Eccl 9:13-18

One day as I was observing how wisdom fares on this earth, I saw something that made me sit up and take notice. 14 There was a small town with only a few people in it. A strong king came and mounted an attack, building trenches and attack posts around it. 15 There was a poor but wise man in that town whose wisdom saved the town, but he was promptly forgotten. (He was only a poor man, after all.)

16 All the same, I still say that wisdom is better than muscle, even though the wise poor man was treated with contempt and soon forgotten.

17 The quiet words of the wise are more effective than the ranting of a king of fools.

18 Wisdom is better than warheads, but one hothead can ruin the good earth.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Yesterday, while in class (a state of mind I put myself in to learn something from others) I was listening to the teacher explain how we are slaves to our own emotions.  He was teaching about how easily and often our minds deceive us.  Rarely do we grasp reality as reality is.  We live in a world of make believe.  He drove his point home when he used the train illustration.  You have probably heard of the train illustration before, but maybe not the whole story.

A train travels down the tracks as you stand by the switch that could redirect the train to other tracks.  Currently the switch is set to allow the train to go straight ahead.  Allowing the train to go straight ahead means the train will careen into 5 people stuck on the tracks.  If you throw the switch to divert the train it will travel down tracks that lead to only one person stuck on the tracks.  What will you do?  Will you throw the switch to divert the train?

Most likely, your brain will go to work faster than the latest computer processor and lead you to make the hard decision to throw the switch.  Slow down the processing and look at what was involved in that decision?  Think about it long enough to have something in sight, then continue on to hear the rest of the story.

Now, imagine a similar scene only this time you are not at the switch beside the tracks.  Instead, you sit on a little platform attached to the front of the train above the tracks as it travels along.  Besides you sits someone you don’t know.  Ahead of you are 5 people stuck on the tracks.  They will die unless the train stops.   You know that if you push the person sitting next to you onto the tracks he will fall under the train and activate the braking system which will bring the train to a complete stop before killing the 5 people.  What will you do?  Will you throw that person under the train?

If you are like me, an object about the size of a wrench just got lodged in the gears of your brain to bring it to a complete stop.    Why?  Why has this decision become so much more difficult to make?  More sobering than that, will more people die than need to because of it?

The point of the lesson is well taken; we are slaves, in more ways than we know, to our emotions.  As I walk out into the world today I realize more than ever that what I see, what I feel, what I taste, and what I smell is really the result of countless inept decisions like this.

I can imagine a better world; can you?  It’s not that far away is it?

God help us.

Share on Facebook ]]> http://robertcoss.com/blog/2012/05/08/12-are-you-a-slave-to-your-own-emotions-here-is-a-test/feed/ 0 http://robertcoss.com/blog/2012/05/05/the-right-wings-20-biggest-sex-hypocrites-sex-relationships-alternet/ http://robertcoss.com/blog/2012/05/05/the-right-wings-20-biggest-sex-hypocrites-sex-relationships-alternet/#comments Sat, 05 May 2012 14:10:12 +0000 Robert Coss http://robertcoss.com/blog/?p=4806 Continue reading →]]>

• Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart
• talk radio host Laura Schlessinger
• while Gingrich was lambasting Clinton
• Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana
• The Rush Limbaugh Show
• Republican Larry Craig of Idaho
• Evangelical minister Ted Haggard
• Republican Henry Hyde
• Jim Bakker
• Republican James West
• Republican Michael D. Duvall
• Bob Allen
• Tony Alamo
• Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana
• Mark Sanford
• Lou Beres
• Florida Republican Mark Foley
• Republican Roy Ashburn
• Rev. Michael Hintz

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A good and devout man arranges in his mind the things he has to do, not according to the whims of evil inclination but according to the dictates of right reason. Who is forced to struggle more than he who tries to master himself? This ought to be our purpose, then: to conquer self, to become stronger each day, to advance in virtue.  ~ Thomas a Kempis: The Imitation of Christ

The mind is such an important matter.  Think of it in this way.  A basketball player must take his body to the court to practice each day.  He runs, jumps, and shoots over and over to train his muscles to perform at their highest.  The success of the basketball traveling through the air toward the hoop is the product of all that conditioning.

Now think a thought.  Who are you?  Why are you hear?  What is the purpose of life?  Your answer to those questions, the product of your thinking, is it the result of any prior conditioning?  Can you train your mind to perform optimally?  Can you equip it so it can do the job of thinking efficiently, effectively?

