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~ A blog about the bible and life

Bible Beans

Category Archives: God

Lent and Leap Day

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by biblebeans in Dan Ariely, God, Jesus, Joshua Bell, Joshua Bell Subway Video, Leap Year, Lent, Provebs, Values, Washington Post experiment, Wisdom

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Has this ever happened to you; you put on a pair of jeans you hadn’t worn in a while and unexpectedly, you find money in the pockets???  



This has happened to me a couple of times…

Sometimes when I get change from a quick purchase, instead of putting the money in my wallet, I put it in my pocket, and forget about it…days later I find the money and it makes me happy; it is an unexpected bonus.

It seems to me that there are similarities between leap day and the money you find unexpectedly in your pockets.  Leap day -much like the money we find unexpectedly in our pockets- is not something that “magically appears”…it is time that has been stored up and emerges at one point in time. 

Leap Year Explained

In the gregorian calendar, the years are mostly 365 days long.  This period of 365 days should coincide with the time that it takes for the earth to circle once around the sun.  However, in practice it takes the earth 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds to complete its trajectory around the sun.  So for three years, the extra hours are stored up and put away. On the fourth year, this extra-time -which now adds up to one whole day- appears in the calendar on February 29, which is leap day…a bonus day in the year.  

It is funny how much people enjoy leap year…it is the perception of an “extra day” that makes it special…much like the perception of the “extra money” makes me happy when I find unexpectedly some change in my pockets.

Perceptions and Values

Leap day illustrates how our perception affects the value we ascribe to things, and in turn affects the way we experience events in our lives.  February 29 is considered a “special day” in the calendar, even though it is nothing more than the extra six hours leftover in the past four years.  

This phenomenon was discussed by Dan Ariely in his book “Predictably Irrational”.  Through his experiments on behavioral economics, Ariely found that what we perceive to have value can affect our lives in concrete and significant ways.  In chapter 11 of the book, Ariely describes one particular experiment, where  students were given the same medication at different prices; one group was given the medication at 2.50 dollars a pill, and the next group was given the EXACT SAME medication at .10 cents a pill.  

Even though the medication was the exact same chemical composition, the reported relief resulting from this medication among the two groups was drastically different; ALL of the students who paid the “expensive” price for the pill reported pain relief, while only half of the students who took the “cheap” medication reported pain relief.  The experiment -according to Ariely – demonstrates how our perceptions, and the value we ascribe to things can drastically affect our concrete experiences.

It is a pity, that people who took good quality medication were prevented from experiencing the fullness of its benefits because of their perceptions of this medication as “cheap”.  The truth is, that sometimes we may perceive that are affordable and available as “cheap” but in reality…they might be very valuable.

That Which is Truly Valuable

Recently, a similar story about a study on perception, taste and priorities was circulating the web. According to this story, the Washington Post arranged for Joshua Bell, a world renowned Violinist, to play his 3.5 Million Dollar violin at the metro-station in Washington D.C.  Just a few days before, Bell had sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.  However that day in the subway, barely anyone stopped to listen…

The report on the experiment describes how this famous violinist played for 45 minutes, and during this time, it was mostly the children who wanted to stop and enjoy the performance…but the parents rushed them along.  Out of the approximately 1000 people who walked by during this time, nobody recognized Bell, or even worse, none of the adults appreciated the value of his music.  Why?  Probably because their perception of what should be valuable prevented them from appreciating the real value of the performance.  

This experiment brings to my mind the passage in Luke 10:17 where Jesus said to his disciples; I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Perhaps what Jesus was referring to in this verse, is the quality of children that was displayed in the example of Joshua Bell…Children were the ones who took the time to appreciate that which is truly valuable, and made room to allow the transcendent into their lives.    


Lent and Leap Year

In a similar fashion to Joshua Bell’s music in the D.C. metro,  the book of Proverbs, chapter 8 describes how God’s wisdom is readily available for all of us…calling to us like a street performer.

1 Does not wisdom call out?   Does not understanding raise her voice? 

2 On the heights along the way,   where the paths meet, she takes her stand; 

3 beside the gates leading into the city,   at the entrances, she cries aloud: 

4 “To you, O men, I call out;   I raise my voice to all mankind…. 

6 Listen, for I have worthy things to say;   I open my lips to speak what is right…. 

10 Choose my instruction instead of silver,   knowledge rather than choice gold,11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies,   and nothing you desire can compare with her.


Lent this year began exactly one week before leap day…on ash Wednesday.  May this time be a time where we stop to appreciate that which is truly valuable and readily available for us…God’s grace, his love, and his wisdom in our lives given freely through Jesus Christ. 

How to deal? Sadness, Regret, and the Myth of the Happy-go-Lucky Christian…

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by biblebeans in God, Happy, Jesus, Sadness

≈ 1 Comment

Most fairy tales have a common beginning and a common ending.

The beginning of a fairy tale goes like this: “Once upon a time, in a land far away….” (you know the rest).     The story goes on to narrate the adventures and misadventures of some heroic character, that suffers unjust treatment and somehow manages to overcome every adverse situation, ultimately achieving some sort of retribution that rights all wrongs…and in the end, the main character “lived happily ever after”.  
As a child, I enjoyed the simplicity of this statement…because it allowed me to let my imagination take over, and envision different happy scenarios.  Even if the fairy tale was the same, in my mind, I could insert a different kind of happy-ending every time.  Nowadays, I still love happy endings, I love them in fairy tales, books, movies, and also, in real life.  
Unexpectedly however, it is my love for happy endings that led me the to gain insight about the topic of sadness and regret during perhaps one of the most crucial times of my life.
My fairy tale: Meeting my husband
If you talk to my husband, he will testify to the fact that I am not the most romantic woman in the world, quite the contrary, I tend to be more practical than anything else.  This has been the case for most of my life; when I was in my teens, and early twenties, I never believed in love at first sight, and, as a matter of fact, I understood love at first sight to be some form of youthful infatuation that was unworthy of my time and energy… (yeah, I know).
Anyhow, it was a December evening, and I had been invited to a friend’s birthday dinner. I wasn’t expecting anything uber-exciting; I envisioned a good Italian meal, hanging out with my friend, and nothing more…However, when I arrived at Olive Garden’s, I noticed among the guests a handsome, tall, blond man with a gorgeous smile.  Somehow, we had the chance to converse a bit, and it turned out, we had a ridiculous amount of stuff in common.  I was so excited to meet him, and I remember thinking  at that moment, that perhaps there COULD be such a thing as love at first sight…(NOTICE: I still was a bit skeptical).  

