MK Journal

Faith

This is a good one! (Of course, they are all good, but I need this one!)

The word Emunah is the Hebrew for Faith.  The root word is the Hebrew word for Truth.  So, Faith is not a whimsical, hoped-for reality, it is based in Truth.  It arises from Truth.

That Truth is that there is a God and that Jesus came down from heaven and died for our sins so that we could have everlasting life…a gift that we don’t deserver by our design and by our choices.

I hear the comment sometimes that we all rely on faith.  When we sit in a chair, we have faith that it was built correctly, that it is not damaged, and that it will be strong enough to hold us up.  Usually we are rewarded with the fact that the chair is all these things.  Some of us know the surprise of finding out when it does not!

Truth

Consider the excitement!  As I read today’s passage I found my excitement rising.  When I think of my own faith, it is a lot of the hoped for kind.  Once in a while I get into a mindset of the “Wow, what if this is all really true!”  What an amazing future there is in store!

I know that it may seem weird for me to write that I think this way, but my faith seems to be tested all the time.  Yet, there are so many things I take on faith already…much of it based on hope and what I’ve read…why should I not believe in God as much as I believe in the chair I’m sitting on as I write this?

When I do get to this point, I’m totally thrilled!  That is the taste of heaven…when all things are known, when pain is gone, when death is gone, when we are constantly in the presence of our God.  Wow!

Faith in the Unseen

Another phrase that I hear often is the definition of faith, I like the King James one the best…”Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Hebrews 11:1

The “truth” is in the “substance” and the “evidence”…these are things in the world, not in a fanciful imagination.  This reference to real things is the truth upon which we build our faith.  The “substance” is the knowledge of the possibilities of a new world.  The draw that we have to God that is built into all of us and cause us to seek Him (though we may find ourselves distracted by false gods.  The things that are “hoped for” are nearly universal…peace, justice, tranquility, etc.  This united desire, and the desire to know a God that can bring this about is the “substance” of the things we hope for.

The “evidence” is the most clear.  To me, the evidence of a God are so obvious…I simply look into the night sky and fathom even a fraction of what our scientists have already discovered about this universe we live in.  What an amazing creation!  All the way from clusters of galaxies to the smallest single-cell organism.  The complexity within complexity that assures a profound design.  To think that this would all come about by chance is to be a fool in the presence of profound evidence to the contrary.

Mission – Take a word from the word of God today and give it your strongest amen, the total yes of your heart, soul, mind, and will.

(Note: Amen also arises from the same root word of truth…note how it is phonetically similar to Emunah.

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Mark K.

Symbol of the Crown of Thorns

Christ was crucified with a crown of thorns.  While this may have been an attempt to ridicule him, it was actually part of the design.  Original sin is represented by the thorns.

“Both thorns and thistles it will grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field.”  Genesis 3:18

This is the curse of the Fall.

A crown symbolizes the weight of authority over the kingdom…it is placed upon the head of the King in a symbol of responsibility.  Its weight in gold and gems symbolizes the riches and the burden.

So too does the crown of thorns symbolize Jesus’ kingship and authority over the totality of sin!  What was meant to ridicule him was turned around to represent the true mission of his ministry…to bare the sins of the world through death and serve as an everlasting sacrifice for all sin, past and present.

Our sin, His Thorns

When we sin today, we add thorns to his crown.  We cause him pain (in the past)…remember, there is no “time” for God.  All is now.  Each of our sins pushes the thorns deeper into his skin and draws more blood out of our God.

Our focus, however, needs to move away from trying to will ourselves out of sin.  It is our nature to sin.  We are powerless over it.  We, instead, are called on to bring our sin nature to Jesus and ask him to take it away with him.  To kill it for us.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

This is our prayer about sin.  That he would take away the sin.  But we need to approach the cross…we need to hold out our sin and procain that we need Jesus to bare it for us…even when he has done so much for us already.

Mission – Today, bring the thorns, the wounds, the same, the sorrows of your life to the King of Thorns, and commit them to His authority.

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Mark K.

The Holy of Holies was the most sacred place on Earth. It is where the high priest would meet with God, face to face, on Yom Kippur, to see atonement for all of Israel.

This place was built so that it was only large enough for one person, the high priest, and, of course, the presence of God. This most sacred place is now a place we need to create for ourselves, to meet face to face with God and seek our atonement. This place should be free of the things of the world and should be still and quiet.

We need to create this space…it could be inside of us (provided we could ever make that still and quiet enough!). It can also be a physical space, a building, a room, or even the outdoors.

We could make this space in our minds if we can quite our minds. Perhaps some of the prayers, such as the Rosary, are geared toward focusing the mind through the repetitive feature of it so that the real benefit is the quite secret place.

The Mission – Today, go into the secret place, apart from the world and even the things of Him, away from everything – but His presence.

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Mark K.