You may know how to condition yourself to shoot a basketball, but do you know how to condition yourself to think a thought?

Think about it.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My idea of a slow end rather than sudden end came from my perception of what was going on in the world.  My perception, like yours, was influenced by mass media.  Normally we don’t travel the world to see firsthand what is going on.  Instead, news cameras and journalist bring to us what is happening and here lies the problem; what exactly are they reporting?

An important proverb to keep in mind goes like this.

Prov 18:17 The first to plead his case seems right, Until another comes and examines him. NASU

Since 1776 the ruling class has learned that if you want to rule over a free people you can’t do that by pointing guns at them.  More sophisticated means are in order.  If you change their perception of what is happening in the world you can direct them anywhere you want them to go; you can rule over them.  This is a lot easier to do than you may think.

“Good” news agencies today go out of their way to convince you they provide both sides of the stories but often that is not the case.  There is a good reason for this.  The number one criteria for a good news agency to stay in business in our capitalistic controlled industry is profit, not truth telling.  The question is not “have we told the truth, “ but “how many newspapers have sold.”

Such a value system that puts profit over truth telling is incapable of delivering the information needed to paint a clear picture of what is going on in the world.  Some stories are complex and don’t hold the average person’s attention.  He would never sit through the program to see all the commercials that were sold to pay for the program.  This being the case, no commercials are ever sold, and no money is ever transferred, and consequently, no program is ever provided that could help us understand what is going on in faraway distant lands.  We can just delete that piece of the puzzle that would show us what is going on in the world.

As one founder said,

“A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to Farce, or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”  ~ James Madison

God said it like this.

Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  NASU

Studies, movies, and tests have been conducted to explain this problem.  Here is an old study.

Here is where we are today.

I recently watched Wag the Dog, a movie that shows what a farce we have become.  This is frightening.

The premise is relatively simple. Only two weeks before election day, a sitting president is hit by a sex scandal. A brief dalliance with a Firefly Girl becomes public knowledge, and now his 17% lead is about to plummet. Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), one of the President’s top aides, calls in spin doctor extraordinary, Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro). Conrad goes to work immediately, deciding that the best way to get the public’s mind off the Firefly Girl is to give them something bigger to think about. “Change the story, change the lead” is his motto, so he decides to manufacture a war against Albania. Why Albania? Because the name sounds sinister and no one in the United States knows anything about the country. http://www.reelviews.net/movies/w/wag.html

Well, if you watch the movie you see Winifred’s scheme worked.  You also see what a limited view of the world the TV presents.

Tests have been administered to reveal how vulnerable we are. Follow the instructions in the next video and see how well you do.

Because of these studies, movies, and tests, I’ve removed my rose-colored glasses.

Until next time, I hope you wonder what you are missing.

No Complacency

But we need to stop here to be sure that no one is taking this as an endorsement of the present world order or, which is also wrong, an endorsement of all the acts of our government. It is true that Jesus had no room for utopias—except, of course, for the one that he himself was going to bring. But neither did he have room for complacency. On the contrary, he constantly called men to the most radical involvement with himself and in spiritual terms to the most revolutionary outlook possible.

In the spring in which Jesus Christ was crucified, the Roman authorities in Jerusalem had arrested a Zealot for his revolutionary activities. His name was Barabbas. The Bible tells us that the charge was for insurrection and murder, which means that Barabbas had been among the bands who were seeking to drive the Romans from Palestine by means of guerrilla tactics and political assassinations. He would have argued that life under Rome was oppressive. He was fighting the racism, the injustices, the militarism of the oppressors. Perhaps he was even a heroic, noble figure as men measure heroes. But he was arrested, and they locked him up.

Then there was Jesus, another man also charged with being a revolutionary. The Bible never suggests that they met. But if they had met, I imagine that Jesus would have agreed with much of what Barabbas was saying. He would have said, “Barabbas, your diagnosis of the system is right. The Romans boast of their justice; they are all for law and order. Herod was elected on that platform. But the administration of the law is corrupt, and they will prove it in a few hours by executing me. Moreover, you are also right about the Pharisees. They too are far more interested in preserving their own necks than they are about justice. Caiaphas himself said, ‘You know nothing at all. . . . It is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’ You are right. There is oppression. There is racism.