Almost exactly a year later, I found myself celebrating my birthday with this handsome, tall, blond man, who was now my boyfriend.  We had started dating earlier in that year…and we were crazy about each other.  I could see myself spending the rest of my life with him, and I could sense the feeling was mutual.  So that day, on my birthday, I remember feeling like everything was falling into place; I had found “the one”, I was about to start my last semester of college, and my life was starting to converge into the point where I could be “happily ever after”.  

The weird part of “happily ever after”

Tim (the tall, handsome, blond guy) and I got engaged during a wonderful trip together. It was precisely at this point in my life, that instead of being happily ever after, I found myself struggling with feelings of sadness and regret.  I did not understand why I was feeling sad.  I felt that I should be happy about my circumstances, and since my circumstances did not match my emotional state, I decided to seek advice from a counselor.  
I remember the first appointment with the counselor, I felt really self-conscious, like I was the oddest person in the planet, I was wondering; “why am I sad, when I have the greatest fiancé, and I am about to graduate college”?  As I sat with the counselor and talked to her, the reason for my sadness became crystal clear.  It was like I was looking into the magic mirror, which allowed me to see beyond my present reflection, and to understand everything in a better way. I realized that the source of my sadness was not my present circumstances, or the wonderful journey that I was about to begin by Tim’s side.  The source of my sadness was the loss of something that I thought I would always have….
Four years before I met Tim, my family and I had relocated to the United States.  This move was unexpected, and it meant we had to leave important aspects of our lives back in El Salvador, and start our lives over in the U.S.  The transition was not hard, however leaving El Salvador was very painful; I gave up the comfort of home, and the plans that I had for my future. Up to the point when we left El Salvador, I had never-ever envisioned myself living abroad, much less settling abroad; I loved El Salvador.  However, since life doesn’t always go according to planned, we had to relocate and settle in Texas.  This meant that my future would be completely different that what I had envisioned…and it was this loss, that was causing all the sadness and regret that I was feeling.  Most importantly, through my conversation with the counselor, I figured out the reason why I was not able to deal properly with the sadness and regret that followed my departure from El Salvador; it was because I felt guilty about being sad…I felt like I should be happy, and I never allowed myself to deal with the sad feelings.  
From that experience, I learnt valuable lessons about sadness and regret:
1.  Sadness & Regret do not always come as a direct result of something we did or did not do…it is the result of living in a world, where circumstances and people change (which can result in hurt)
2. Sadness & Regret can take place at different points in time in our lives, without circumstances and feelings corresponding one-to-one
3. Sadness & Regret weigh our heart down, and can keep us from experiencing our life to the fullest
4. Sadness & Regret in our lives isn’t always our fault, but we can feel guilty about it, and it is important to learn how to deal with it in a healthy way.



How to deal?  
So the question is, how can we then deal with sadness and regret in a healthy way?  
2 Corinthians 7:10 says: “Godly sadness causes us to turn away from our sins and be saved. And we are certainly not sorry about that! But worldly sadness brings death.”  
Through this verse, we cans see that according to the bible, there are two kinds of sadness; Godly sadness, and worldly sadness.  Godly sadness is the one that brings us closer to God, it reconciles us with God and other people, it heals us and it leaves no regret.  Worldly sadness on the other hand, isolates us, it is hurtful and fills us with regret, this is the unhealthy sadness that keeps us from living our life to the fullest.
In christian circles -and even in non-christian circles- it is very common for people to feel guilty about being sad, and this creates a cycle of sadness, guilt, and regret that paralyzes people and causes them to isolate themselves from God and others. This is not a healthy way to deal with sadness.  

Turning Worldly Sadness into Godly Sadness

It is important that we realize that it is normal to be
sad sometimes.  We do not always have to be
 happy-go-lucky.  Nevertheless, we need to be able
to discern the nature of our sadness; whether it is worldly
sadness or Godly sadness.  The good news about
being sad is that, God welcomes us just as we are.
He is not going to turn us away because we have
tears in our eyes…The Bible says:
 “a broken and contrite heart, 
O God, You will not despise” -Psalm 51:17
King David -who wrote this Psalm – was an expert in sadness and regret.  He had a lot of reasons to be sad and regretful in his lifetime…however he always found his way back to God…even in his lowest points, because he knew that in God he could always find comfort.  To me, this is a happy ending.

I still love happy endings, and now I can say I believe in love at first sight (thank you Tim)…however, I am a bit more careful when it comes to happily ever after.  

DO YOU HAVE FRENEMIES?

04 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by biblebeans in frenemies, God, Jesus, lifesaver

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I’ve never liked candy very much (I know, I am kind of odd like that). However, when I was younger, there was one brand of candies that I loved to eat…the lifesavers. These candies came in various flavors wrapped together in a roll. I think one reason why I liked the lifesavers is because they were packed in a fun, colorful way. My friends and I would use the candy as a kind of friendship-ranking system. Since packages had certain amount of lifesavers of different colors and flavors, we ordered our friendships according to those colors and flavors that we would be willing to share with each other. For example, the red lifesaver was the best flavor, and because of this you would only share those coveted red lifesaver with your closest friends. The orange life-saver was not so highly coveted, and because of this, you could share it with other friends that were not necessarily your best buddies. Lastly, the green lifesavers that were not so hot, you could give to anybody. It is fun to think back to the dynamics of childhood friendships. As we grow older, friendships (and relationships in general) get more complicated…and we can no longer explain them or categorize them according to the color of candy we are willing to share.

Last year, Merriam Webster added the word “frenemy” to the dictionary. The definition of a frenemy according to this entry is a person “who pretends to be a friend but is actually an enemy”.

Normally, the emergence of a word in any language comes from a need to be able to identify an object or phenomenon. Thus, we can assume that the fact that the word frenemy is now in the dictionary indicates that we have developed the need to find a word to identify those people who call themselves our friends but end up acting like our worst enemies.

DR. JEKYLL OR MR. HYDE?

The essence of a frenemy is a lack of clarity in the relationship; sometimes they seem to love you and care about you, and sometimes they act in a manner that contradicts this fact, and they end up hurting you with their actions or words…it is like the same person turns into two different -almost completely opposite- individuals. Frenemies are inconsistent in their relationships…and because of this inconsistency, they are hard to spot.

GOD’S PURPOSE

God wants us to have good friendships and relationships that build us up, and not relationships that damage us and bring us down. However, this is not always what we experience, sometimes our friends and the people that are close to us end up hurting us and betraying us, and we experience a lot of pain from those situations. There are times in which we make the sad realization that a friend is not really a friend, but a frenemy.

The bible mentions this kind of friends;

There are “friends” who destroy each other,
but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. –Prov. 18:24 TM

So basically, not everyone whom we call our friend is a good, sincere, true friend, and because of this, God tells us in his word:

“Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.” –Prov. 4:23

So what is this verse saying?

