourself

“Know thyself..” is best applied when we look at our creator and discover what we were supposed to be!  We find we are not “good” at the core. 

The assumption today is that we are basically good. 

Romans 3:10-18

God’s truth ALWAYS trumps our truth. 

We need to spend time in the living word. This is how we see the truth of ourselves and the path we need to take to transform ourselves. 

Spiritual Maturity Manifests in Thankful Obedience 

Conformity is what matters. 

Faith, without works, is dead.  -James

If our promise is eternal life, what kind of person should get this?  Who would we trust?  Are there responsibilities that will be good Ben to those eternal?  

We do not earn our salvation, but can we live a live that brings glory to God who has given us this salvation. 

My Obedience is my testimony to God. Not to earn eternal life but to be thankful for it. 

———-

Mark K

Both of my daughters, Mara especially, have grown up with a deep appreciation of the wilderness.  

Do we not notice that people long for the wilderness?  We seek to vacation there, to hike there, to look upon it.  There is a draw to the wilds.  The draw is, indeed, to the majestic beauty of creation, but could it be a calling that we hear as well?  Could it be that the “connection” we feel is that we are actually closer to God because we are less distracted by OUR creations (which lessen us) and more focused on HIS creations (which expand us)?

I have walked and camped in the woods.  I have stood by a stream and felt its cool water on my fingers.  I have stood on some peaks (not very high ones!) and gazed out over what seems like an infinite forest.  At all these times I feel like I am at the doorway of something majestic, something almost magical, that both exhilarates me and relaxes me.  The wilds are both full of dark places and fear, and welcoming at the same time.

This is like communing with God.  It is full of dark places (that will be revealed) but infinitely welcoming.

Perhaps by meditations need to be closer to trees, to streams, to trails in the woods.  Maybe there I can hear the “still, small voice” that Elijah heard.

Listen.

———-

Mark K.

This one is worth writing out here.  I will reflect on it in another post.

Midbar 

He took me it in the desert to an immense valley surrounded by reddish mountains, which turned increasingly purple and blue as they extend out into the far distance.

“What words come to your mind,” said the teacher, “when you look at the desert wilderness?”

“Dry…barren…hot…austere…severe…hard…forbidding…”

“And when people go through hard times — times of loss, crisis, tragedy, loneliness, conflict, hardship, problems, separation, tears — they speak of going through the wilderness.  And yet the wilderness is a holy place.  It was in a desert wilderness that God gave His Law, His Word, and where He revealed His presence.  The wilderness is holy.”

“So the hard times in our lives are holy?”

“For those who are His children, yes.”

“How so?”

“In Hebrew, the wilderness is called the midbar. Midbar comes from the root word Dabar.  And dabar means to speak.  What is the wilderness?  It is the midbar.  And what is the midbar?  It is the place of God’s speaking, the place of His voice.  It’s where God especially talks to us.  Why did He bring His people into wilderness, into the midbar?  So He could speak to them.  He brought Moses into the midbar to speak to him through a burning bush.  He brought Elijah to the midbar to speak to him in a still, small voice.  So too he brings us into the wilderness that He might speak to us.”

“What is it about the wilderness that makes it the place of God’s speaking?”

“Look around you,” he said, “What do you see?”

“Rock, sand, mountains — not much.”

“That’s why,” said the teacher, “God speaks, but we don’t hear.  We have too many distractions.  But in the wilderness the distractions are gone.  So God brings us to the wilderness that we might hear His voice.  Therefore, do not fear or despise the wildernesses of your life, and don’t despise His removing of the distractions.  Rather embrace it.  Draw closer to Him.  And listen to what He is saying.  Seek to hear His voice, and you will hear Him.  For the wilderness in your life is not just a wilderness.  It is holy ground…the midbar…the place of His voice.”

Mission: Put away the distractions, those things that keep you from hearing.  And go into the wilderness, the midbar, and seek the voice of God.

This entire passage is quoted from “The Book of Mysteries” by Jonathan Cahn

———-

Mark K

The Yud is the smallest of the Hebrew letters.  It signifies small steps, but also (from another source) the concept of work or effort.  As we venture to create a new self in line with God’s will, we will not do so always with monumentous changes, but with small steps.

Today, I began to write some commentary in the MHK Bible Series that I’ve created.  This is such a monumental task.  But the truth is, it is only reading and writing about the Bible.  I have to approach this task keeping the Yud in mind.  One small step at a time.

I started with the Book of Esther.  It si a small book so I feel I can get through it and go through the publishing process to see how this all works out.  I’m still working out some of the bugs of format and such so it is good to work on a short book.

Mission: Today, take the smallest of actions, but in a new direction, the first step toward the life of victory you are called to live.  The Yud of a new journey!

———-

Mark K.

Today the Mental Health Program, or students in the Case Management class, put on a 5K race/run to raise money for the KVCC LYNX Food Pantry.  It was awesome!

I went up to simply take pictures and ended up walking the whole path.  It was a nicely outlined path as well.  Some day I will try running it.  The same students who put it on this year are planning on doing it again next year.

I will be posting more on this later, but I went to see another concert.  Brit Floyd.

They are a tribute to Pink Floyd and we (Katie, Mark M, and I) saw them at the Cross Center in Bangor.  I’ve been surrounded by a lot of music lately.  I went to see Martin Barre, played an awesome gig in New Hope, PA, back to Brit Floyd and this weekend I will be playing at church on Friday and Sunday.