“Nevertheless, you are making one big mistake. Your diagnosis is correct, but your treatment is faulty. You are being revolutionary in your attitude to the Roman and Jewish authorities. But you are not being at all revolutionary with yourself. In fact, you are being complacent. What makes you think that the system you will set up will be any less corrupt than the system you are involved in overthrowing? What makes you think that you are any more moral than the Romans or that you would act with any less self-interest than Caiaphas? I am here to tell you that you are all corrupt. The Jew is as corrupt as the Roman. The poor man is as corrupt as the rich man. The black man is as corrupt as the white man. The slave is as corrupt as his master. Consequently, you can only change things by changing people.

“Barabbas, I have come to change people. And when I change people, these people are going to revolutionize society. They will not overthrow society, but wherever they can they will attempt to set the systems of this world right.”

This, of course, is where the cleansing of the temple comes in. John tells us, “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me’” (John 2:13-17). Jesus did not seek to eliminate temple worship. He sought to reform it. In other words, within the sphere of his influence he worked to transform what was into what it always should have been.

Such people are dangerous. They will either be loved or hated. In Christ’s day most of the world turned from this all-demanding, revolutionary type of commitment. Pilate addressed them and asked, “Whom should I release to you? Jesus or Barabbas?” They answered, “Barabbas.” Why should they have asked for Barabbas—Barabbas, the man who was going to burn their houses down and destroy the system? Tom Skinner, who tells this story in his book Words of Revolution, says: “It’s very simple. If you let Barabbas go, and he starts another disturbance or another riot, you can always call out the National Guard, the Federal troops or the Marines to put his thing down. All you have to do is push a few tanks into his neighborhood and you can squash whatever he’s up to. You can find out where he’s keeping his guns and raid his apartment. You can always stop Barabbas. But the question is: how do you stop Jesus? How do you stop a Man who has no guns, no tanks, no ammunition, but still is shaking the whole Roman empire? How do you stop a Man, who—without firing a shot—is getting revolutionary results? They figured there’s only one answer—get rid of Him. . . .

“Barabbas would never really ask to run your life. Barabbas would exploit you, but he wouldn’t ask to run your life. Jesus would ask to run your life. Jesus would ask for the right to rule over you! And that’s the problem. Men would rather be enslaved to tyranny than let Jesus rule their lives. They would rather be exploited than let Christ determine their lives. So they said, ‘Give us Barabbas.’”

The Call

It is the same today. Is Jesus Christ a revolutionary? No, he is not. He was executed wrongly on that count. And yet, like all revolutionary leaders, he demands the utmost of involvement, love, and self-sacrifice from his followers. Jesus did not offer a life of ease. Like Churchill, he offered men blood, tears, toil, and sweat. He told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24). He demanded their all! There were few to follow him.

Will you dare to follow him? It is worth reflecting on who it was who first responded to his teaching. There were establishment figures as well as Zealots—that did not seem to matter—but there were few of the soft, well-heeled figures of southern Palestine. There were not many priests, not many rulers. The ones who followed him were the vigorous, rough-speaking fishermen types from Galilee. For they had the courage, and they were not afraid to be despised for being different. Have you that courage? Jesus will not ask you either to defend the status quo or to overthrow it. But he will give a new perspective. He will make you a new man or woman, capable of radical obedience within the bounds of true Christianity.

(from Boice Expositional Commentaries, Copyright © by James Montgomery Boice, Baker Books.)

_________________

No Utopias

The first point we need to see then is that whatever the cleansing of the temple may or may not have been about, it was definitely not an attempt to set up an earthly kingdom viewed as a utopia. That was the goal of the revolutionaries, but it was not Christ’s goal. In fact, if it was, it was most unsuccessful. A revolt did not come from it; and, what is more, the effects were even of short duration, for the other Gospels tell us that Jesus found it necessary to repeat the same cleansing again three years later near the end of his ministry (Matt 21:12,13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45,46). Actually, if we are to take his saying about the destruction of the temple with all seriousness (Mark 13:2), it would be most accurate to say that Jesus did not attribute eternal worth to any existing institutions, even the temple and the temple worship. For in his view all belonged to the old order that would one day come under judgment and pass away.

This truth has several important conclusions that flow from it, and we should not miss them. First, it is obviously wrong for us to deify anything human. This applies to democratic institutions as well as to those of socialism or communism. Consequently, we must not make the mistake some Americans make of identifying the American way of life or the American form of government with Christianity. The American way of life may have its good aspects (as well as its bad), some of them derived from Christianity, but America is not in itself God’s kingdom.