First, lets look at the meaning of the verb to guard, and the noun heart.
In the Old Testament, the word “guard” comes from the Hebrew samar שומר and it means to “preserve from harm” or to simply put, “to be careful with something”…normally you guard things that are very valuable, because the things that are not valuable do not need to be guarded.The word heart in Hebrew is leb לב and it refers to the seat of emotion, thought and decision. So what this verse is trying to tell us is that you need to be careful whom you give access to your thoughts emotions and decisions.

In any friendship or any type of relationship we always give our friend access to our thoughts, emotions and decisions, and because of this, it is necessary for us to be careful and to treat our heart as something valuable, and not give it away lightly to people who are not trustworthy.

CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS WISELY

The quality of our friendships, is going to affect the quality of our life
Good friendships/relationships = good life
Bad friendships/relationships = bad life

Why is this a simple equation? Well, because the people you allow to influence your thoughts, emotions and decisions, are going to affect the type of person you become and ultimately determine the kind of life you aspire to.

“He who walks with the wise grows wise,
but a companion of fools suffers harm.” –Prov. 13:20

So we know what it means to guard our heart and why we need to guard our heart…
Now, we need to ask ourselves;

How do we do this? How do we guard our heart?
I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up my parents had a safe box in the house, where they kept their jewelry and stuff they considered valuable …however, you cannot take your heart and deposit it in a safe box, or in a bank, it is physically impossible.
So what do we do?

In order for us to guard our heart we need to develop one very specific skill; CHARACTER DISCERNMENT; to be able to look and understand the inner qualities of a person reflected in the way this person treats you and others.

Let’s look at an example;

Prophet Samuel and King David

1 Samuel 16
Samuel Anoints David
1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
….
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered, “but he is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down [a] until he arrives.”
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.”
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.

DO NOT LOOK AT THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE

We have an example of God teaching Samuel character discernment. Samuel was about to anoint the next king of Israel, and God tells him not to look at the outward appearance. Why? Because God knows we tend to do that…people to rely on outward appearance –not just physical appearance, but other external attributes too such as personality and popularity– in order to choose the people who influence our lives. Is not that the case with celebrities and their market appeal?

When you are entrusting people with something very valuable such as the welfare of a nation, character is the most important thing to look at…in this case David was going to be entrusted with an entire Kingdom and needed to have the right character. Similarly we entrust our friends with our most intimate thoughts, dreams, fears and feelings, so we need to choose wisely.

In the movies, it is very easy to distinguish the “good guys” from the “bad guys”; the outward appearance makes it very easy to guess what the inner qualities will be like…the hero is -as a general rule- handsome, has an imposing presence and a noble nature which fits to his exterior. On the other hand the villain has no striking physical appeal, is correspondingly evil and an overall loser. The only thing is that real life is hardly ever like a Hollywood move, and sometimes the quiet, unimpressive type like David turns to be the person who can be entrusted with the most delicate matters.

HOW DO WE EXERSICE CHARACTER DISCERNMENT?

In choosing our friends, we exercise character discernment when

• Instead of looking at how popular this person is, or how big their network is, we look at whether this person treats others with respect and honesty.
• Instead of looking at personality ethics, we look at the character ethics of this person.
• Instead of looking at wealth and appearance, we look habits of this person, are they good or bad habits?

This idea about character discernment has been discussed very well in a book called SAFE PEOPLE (http://store.cloudtownsendstore.com/safepeoplebook1.html). According to the book SAFE PEOPLE are those people that you want to have in your life, as friends, or in romantic relationships, and UNSAFE PEOPLE are those people that are not trustworthy in friendships or other relationships because they do not understand the value of your heart. One of the main messages is that we need to develop and exercise the skill of character discernment.

Nowadays, we are constantly seeking to learn and develop new skills because we believe that this is going to help us have a better life. However we seldom think to develop the skill of character discernment…and this is an important skill to develop because it will influence the kind of relationships we have, and ultimately the kind of lives we will live. Here is a little summary that I adapted from the book to help us get started in trying to develop character discernment.

UNSAFE PEOPLE: FRENEMIES

• Do not admit their weaknesses
• Are religious instead of being spiritual
• Are defensive instead of being open
• Are self-righteous instead of humble
• Only say “sorry” but they never follow up by changing their ways
• Demand trust instead of earning it
• Lie instead of telling the truth
• Driven by insecurity

You are friends with an unsafe person if:

• You feel like you tell this person things about you, but this person hardly ever shares about him/herself
• The main focus of the friendship is to satisfy the other person’s needs
• You do not feel free to be weak/imperfect in front of your friend for fear of ridicule
• You feel like you need to live up to a certain “image” in order to remain friends
• You feel like you need to be a mirror to your friend (i.e. always echo his/her opinions, moods and choices)
• You are constantly being lied to by your friend
• Your friend does not respect your values and boundaries
• You never know on what ground you stand

Well, this is not a comprehensive list, but it might be enough to help us begin to understand where we need to look in order to find trustworthy, safe people. The good news is that all of us have at least one good friend, and that friend is JESUS.

John 15:13-14a
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends…”

Jesus as a friend;
• Loves us and reaches out to us every day (constant)
• Accepts us as we are but also helps us to overcome our faults
• Is not selfish, or absent, but sacrificed his life for us
• He commands us to love others as he loved us
• Gives us confidence to approach others

JESUS, OUR LIFESAVER

Like I mentioned earlier, when I was little, we used to eat the brand of candies called livesavers. They looked like little doughnuts and came in different flavors. Their shape emulated the devices that were once used in order to save people from drowning. Have you ever felt like you are drowning in a bad relationship? Well, I guess then it is a good time to reach for a floating device, a lifesaver.
Jesus is the lifesaver; he can transform our life, and he can transform and redeem our relationships…we only need to ask him. We are called by Jesus to have a safe friendship with him, to look for safe people and to be true friends and safe people to others.

What do you believe? The Story of the Balloon Boy

25 Sunday Oct 2009

Posted by biblebeans in Balloon, Faith, God

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Pic. by Associated Press http://news.yahoo.com/











What does it mean to believe?
Online dictionaries give the following definitions:


1. To accept as true or real
2. To expect or suppose
3. To have confidence in the reliability of something


However, my favorite definition is the one I found in the sign language dictionary:


Believe = Think + Act


In sign language, the word “believe” consists of two gestures, the gesture for “thinking” followed by the gesture for “acting”. I find this definition really appropriate, because it summarizes the essence of what it is to belive…you think a certain way about something or someone, and then you act based on that thought…a good illustration for this fact is the story of the Heeney family and little Falcon.