In the Bible reading today the comments focused on worship.  The Psalms are songs and the ultimate way to worship is to play music.  I know that I want to write songs and music…this feels like a nudge, a small voice, telling me I need to get off my butt and start writing!

It is in my schedule, but I have not been working that schedule well…that is something I’m going to think about tomorrow…I think the basic idea of the blocks of time for projects, music, writing, etc, is good, but there may be too many and it remains unfocused.

More on that later.

———-

Mark K.

The Longing

In all of us there is an emptiness.  In our day we have so many distractions that attempt to fill this emptiness.  Money, career, ambition, sex, possessions, power, etc.  All to fill the emptiness.

At the point of sin entering the world we were separated from God.  We are his creation and we seek to join with him.  The hole which is the absence of God, is the loneliness that only he can satisfy.

In C.S. Lewis’ “Silent Planet” series, if I remember correctly, the planets represent the absence of God, not the presence.  These are worlds given to evil…God is absent from them, hence the material world gathered in those places.  All that we know is the absence of God.  Even in this great wonderful world of beauty, it is still beauty in the absence of God.  Imagine what the world, reality, would look like in a world WITH God!

Marriage to God

The Book of Mysteries goes on with the analogy to communicate that we not only must seek God, but to marry him.  To give him our all.  To be obedient and he will take care of us and love us.  (It would be interesting to look at the scripture on brides to see how it matches God’s expectations for our behavior.)

The Mission: Put away anything that substitutes for his presence, and join all that you are, your deepest parts, to your Bridegroom.

———-

Mark K.

On the way back from the gig in PA, I was attempting to do some Bible reading.  I learned that it is impossible to read the Bible and have Louis C. K. (Comedian) playing on the radio.

I eventually gave up and just listened to Louis.

Funny, a bit crude, you know…it is a band thing.

I also have great friends.  On the way down to meet the boys at Mike’s house I hit a Coyote (rather it ran out and hit me).  The little guy took out my radiator in his last moments.  While we were at the gig, Mike arranged to have my car fixed for a measly $180.  It was ready an hour after we arrived.

Very cool stuff.

———-

Mark K.

OK, so over the past few days there are some interesting things going on.  Here are some summaries!

Books for Hannah

I went through the books that we have that were abandoned by our Library at KVCC and found a great collection of hard bound, young-adult books.  When Katie when to see Hannah this last week, she brought the books to her.

Accident on 201

On my way home on Friday there was a truck at SAPPI that did not quite make the turn!

Stage set up at New Hope Winery

As I write this I am on my way back from this gig in PA.  What an amazing show!  We played our socks off, but more than that (or integrated with that) is the audience was amazing!  They were singing along and screaming at EVERY song!  

For nearly the entire first set the audience picked the songs they wanted to hear…shouting them out and then we played them.  When we played Tiny Dancer, Gerald let the audience sing huge parts of the song on their own…that was very very cool.

Here is the stage set up prior to the gig!

Awesome time!

———-

Mark K.

I have not idea what is with this part of the Bible story.  When Jesus is led away to be judged, there is a young man there who is naked except for a linen cloth.  They tried to capture him but he fled naked without the cloth.

The implications of this in the modern world are clear.  But, assuming that everything is included in the Word for a reason, why was this part included?

Reviewing a number of commentaries most simply say that this was the owner of the garden, or simply one of many followers, who was roused late in the night with the sound of the arrest, and hurried to see what was going on.

One commentary points to the importance of the family of Lazarus.  This may have been Lazarus, it says, and the linen cloth was the death shroud that he was wrapped in prior to his raising from the dead.  he may have stayed in that state after the resurrection.  This family of Bethany has importance throughout the Bible, and the lack of stated names may have been an effort to secure their identity in the early church.  The woman who poured the expensive oil of Jesus is said to be Lazarus’ sister.

There is a lot of conjecture here.  In the story of the rich man who asked how to follow Jesus and was told to sell all his possessions we might have been introduced to Lazarus.  So, we know that the young rich man went away sad because he many many possessions, but we do not know if followed through.  Selling “everything” may have been taken literally and all he had was the linen cloth.  

So, here we have a rich man, who is supporting Jesus’ ministry by selling all his wealth.  This may, in fact be Lazarus, and he has nothing save for the linen cloth he was buried in…if he was a rich and well-known supporter of Jesus, this would justify why they tried to arrest him.  He ran away and that whole story may relate to other stories told by Lazarus’ family.  

What does it symbolize?

Jesus is about to be put to death.  We are alive but naked and shrouded by death.  Death itself, represented by the arresting officers seeks to capture us, but we leave death behind and flee to freedom, naked before God.  I’m presuming meaning here, as this may simply be a narrative to communicate to the young man himself and his legacy.  But, there are a number of references to ho we naked before God in the Bible.  The difference here is that this person left death behind.

Two Raised from the Dead

It also strikes me that although we praised Jesus because of the fact the fact that he rose from the dead, his is, indeed, the SECOND person to have done this.  Lazarus was raised front the dead.  If all I said above is true, then God had special plans for Lazarus (and possibly his whole, very wealthy family).  

———-

Mark K.