Second, the followers of Christ are also not to take it into their hands to pronounce judgment upon their rulers. Judgment will be executed, but God alone is capable of such justice. Consequently, in speaking of the turmoil that would take place at the end times, Jesus warned his disciples to flee from Jerusalem rather than to join in insurrections (Matt 24:15-26). For us this means that Christians are not to take part in movements that are attempting to destroy the system.

The third conclusion is that, in the time prior to the final judgment, the state even in the hands of corrupt rulers will have a proper role. Jesus illustrated this most clearly in the story of the tribute money. One of the political parties of the day, the Herodians, had come to Jesus with a question meant to trap him into a fatal admission. They asked, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Matt 22:17). In other words, should a loyal Jew pay taxes? If Jesus said yes, he would be despised by a large section of the people, particularly the Zealots, for whom this was a point of patriotic zeal and religious honor. He would cease to be a leader. On the other hand, if he said no, then he could be denounced to the Roman authorities as an insurrectionist. What did he do? Jesus took a coin, and after pointing out that Caesar’s image was on one side, he replied, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (v. 21).

There were some, no doubt, who took this reply as a compromise. There were some who accused him because of it, for it was brought up against him at his trial before Pilate: “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king” (Luke 23:2). Nevertheless, this was not Christ’s teaching, Jesus acknowledged the absolute authority of God. He taught that all human institutions would one day be brought under judgment and pass away. Nevertheless, there was still a proper role for the state and a proper duty toward it. One of these duties was to pay taxes.

We may apply this point by saying that withholding taxes on the grounds that much of the tax money goes for the military is not a justifiably Christian form of social protest.

(from Boice Expositional Commentaries, Copyright © by James Montgomery Boice, Baker Books.)

Next…

No Complacency

_________________

Pros and Cons

One of the most valuable of the recent books on this subject is a highly condensed monograph by Oscar Cullmann, recently of the universities of Basel and Paris, entitled Jesus and the Revolutionaries. In it he points out the complexity of the issues.

On the one hand, notes Cullmann, there are certainly elements in Christ’s sayings that allow some radicals to see him as their ally. In Christ’s day in Israel there were men known as Zealots (from the Greek word zelos, meaning “zeal”). The Zealots were fanatical in their concern for Jewish law and in their expectation of the imminent dawning of the kingdom of God. Many carried swords or daggers that were frequently used in political killings. Hence they were also called Sicarii, which is a Latin term meaning “cut-throats” or “assassins.” In time the Zealots produced a politico-religious revolt that led to the Jewish war against the Romans beginning in  A.D. 66. As a result of this war Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman general Titus in  A.D. 70. After the fall of Jerusalem one Zealot group continued the resistance until  A.D. 74 in the mountain stronghold of Masada, which is a shrine today.

Against this background there are certain elements that have led some scholars to see Christ in this coloring. Jesus, as well as the Zealots, proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand. Jesus was critical of Herod, whom he called “that fox” (Luke 13:32). He was executed officially for his alleged Zealot activities (Matt 27:37). He had among his disciples at least one, Simon the Zealot, who had been a member of a Zealot group before he became Christ’s follower. Some of the disciples carried swords (Luke 22:38; John 18:10). And, most striking of all, in the passage that is the basis of our study, we are told that he cleansed the temple in Jerusalem in the midst of the very volatile days of the Passover. Many in his day, as well as in ours, would have considered this the act of an agitator.

On the other hand, as Cullmann also points out, there are elements that reveal Jesus to be the opponent of every act of political resistance and all acts of violence. To begin with, there are the sayings on behalf of nonviolence (Matt 5:39; 26:52). There are the exhortations to love our enemies (Matt 5:44). Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they [not the Zealots] will be called sons of God” (Matt 5:9). On several occasions Jesus repudiated any political elements in his divine mission, principally when he was tempted by the devil (Matt 4:8-10) and when he was tried before Pilate (John 18:36). Moreover, if some still cite the presence of a Zealot among his disciples, it must be pointed out that this is an argument that cuts both ways. For Jesus also had Matthew, a tax collector, and it is hard to find a greater representative of the establishment than that.

When we put all these texts (not just some) into the picture, we find a Jesus who goes beyond either of these two categories. And we are led to ask: What are his distinctive teachings? And, if it is true in one sense that he does call us to a revolutionary commitment, to what kind of a revolution does he call us?

(from Boice Expositional Commentaries, Copyright © by James Montgomery Boice, Baker Books.)

Next…

No Utopias

_________________