These last couple of weeks, there were several reports in the news that told the story about a little boy named Falcon.


Falcon, the Balloon Boy
Falcon is six years old; he lives in Colorado with his parents and two brothers…sounds pretty normal so far…but the story is full of twists…


It turns out that Falcon and his dad and brothers like to build things for fun, the latest project was a hot-air balloon which they were getting ready to finish two or three weeks ago.
One day Falcon’s father, Falcon, and his older brother were working on the balloon in the garden…the dad left for a minute and somehow the balloon started flying.


The original story that the Heeney’s told the authorities was that when Mr. Heeney (Falcon’s dad) came back to the yard, he noticed that the balloon was gone, and so was Falcon. He asked the older son “where is your brother?” and the boy answered him…”I don’t know…I think I saw him get inside the box of the hot air balloon”…


The family called 911 and they called the news channel in order to ask for help to bring the boy back down from the air safe and sound.  Soon the news started reporting about the balloon and everyone in the United States started following the developments of this situation.


The reporters and the people in general where worried about the boys safety, could the balloon crash with another flying object? Was the air too cold for little Falcon to survive? And of course, the big question, could Falcon fall out of the box from the hot air balloon?


The authorities closed down the airport, launched two military helicopters and countless policemen to try to bring the boy to safety. After a few hours, the balloon landed on a field and everyone ran to try to get the boy to safety…and the boy was not there. So the policemen tracked down the route where the balloon had flown in order to see if the boy had fallen out of the balloon…and they couldn’t find anything, until finally they found the little boy…do you know where?


Falcon was found safe and sound in his garage…where he had been hiding all along.


Even though this story seemingly has a happy ending…and everyone was relieved to see that Falcon was safe, the authorities soon became suspicious of the parents, and there has been an ongoing investigation to determine whether the whole incident was real or not, I guess we will find out in time.


Regardless of the outcome of events, the story is a powerful example of how what we believe to be true can shape or actions in a powerful ways. In this case, the resources of the entire state of Colorado were set in motion in order to “rescue” a boy because people believed he was in danger. Everyone was under the impression that the boy would be in flying in the air, they thought that he would be in danger…and this is why they took radical measures to prevent any danger for the boy; they closed the airport and launched military helicopters to try to extract the boy from the balloon in mid-air.


Our Beliefs


This incident exemplifies key points about our beliefs:


1. Our beliefs set the guidelines and boundaries of our actions not only when it comes to other people, but also when it comes to ourselves too. Beliefs are views, guiding principles, judgments and decisions about ourselves, people close to us, our community and how the world functions and they help determine our actions.

2. We all operate all the time under a series of assumptions or beliefs
, whether we are aware of it or not. A lot of who we are and what we do can be explained in terms of what we believe, and this is an important thing to understand; therefore I will repeat it…a lot of who we are, and what we do can be explained in terms of what we believe.



Why is it important that we understand this? Because we need to make sure that we are operating under the right beliefs, and not under false beliefs…because our beliefs are going to shape our life for better or for worse. Let me illustrate;


Columbus, the Sailor


Once upon a time there was an Italian sailor named Christopher Columbus. During his lifetime, people used to believe that the earth was flat and that the world consisted of Asia, Europe and Africa…no North America, or South America or the Caribbean…which is kind of sad. But anyway, Christopher Columbus did not share in the false belief that the earth was flat, he thought the earth was round, and he didn’t let false beliefs operating around him determine his actions…he sailed away to prove his point…and found America. In short, a man who believed the right thing literally changed the shape of the world and the outcome of history. This is very powerful.


So at this point, let me ask you a question, what are some things you believe? Are you aware of your beliefs and how they work to shape your life?


We get our beliefs from three main sources; experience, evidence and our environment…however those sources are not always sufficient and can be misleading, because our understanding is limited.


Proverbs 3:5 warns us against relying solely on our understanding of things;


“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding”Now that we’ve touched on God’s word, let’s talk about what we believe as Christians…
Christians are also called BELIEVERS…however this is a bit arbitrary because everyone believes…every person in the world whether secular or religious has a set of beliefs.
So what is the difference? Well, we could say that Christians have a specific kind of belief and this is called FAITH….faith in God.


Belief = Faith


Let’s talk a little bit about faith, what is faith?


The bible says in Hebrews 11:1


“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see.”So basically, faith is a belief, but the kind of belief that is not based on what we see in daily experience, evidence or environment, faith is believing in what we have not seen yet.


Faith is believing in what God has already done.


Unlike other things we believe, which result from things we’ve previously experienced and are based on concrete, material evidence, faith is based on a certainty which precedes any kind of material evidence or previous experience.


How does faith originate? How do we get faith?


The bible tells us that we receive faith when we hear God’s word and we believe it.


Romans 10:17:


“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”


According to the bible, faith is not just a warm, fuzzy feeling on the inside; it is a conviction that leads to action, actions that reflect our belief in God’s word.


James 2:14-18 says,


“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. IF one of you says to him, Go I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
The book of James tells us that faith cannot be passive, it has to be active.


I ask myself, and maybe if you want to you can ask yourself too; how is your faith, is it dead or alive? Is it active or just passive?


It is really easy to fall into the trap of a passive faith, which stays at the level of thoughts and never translates into concrete actions…but according to the bible, we should strive that our faith is evidenced by our actions…


One last verse:


Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.


God is pleased by faith…and the first expression of faith is to come to him believing that he is there for us….I pray and hope that this faith can always find an expression in our life.


God is a great God…he can do things beyond what we ask or think in our lives…all he asks is that we believe.

Herd Mentality, the Sheep and the Shepherd

10 Sunday May 2009

Posted by biblebeans in Fraser, God, Herd Mentality, Jesus, Kelsey Grammer, Sheep, Shepherd

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Recently I stumbled upon a blog-article from Steve Dubner, one of the authors of the book “Freakonomics”. The article was titled “Herd Mentality, the Freakonomics of Boarding a Bus”. In the article, Steven Dubner narrates a passage of his every day life…from an economist’s prespective.

Dubner and his daughter ride the bus together…they live in NYC, and as it is the case in most big cities during rush hour; the buses are crowded and full of impatient people trying to get to their intended destinations. For Dubner, the bus stop closest to his house is also a bus stop next to a subway station, which means that the amount of people waiting for the bus tends to be higher at that particular stop than in other bus stops.

I cannot imagine trying to get through a mob of people with a three year old by my side…and apparently Steve couldn’t either…he figured out a way to avoid this situation; by walking 250 yards down to the bus stop located one block before the crowded bus stop…thus avoiding the crowd and increasing his chances of finding seats for himself and his daughter.