The story of God and his people is a love story. He is the bridegroom and we are the bride. In the Song of Solomon, the bride says that the “name of the (groom) is like oil pouring out…”

Consider this as an analogy, to a point, of our relationship with God. The “pouring out” of oil signified the “anointing” that was done in the ancient world. The anointed one was the leader of Israel. Jesus’ name means “the anointed one”!

God’s name, to us his bride, is an anointing. If we simply call on Jesus’ name, and experience the name as the pouring out of oil upon us and anointing us, we shall be blessed. When we are tempted to sin, to do that which first comes into our heart and begs to be done, we can simply call on his name and the anointing oil comes forth.

By this oil we are made “children of god” and heirs to the kingdom. We are not called to be sin free, we are called to be dependent on Jesus, to call his name, when we need his anointing so that we can avoid the sin.

I can feel this often in my own struggles. I purposefully don’t call out his name since I know it will bring about an anointing…I don’t want it (at that time, deep in the bubble of my sin), I want the sin, I want to act out. Yet, this is the very way in which God assures us that there is no sin that we are tempted that is not accompanied by a “way out”…the way out is easy, call for the anointing.

The Mission – Delight today in the name of your Beloved. Let it pour forth from your lips, your mind, and your heart.

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Mark K.

OK, so, umm, I’m not the biggest fan, but it was an interesting show!  I liked it better than TOOL.

Great minimalist light show too…sort of.

Went to see this band with Jim, for his birthday, with some of his friends.  Very good time!

A Perfect Circle in concert in Portland, ME

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Mark K.

On my way home from work the other day, I saw this…also captured well on the iPhone X using the Pan feature.

So cool…

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Mark K.

 

YES!  I got one.

I got an iPhone X.  I got it on the first day it was available.  I went to the Verizon store thinking that I would just try it out.  It was cool, it is still just a phone.  But then the person said, “So, are you getting one?”  I, of course, said yes and she said “OK” and went and got me mine!  I didn’t think they even had any.

I initially wanted a silver one but they did not have it, so I settled for the black model…but, I did get 256 gig memory, so this one is a LOT better than my old one.

And yes, it is cool!

Cool things…

It is cool looking.

Yes it is.  I like the big screen, the notch at the top is fine…don’t know what the big deal is there.

It is blazing fast!

Wow…moving from a 6 to an X is sort of like getting into a sports care.

Pictures are really cool, and Portrait is so nice!

Well, no sense talking about it…

Ayla in Portrait Mode

Elizabeth

Ayla, looking dramatic!

Mara and Ayla

Animoji is actually pretty fun and cool!

I think this is my favorite character to use…of course.

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Mark K.

A word for God

The word “Elohim” is the plural word for God.  By this, the original text of Genesis refers to God in the plural.  This is not to say that there were many Gods, because the rest of the sentence (“In the beginning…”) is singular.

What it points to is the infinite-ness of God.  The word implies that God is so beyond our understanding that we cannot even imagine how great and amazing He is.  The is the awe-some-ness of our Creator!

Gods?

I have wondered a lot about the use of the plural “Gods” in the Bible.  While in this context the word is signifying the immenseness of God, in other parts of the Bible we read about other gods.  Baal, a commonly referred to god, is mentioned quite a lot!  Is there only one god, or are there many gods that are competing for us.

I think that there is only one actual God.  We create the others when we worship other “gods” that we have set up ourselves.  So, we set up Baal.  We set up “money”, “sex”, and “fame” as gods that we worship.  Anything we spend that much time chasing after is something that we set up as a god in our lives and it pushes the true God out of our lives.

One True God

We are cautioned throughout the Bible to be on watch for the idols we worship (I think that idols is just another word for these other gods).  If we look at how we spend out time…those things are idols to us.  If we spend a lot of time in God’s word and worshiping Him, then we are spending out time with the only Idol there is.  But this is often not the case.  We spend a lot of time chasing money and other idols.

These other idols will always, eventually, fail us.  Nothing can fulfill us because nothing is like Elohim.  Nothing is like the infinite-ness of a God that cannot even be described by human language!

It is this unfathomable God that we seek to connect with.  Imagine the source of power that is!

The Trinity of Man

Worthy of a lot more writing than here, I believe that when humans were created in the image of God, our Creator, we were created in three parts (much as we believe God to be in three parts, the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.)

For us, it is the Body, Soul, and Spirit.

In this image you can see that our Spirit is upward-facing and receiving from above.  This is our connection to God through the Holy Spirit.  Our Soul is our true self, the unique identity we have as a Child of God.  Our body is our material selves, connected to the Earth.

We (our souls) are pulled in different directions, like the Spirit and the Body are “hooks”…but, these are also “cups” of a sort…we receive from above the guidance of God through the Holy Spirit and we connect to the natural world through our Body.

As we strive to keep this system whole, we venture to ensure that we continually expose ourselves to God through his Word, through other believers, and prayer.  We also strive to keep our bodies pure and chaste.  While we remain on Earth we remain fixed in this system.  Only when we release our physical connection to Earth (when we die) do we become just Soul and Spirit.