As a conclusion to his article Steve Dubner asks himself; “why aren’t more people doing this?” As a good economist, Dubner wonders why more people are not adopting a small change in their commuting habits (walking 250 yards) which would increase their likelihood of finding a seat…do they not mind standing in the bus? Are they intimidated by the prospect of walking 250 yards? What is it?

The answer (according to Dubner) is herd mentality.

What is herd mentality?

Pat Thomas, general curator at the Bronx Zoo explains herd mentality as” the idea that the individual members of a herd relate, behave in a similar fashion,” … “so that they don’t stand out and appear different than their group mates.”

In human experience, herd mentality can describe how people are influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors, follow trends, and/or purchase items.

According to Dubner’s blog-article, people would rather stay where the “herd” is (which in this case is the crowded bus stop), than behave differently and act out as individuals…even if this behavior is beneficial for them…

I don’t know about you, but this statement kind of scares me…and makes me wonder:

How much of our life is determined by Herd Mentality ?

Economics, Finance, Fashion, politics, and peer interactions are areas of our lives where herd mentality plays a role in the decisions we make…

Scientists at the University of Leeds conducted an experiment trying to explore the dynamics of herd mentality. In their experiment, they put people in a large hall and instructed them to walk around randomly…however, they had instructed some people to follow a specific route.

The participants were not allowed to communicate with each other…but in the end it turned out that the individuals who had been instructed to walk a certain route were followed by the others…thereby causing the whole crowd to follow the route and walk in an organized way…as opposed to randomly…without communicating!

Several experiments (including this one) conclude that in crowds of 200 individuals, a group of five percent was enough to influence the rest of their peers.

Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/02/15/herd-mentality-explained/1922.html

Christ and the Crowds

Why does almost everyone in a crowd adopt the same behavior?  The French sociologist Gustav Le Bon in his research about crowd behavior noticed how crowds foster anonymity (Contagion Theory). Thus, not only do crowds validate a behavior, they also foster anonymity.  They can make people feel protected, but they can also make them feel lost.   

The book of Mark narrates one instance in which Jesus found himself in the midst of a crowd…according to the passage “the crowd was following and pressing against Jesus” (Mark 5:24) and out of nowhere… a woman who was chronically ill approached Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak.

As he was walking in the midst of a crowd, Jesus noticed that someone had touched his cloak…and he asked “who touched my clothes?”

The disciples were baffled by this question…they answer “you see the people crowding against you (bumping into you) and yet you ask ‘who touched me’” (Mark 5:31)…I can see the disciples almost asking Jesus “are you kidding???”

But Jesus wasn’t kidding…he continued to look around, until the woman who had been healed came forward and kneeled before him…

Jesus didn’t let the woman get lost in the crowd…he recognized her and showed empathy and compassion towards her.  Her action stopped Jesus in His track, and Jesus’ response towards her changed the trajectory of her life from a downward spiral to a life of hope.

The woman who “had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse”(Mark 5:26)  was set in a new direction by Jesus’ words when he told her;  “Daughter, your faith has healed you, Go in peace and be freed from your suffering” (Mark 5:34)…those are beautiful words… especially considering that this woman had been waiting to hear those words for over 10 years.

We can see in the bible several instances in which Christ interacted with the crowds…he spoke to multitudes, he fed those multitudes, he walked through the crowds…he was used to dealing with lots and lots of people at the same time… and contrary to what research shows about people’s tendency to get lost in the crowd and adopt a herd mentality, Jesus never ever allowed himself to get lost in the crowd and he also never allowed anybody else to get lost either…

According to scripture, when Jesus saw the crowds, “he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”(Mat 9:36) Jesus said of himself; “I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me…I lay down my life for the sheep”. (John 10:14)

These verses shed so much light into Jesus relationship to the crowds…he sees himself as the Shepherd and the crowds are the sheep; a Shepherd doesn’t follow the sheep, he leads them, and he also cares for them…for a shepherd, sheep are never anonymous…and each one of them has great value in his eyes.

Matthew 18:12-14 explains this shepherd-sheep relationship in the following way:

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep,
and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine
on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?
And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep
than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.
In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that
any of these little ones should be lost.”

Jesus, just like a good shepherd, will not let anybody get lost in the crowd…he will not let you or me get lost…

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you”
Psalm 32:8

It is important to notice that the relationship of the shepherd to his sheep is not one sided, it is mutual. The shepherd tends his sheep, but he is able to do so because the sheep recognize and follow the shepherd. Jesus said “my sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me” (John 10:28)

How can we as sheep listen to Jesus our Shepherd?

1. By Reading God’s Word

“ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for
every good work:”

2nd Timothy 3:16-17

“Sanctify them in your truth, your word is truth”
John 17:17

I am sure most of us have daily routines in which we set time apart to meet with friends, go to the gym, study…etc…we can do the same with the word of God…set time apart to read and meditate on it.

A good resource which can be easily incorporated into our routine are the email-devotionals…a few suggestions for subscriptions are “Our daily bread” http://www.rbc.org/odb/email/, or in touch http://www.intouch.org…

Once you start receiving the devotionals in your email…you can dedicate a few minutes while you sit on your computer to read and meditate on God’s word…

2. By listening to the Holy Spirit within us

Another way in which God speaks to us is through the Holy Spirit within us….the bible says;

“But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
John 16:13

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has
revealed it to us by his Spirit”
1 Corinthians 2: 9-10

How does the guidance of the Holy Spirit look life in our daily life? Author Bruce Main introduced a good expression to explain the way the Holy Spirit guides us…

In his book ”Holy Hunches”, Main notices that on several occasions people have been guided in their daily life by means of hunches or nudges… it is not a fire bush talking to them, it is that inner prompting to do something…”to put our faith into action”… he says “God-inspired (Holy) hunches can happen to ordinary people doing ordinary things”…that’s a pretty broad category; it includes everyone….

I like the expression “Holy Hunch”…because it is not something we hear with our ears, or see with our eyes…it comes to us as the verse in Corinthian says…by his Spirit…to our spirit.

God is on the line wanting to speak to us….are we listening?

Who belongs to the top five percent?

Experts in the study of change call the individuals who embrace a new trend and adopt a different behavior the trendsetters or innovators.

Trendsetters and innovators are the first ones in a group to follow a specific direction a.k.a the top five percent…

Trendsetters/innovators are followed by the early adopters, afterwards comes the early majority, followed by the late majority, and lastly, the laggards.

Several studies confirm that any group behavior will follow this progression;
1. innovators/trendsetters, 2. early adopters, 3. early majority, 4. late majority and 5. laggards.

Jesus calls us to be innovators…he wants us to be part of the crowd, but not led by the crowd…

“For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness;
but of power and love and discipline.”
2nd Timothy 1:7

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me”
Psalm 23:4

King David said “the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” it is my prayer that we also experience God’s provision and guidance in our life as we follow his voice with renewed purpose.

H1N1; my next door neighbor….

01 Friday May 2009

Posted by biblebeans in God, H1N1, Jesus, Zeitgeist

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Today as I was walking home, I noticed a group of policemen and reporters standing at the door of the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai, which is almost next door to my appartment building.

I had no clue what was going on…I didn’t think much of it though.

I walked to the building and saw a lady wiping the floor with chlorine… I still did not connect the dots, I went home and started watching T.V.

A couple of hours later my husband came home, he told me “the street is full with policemen, apparently someone with the swine-flu fell over in the hotel next door”…in that moment, it all made sense to me… I couldn’t believe that I missed all the sings…

I guess in retrospect it all seems too obvious; the H1N1 virus is all over the media…and I knew that it had come to Asia…there were warning signs all over…but I missed them, I guess I never imagined it would get so close….

Warnings
This incident made me wonder; how many times have I heard warnings and I failed to pay attention?

Warnings are preventative statements which guide us to safety in different settings of life…and we know them since childhood…from our parents, teachers and other authority figures. Warnings are given to us in most cases by people who care for our wellbeing to a greater or lesser extent…right?

This I came across a documentary named “Zeitgeist”, and what I saw reminded me of a warning given to us in the Bible; Peter warns Christians in 2nd Peter 2 that there would be people who would deny Christ’s divinity…he calls them false teachers.

The documentary “Zeitgeist” is one of those teachings…it begins with a description of different mythological figures of antiquity. It records how various civilizations had similar accounts of a “savior god”…which sound very similar to Jesus Christ…putting into question whether Christ is really the only true God-savior.

The way I came across “Zeitgeist” is because as a result of watching the documentary, someone asked the question, “How do we know that Jesus is the real God”? So I figured I should try to understand where the question is coming from….

As I watched the documentary, there were accounts of several Egyptian, Indian, and Greek mythical gods who were said to have the same traits as Jesus did. I wasn’t familiar with any of them until something caught my attention… a very specific comparison made between a Greek god named Dionysius and Jesus.

I remembered a course that I took my third year of college called “Classics”…it was an overview of Greek Mythology and Literature.

Dionysius
Dionysius is an important figure in ancient Greek culture because he is linked with the classic Greek theatre.

Oedipus Rex (a piece that most people read in high school) was written by Sophocles to be performed in the theater festival; a festival in honor of Dionysius celebrated each spring.

Dionysius is said to be the god who discovered how to make wine and he is also the god of nature and fertility (source: Encyclopedia Mythica http://www.pantheon.org/articles/d/dionysus.html) …every spring as the green sprouts emerged after the winter and the animals were mating; the Greeks would interpret this as the resurrection of Dionysius. This is what I had learned about Dionysius at the University in my “Classics” course.

As I watched the video, I couldn’t help but notice that some concrete statements were made about Dionysius; the video stated that Dionysius is said to “turn water into wine” which according to my understanding of the mythological account is a gross generalization…

Dyonisius is said to have discovered and perfected the process of wine creation, which he later on spread through Asia-minor. This act is completely different to a miraculous act of transubstantiation (turning one substance into a different substance) performed by Jesus…the Bible narrates in the New Testament how Jesus turned water into wine…not by a process, but by a miraculous act. (I have included the text which is John 2).

Jesus Changes Water to Wine

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so,
9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

Having studied a bit of Greek mythology, I could see how the statements made about Dyonisius in the “Zeitgeist” documentary are deceitful…it is clear to me that the producers of the video have the intention of presenting the Biblical account of Jesus’ life and resurrection as nothing but a repeated version of other previous mythologies…when it is not at all the case…

Broad generalizations such as the ones used in this documentary are dangerous; history has shown that they lead to prejudice and exclusion. As an individuals, people normally wouldn’t pass judgment on someone based on stereotypes or generalizations about their race, ethnicity or culture… Now, it is should be the same case with faith…we should encourage people not to base their conclusions about God or Jesus on broad generalizations.

I am not familiar with Indian, Persian or Egyptian mythology…but I am sure that when looking at them in detail we will find that the statements made in the documentary about those mythical figures are not completely true…that generalizations have also been used in those cases to make the mythical figures seem exactly the same as Jesus… this means that you cannot trust the statements made in the video…Jesus is not a mythological figure.

There is ample historical evidence that Jesus was an actual person who lived and walked on earth 2000 years ago. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus recorded the existence of Jesus (37 A.D.), another Roman historian named Cornelius Tacitus recorded Jesus’ existence too (112 A.D). I do not think that other historians have documented the existence of Dionysius or other mythological figures; because they are mythology….but Jesus is real.

Concluding Thoughts
1 Timothy 2:5 says:

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

In John 17:21, Jesus prayed for his disciples:

“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”

Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician once said:

“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.“

It is so important for us as Christians to be aware of the value of the truth we know…and to guard it and defend it…

1 Peter 3:15 says:

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”

Jesus is real, Jesus is God and he saves…some might want to deny these facts…
We can consider ourselves warned.

Overshare!

03 Tuesday Mar 2009

Posted by biblebeans in Gerry McGovern, God, Jesus, Nicodemus

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Overshare!

Recently, I was introduced to the Sarah Silverman show (yes, I know…I don’t get comedy central in HK). Anyway, I saw the short clip of the show titled “Kickball Day” and it is HILLARIOUS…you can see clips of the show on I-Tunes or at comedycentral.com… I heard not all of them are as good as the one I saw…but as far as the Kickball episode; I totally recommend it.

On that episode, Sarah & friends have a sleepover after the Kickball day…and Sarah gets introduced to the term “overshare”. Overshare basically means that someone is sharing too much information or getting too personal in whatever they are saying. So, in certain social situations, if people want to avoid hearing some story which is either too personal or inappropriate, they are compelled to scream “overshare” and end the conversation…

In the “Kickball” episode, we get to see Sarah use the “o” word with her friends. This is my favorite part of the whole clip; it would not be nearly as funny if I told the story in detail, so you should definitely watch it for a good laugh. This is the website where you can get the link to download the episodes in I-Tunes; (http://www.truveo.com/search.php?query=sarah+silverman+plays+Kickball)

The idea of interjecting “overshare” whenever someone is giving us more information that we wanted to hear has caught up in our youth group…and has become an inside joke.