Fill my Cup

When we ask God to help us and our “cup runneth over” we are referring to this Spirit part of us…an open cup receiving the Grace of God.  This is overwhelming to us.

Like a bird with our beaks wide open waiting for our mother bird to feed us, we open ourselves to be filled with God.  Be prepared!  There is a lot coming!  This relates to the Elohim, the infinite greatness that stands above us, waiting to feed us.

The Mission: Today, seek to know God as one who doesn’t know the half of Him.  Seek to know Him more, and afresh, as if for the first time.

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Mark K.

 

Life is a Miracle

Each heartbeat that we have is a miracle.  The fact that we are alive is a miracle.  No matter what we are doing, our heart beats on and supports us.  Whether we are doing good or evil, our heart beats on.

This heartbeat is the spirit of God’s gift to us…Life.  So, what are we to do with all these daily gifts?

First, we need to recognize that our life is fleeting and a gift.  It is amazing that we exist and that we can think about the fact that we exist.  At this point in time I am reading a book on Evolution.  While the premise of the book is to support the evolution of species, it does not shy from the sheer magnitude of the “miracle” that life happened.  So, even if you suppose that we came from micro-organisms in the primordial sludge, the miracle is still there.  The CHANCE of this happening is as near to nothing as it can get!

Second, we need to be thankful for the day we have been given in the day itself.  Every day I thank God for another day to breath, enjoy the Earth, and go out and (hopefully) fulfill God’s will for me (and fail), yet he still gives me another day!

The Force

Star Wars is just a movie (not really, at least not for me!)  But this Force thing is something to consider.  Obi Wan said the Force is an “energy field created by all living things.  It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the universe together.”

There is a “Force” in our heartbeat.  We not only exist, we WORK to exist.  Our heart and other aspects of our autonomous systems work continually to keep us going.  Unlike other “machines” in the natural world, there is a striving that is in life.

When we read about the search for extraterrestrial life, we are made aware of scientists searching for minute traces of life (or that life existed) on other worlds (such as Mars…and certainly beyond.)  We consider life as it may exist on other planets in small pockets of that world where the conditions for life may be present enough for it to arise.

Wow, compare this to Earth!  No matter where we go, life is in our face!  Our planet does not only HAVE life on it, it has it abundantly!  We find life in the hottest geysers and within frozen ice.   Life is literally everywhere!  If intelligent beings were looking for life in our neck of the woods, it would be easy to find, we are sending out sirens and blue and red lights saying “LIFE IS HERE!”

This is what may make our Earth so unique in the universe.  While Carl Sagan may have proposed that there should be millions of habitable planets…we seem to be the only one so far.  So, for the time being, we are quite a miracle, and what a miracle all this is.

Don’t waste it

If our every day is such a miracle, how can we possibly waste it so much.  I feel this sometimes…a lot of wasted days.  I have less days in front of me than behind me (probably), so each day is that much more important.  What will I do today to make it worthy of the miracle that it exists at all?  What will I do with this absolutely amazing gift of another day?  Isn’t this the purpose of our existence?

The Mission: Live this day in the miracle of your existence. Take account of every heartbeat and make your moments worth of each one.

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Mark K.

Book Chapter

So, today I finally got around to finishing the book chapter I have been working on for the Society for the Teaching of Psychology book on how technology has impacted teaching and learning.

To tell the truth, I’m pretty disappointed in myself.  I put this off for too long and the writing is weak.  Not fun.  I seemed to be running into dead ends.  It ended up being a submission to potentially be the prelude or introduction to the book…we’ll see.

If I’m real ambitious tomorrow I think I will make an attempt to complete another chapter and submit that.  This one would be on the other idea that I submitted to these folks; the social nature of online learning.  Essentially a review, and update, of my dissertation topic.

Church

Church was good today…good music from the youth group musicians.  The service got out early and the men stayed behind.  The discussion focused on two areas…there is a service group of men that is available to do odd jobs and help out people in the church and in the community.  This is very similar to the ideas that I had about Christworx years ago.

As soon as I get over my need to take charge of this thing, I’ll likely join it!  🙂

The other area of focus was the initiative to have us men review Proverbs with our kids (and spouse).  One Proverb per week.  Select a line in it and reflect on it with each other.  I want to do this but it will need to be digital in some way so I can rope in both Hannah and Mara (possibly Joey and Kurt, but I’m not sure.)

Grading

Had a very good grading day today!  Made a list and I’m checking them off.  That feels good and I am getting re-energized.

Mara’s Van

Mara and Adam have been here for several days and it is so cool to see the transformation of her van into her “camper”.  They make a good team.  It has also been nice to be a little part of the idea generation/problem solving team…and to do a bit of work on it!

Just doing the little bit of work on the van makes me think, with patience, I could probably do the work to fix up my Man Room.  Considering the cost, it is probably going to be the only way.

We’ll see.

All in all a very good day.

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Mark K.