TMI

The whole “overshare” topic reminded me of an article written by Gerry McGovern titled “Information Overload: Too Much Information, Too Little Time” (http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2002/nt_2002_07_29_overload.htm). In the article, McGovern states that one of the main problems in modern society is the fact that we have so many channels fueling us information (mobile phones, TV., computers, etc.), that our capacity to process the information is not enough to keep up. According to McGovern’s calculations our brains are in a race against technology, and unfortunately we are not on the winning side…“the law of the human brain dictates that every eighteen months the amount of information we are exposed to doubles while our attention span halves.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say “overshare” in these cases??? Take time to process and analyze things before having to deal with the next batch of information??? I remember one specific case; before our final exam last semester I was sitting in an Economics class and our professor gave a review of the whole semester…he concluded the class by asking if we had any questions…*dead silence* …nobody had questions. It wasn’t that we were all geniuses and understood everything…it was just that we hadn’t had time to process the information given to us…and we didn’t even know what questions to ask!!!! We had received more information than our brains were able to handle.

Jesus and Nicodemus

The bible narrates of a similar experience faced by a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee who lived during New Testament times on the earth…one night Nicodemus sneaked out of his house in order to talk to Jesus.

John 3 says;
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
4″How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9″How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10″You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16″For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

All my life I had known the bible verse John 3:16. For evangelical Christians, this is the one bible verse that you memorize and know to locate in the bible. I also knew the story of Nicodemus by heart, but I must admit that it was only two years ago, when my husband Tim preached a sermon about this passage that I saw the context of Nicodemus’ Journey and the famous John 3:16 verse together for the first time.

During the time of Nicodemus, access to information was not as common as it is today; it was a rare commodity, reserved only for the elite. It is remarkable then that the first thing we hear Nicodemus say is “we know”… Nicodemus is no ignoramus (sorry I couldn’t resist ;P)… he was an intellectual of his time; a man trained to obtain information, to analyze it, process it and digest it. We can safely deduce that Nicodemus wouldn’t have been overwhelmed with the prospect of receiving large amounts of information (as much as it was available at the time), he was used to dealing with it.

Nicodemus expresses knowledge about Jesus, he comes to Jesus to make a statement about his stance, but Jesus responds to Nicodemus as if he had asked a question…why?

Just before starting this passage, the bible mentions that Jesus knows what goes on inside the hearts of people. The last verse of John 2 in the Amplified Version reads: “And He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man [needed no evidence from anyone about men], for He Himself knew what was in human nature. [He could read men’s hearts.]”

Jesus knew what was inside Nicodemus’ heart…he knew all the questions and uncertainties he was pondering about…In his sermon about this passage, Tim made a comment and said that if he went to a computer class, he would not know what questions to ask, because his knowledge of computers is so little that he would not even know how to ask the right questions. (He’s not that bad)….but I can totally relate; I felt the same way in the Economics class after the final exam review I was overwhelmed and couldn’t process the information enough to come up with a question… and maybe this was the case of Nicodemus, he came to Jesus, but he did not know what questions to ask, however Jesus who knew what was is in his heart answered the unexpressed questions…

God is like that… “for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” Mat 6:8.

In his answer, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be born again… the bible shows how Nicodemus was overwhelmed by this information…he asks “How can a man be born when he is old?” I guess this would’ve been the time where Sarah Silverman would’ve interjected “overshare”….

Going back to Nicodemus’ statement he said “we know”, he knew a lot of things…but he couldn’t process this one statement…why?

There is a difference between knowing and believing. Having knowledge is not the same as having a conviction of faith. The main message that Jesus is conveying to Nicodemus is that we need to be convicted, that conviction comes from seeking relationship with God and not rituals or rationalization. During Jesus’ time, most Pharisees were seeking God through rituals and reasoning the law…but now God was standing in the flesh before Nicodemus, offering him a way of finding God that he had never heard about before; through a relationship and a new birth.

Our Walk

As humans we tend to want to find formulas for everything, including God, and this was the case with Nicodemus. There are so many religions, and so many flavors of Christianity that some of us might be experiencing an information overload regarding God and faith…too much information…and I guess it would be nice if we could stop it by saying “overshare!”

The good news is that God is patient with us…he wants us to think things through…to process things. He loves us regardless of our doubts about him and is waiting for us…all the time…never tired, never angry, never bored, eager to help us process things through so that we can know him.

We are free to make up our mind, think about things and come back to him, with all of our questions, doubts and observations…he’s always there for us and knows our hearts…so never be afraid to come to him, even if you don’t quite know what to ask in his presence.

The bible tells later that Nicodemus returned home without making a clear transition from knowledge to conviction. However, later in the bible Nicodemus appears again next to Joseph from Arimatea, who was a follower of Christ. Nicodemus buys mhyrr for Jesus’ tomb…this is the task of a disciple, and Nicodemus undertakes this task. The amount of Mhyrr he buys is the amount fit for a King. So I think that through his actions Nicodemus is saying Jesus is my King, and I am his disciple…I hope for his sake.

I guess Nicodemus’ journey reflects every Christian’s faith journey; we go from knowledge to conviction, from facts to faith. The challenge is to remain flexible, because as we walk with God there is always this tendency to ritualize, and this impairs our spiritual growth. So this look at Nicodemus has not only value for those who encounter Jesus for the first time, but also for all of us, because we need to encounter Jesus afresh over and over again.

MEPHIBOSETH AND US

02 Monday Feb 2009

Posted by biblebeans in Celebrity Blogs, God, Jesus, Mephiboseth

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Do you read or write a blog? I enjoy reading blogs every once in a while…and writing them too.

I have recently seen a blog on Yahoo.com; it talks about people like Kelly Osborne, Nicole Richie and other famous and not so famous people.

What all these people have in common is not just the fact that they are celebrities, and it is not talent or accomplishments but the fact that they are the offspring of VERY, VERY accomplished individuals.

In most cases, when I read the blog I thought…”hey I did not know that John Lennon or Frank Sinatra had a son who sings too…(this might be news for you too)….

The person who writes the blog makes very harsh judgments on the talent of those people who have attempted to follow in the footsteps of their famous parents, but have fallen short of people’s expectations.…

As weird as it sounds, I enjoyed reading the blog, but my favorite part was not the blog itself, but the comments that people wrote in response…

One lady wrote that she thought that none of these ‘celebrities’ would have been there in the first place if they did not belong to the ‘family’. What family is she referring to?

Obviously the family of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, John Lennon and all those legendary figures of entertainment and music…basically she’s saying that anybody who has such powerful connections has an opportunity, and edge, an advantage that not very many “common” people have…regardless of talent.

Mephiboseth Ben Jonathan

The bible narrates a similar case of the son of someone famous and talented…we find the story of Mephiboseth in the 1st and 2nd book of Samuel. Mephiboseth was a prince; he was the son of Jonathan and the grandson of King Saul. Let’s read the story in the bible…

2 Samuel 9
David’s Kindness to Mephibosheth
1 One day David asked, “Is anyone in Saul’s family still alive—anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
2 He summoned a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul’s servants. “Are you Ziba?” the king asked.
“Yes sir, I am,” Ziba replied.
3 The king then asked him, “Is anyone still alive from Saul’s family? If so, I want to show God’s kindness to them.”
Ziba replied, “Yes, one of Jonathan’s sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet.”
2nd Samuel 4:4 (New Living Translation)
4 (Saul’s son Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth,[b] who was crippled as a child. He was five years old when the report came from Jezreel that Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle. When the child’s nurse heard the news, she picked him up and fled. But as she hurried away, she dropped him, and he became crippled.

4 “Where is he?” the king asked.
“In Lo-debar,” Ziba told him, “at the home of Makir son of Ammiel.”
5 So David sent for him and brought him from Makir’s home. 6 His name was Mephibosheth[a]; he was Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson. When he came to David, he bowed low to the ground in deep respect. David said, “Greetings, Mephibosheth.”
Mephibosheth replied, “I am your servant.”
7 “Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!”
8 Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, “Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me?”
9 Then the king summoned Saul’s servant Ziba and said, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him to produce food for your master’s household.[b] But Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, will eat here at my table.” (Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
Ziba replied, 11 “Yes, my lord the king; I am your servant, and I will do all that you have commanded.” And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David’s table,[c] like one of the king’s own sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. From then on, all the members of Ziba’s household were Mephibosheth’s servants.
13 And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king’s table.

Mephiboseth’s story would’ve fit perfectly the “infamous-celebrity-children-who-fall-short-of-their-parents-legacy” blog titled “tarnishing the family name”. Mephiboseth was a prince, however he was not living in a palace and he did not live up to the fame or talents of his father or grandfather who had been warriors and prominent people (at that time royalty was the closest thing to a celebrity).

The bible says that when David asked about Mephiboseth’s whereabouts, the answer was that he was living in a place called “lo-debar” which means “place of nought” (not means nothing by the way…I had to look it up 😉 )…so basically Mephiboseth was living in insignificance…coming from a family of kings, that is falling very short of the legacy of his predecessors who had lived in palaces and held the most powerful positions in their country at that time.

Unlike the blog titled “tarnishing the family name”, Mephiboseth’s story does not end on a negative note… The bible tells us that one day, the most important person in the nation of Israel; King David, asked an unusual question, he asked “Is there anyone still alive from Saul’s family, if so I want to show kindness to him”…This is a very unusual and almost unnatural question for a new king to ask about a previous King’s family….

In that time, whenever a new ruler (such as David) came to the power, what usually happened was that the new ruler would kill all the descendants and family of the previous ruler so as to assure that no one would try to come and take the back power. However David acted contrary to what would’ve been expected in this case….instead of pursuing Mephiboseth’s demise, he brought him to the palace and he ate at the kings table regularly says the bible.

How did this happen? If we look back at the story of David, we see that he was best friends with Jonathan…and they made a covenant, or in today’s words; a deal.

Jonathan and David

Jonathan and David’s friendship is remarkable….The loyalty that these two men promised each other goes against any common sense at that time…David and Jonathan would’ve been natural rivals…Jonathan was the natural successor of Saul for the throne of Israel, but David was the “anointed” successor for that same throne…Jonathan recognized God’s will and he did not fight it, as a matter of fact, he saved David’s life and helps him escape his father Saul putting his own life at risk….(you can read the story in 1st Samuel 20).

Years later, by helping Mephiboseth, David does the same thing for Jonathan (even after Jonathan is already dead). .

I want to draw a comparison between Mephiboseth and us, and how the fact that God is our father through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross can make our lives different for the better beyond what we could aspire or hope on our own natural resources & abilities.

First of all, the bible says that Mephiboseth circumstances crippled Mephiboseth, and his life became insignificant…

Mephiboseth was disabled, he had lost everything and because of a tragic event in his past he could not move freely, he was bound to a place, and the name of the place was lo-debar a place of nought (nothingness, zero, insignificance).

Nowadays we can find many people who are disabled, and I do not mean only people who are physically handicapped but people who might be crippled in their emotions or in their thinking. Maybe because of some loss or tragic experience in their past, they do not feel free…

To illustrate this I would like to quote the tale of the experiment with five monkeys…

Five Monkeys
It started with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, the scientist hung a banana on a string and placed a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey went to the stairs and started to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touched the stair, all the monkeys were sprayed with ice cold water. After a while, another monkey made an attempt with the same result-all the monkeys were sprayed with ice cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tried to climb the stairs, the other monkeys tried to prevent it.
As a second stage of the experiment, the scientist turned off the cold water. He also removed one monkey from the cage and replaced it with a new one. The new monkey saw the banana and tried to climb the stairs. To his surprise, all of the other monkeys attacked him. After another attempt and attack, he knew that if he tried to climb the stairs he would be assaulted.
Next, another of the original monkeys was removed and replaced with a new one. The newcomer went to the stairs and was attacked. The previous newcomer took part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
Again, the scientist replaced a third monkey with a new one. The new one went to the stairs and was attacked…
After replacing the fourth and fifth monkeys with new ones, all the monkeys that had been sprayed with cold water had been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approached the stairs. Why not? Because they were bound by negative thoughts or negative emotions…just like Mephiboseth was physically crippled by a negative incident in his past….the monkeys had been crippled emotionally by a negative incident in their past.

It is no different with the rest of us, negativity in our past can cripple us from attempting greatness in our future. Negativity takes many forms, one of them is sin. Sin cripples people, the bible says that sin ensnares us and binds us the bible describes it in Prov 5:22 and Hebrews 13.
In general a person suffering from a disability cannot change their circumstances very easily and they need external help… Mephiboseth found this valuable help through David’s fulfillment of his deal with Jonathan, his father. Even before Mephiboseth was born, Jonathan made a sacrifice and a covenant requesting that Mephiboseth be treated with “faithful love” 1 Sam. 20:15….

Christ, our Jonathan
Mephiboseth’s life went from a place of insignificance to having access to the most powerful man in Israel. Through Christ, we can also have access to God, who is ALLMIGHTY. We belong to his kingdom and to his family. The bible describes in the book of Jeremiah, and in the New Testament how God, even before we were born, has opened the doors of his kingdom to us through Jesus’ sacrifice. Just like Mephiboseth ate regularly at the King’s table, Jesus invites us to enter into a daily relationship with him.

David was eager to fulfill his promise to Jonathan…this is how the passage starts. Helping Mephiboseth was David’s initiative. Similarly, God’s help to us available through a relationship with Jesus Christ …God is eager to fulfill his promises to us, to bless us and to give us access to himself.

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