MacBeth: "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more."
Enter stage left...
You may be part of the prop crew.
You may sing in the chorus.
You may be part of the mob scene.
But few of us have main speaking parts, and few of us have a solo to sing.
We play our part and exit stage right.
But in any event, we are not the author of the play.
Toward the end of the play we may plaintively say, "Backward, turn backward, O time, in your flight; make me a child again just for tonight!" (Elizabeth Akers Allen)
I read years ago in the writings of Marcus Aurelius that "there are those who muddy the waters and call it clear thinking."
William of Ockham said, "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily."
A popular program used to say - "Return with me to the days of yesteryear..."
Turn back to a simpler, lovelier, more satisfying moment in time. Do you remember the warmth in your heart, when in a time gone by you came to have a simple faith and trust in Jesus? It's a child's faith - something we now find difficult to recapture. We were naive back then - we were not yet hardened by disappointments, lies, broken promises. Now we know better!
Do you ever really wish you could go back to the time when you could really believe?
Theology (doctrine of God; science of God) entered the picture. It's like not eating an apple but you look at it and study it. It's like studying about who and what a mother is but never experiencing the love and warmth of a mother. It's the tangibility of having a mother to wrap her arms about you and you just about disappear. (Skinny mamas can't do that!)
We have libraries full of books describing God: dissecting, diluting, analyzing, comparing, etc. It's dusty, myopic, splitting headache exegesis. But it's like being hugged by a skeleton!
Rollo May wrote of some who will be judged and condemned for "over simplifying." Theologians will never have that charged against them. They will be charged with "over confusing."
We didn't need a definition of Jesus - we just needed Jesus! We don't get a lot of help from talking about the word "love." We just need to experience love!
There is so much arrogant pomposity within our churches. Some who feel that all the centuries culminate in their arrival on earth. To them God may ask, as He did of Job - "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Then he asked question after rhetorical question - no answer was given and none was expected.
Then "Will you condemn me, that you might be righteous?"
Job -
"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees you. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Before the throne of God there is no place for arrogance; no place for one-upsmanship; no place to force one's way to a place of prominence.
It's really a great place for an experience of humility. "I am not worthy the last of His favors; but Jesus left heaven for me. Jesus left heaven to die in my place, What mercy, what love and what grace."
There are people to whom we are drawn - their looks are imposing; they are physically attractive; and they give off an impression of maturity and grace. Until they open their mouths and begin to talk! The words are harsh and judgmental; their tone is shrill, withering and carping. One is caused to shrink back.
Proverbs 23:6-7
"Eat though not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty means: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee."
We have all heard words within the walls of God's house that should never have been spoken. Hard, hurtful, judgmental words. Words never inspired by God.
But you see, and of this the speaker should be aware, words are the door, the window, to the mind and to the heart. More is revealed in a word - when and how spoken - than one would ever want revealed.
We have all experienced the feeling that another one's words do not convey as truthfully as the nonverbal: the eye, the face, the stance/posture, the complexion. Did you ever have someone shake your hand and say a word but you picked up a totally different message from the non-verbals they conveyed?
Christians, let your words be SIN-CERE. The word “sincere” comes from the Latin words sine cera, which means “without wax”. The phrase comes from a practice where people would hide the cracks in cheap pottery with wax in order to pass the pottery off as being worth more than it actually was. Quality products were often stamped with the words sine cera to show it had not be doctored. It would be similar to those products today that are stamped, “all natural” or “100% pure”. We, as Christians, are to love in a way that is pure and genuine.
Have you ever heard a sermon and gone up to shake the preacher's hand and tell him how much it spoke to you only to get out to your car and start picking the message and/or the presentation apart? I have been guilty of that myself. I’m embarrassed and ashamed of the fact that my love was not sincere . . . it was filled with wax! I feigned love on the outside but I was savage and unloving on the inside! We are skilled at duplicity.
First, we must focus on the truth of the gospel. It is only as we come to see the love of God for us that we will be able to love each other. As we come to understand that God loves us not because of our achievements, possessions or titles but because of who we are, we will experience true love. When we are secure in God’s love, we will find that we are better able to love others.
The Lord knows our hearts. He knows how we think and what we cherish. He knows the desires we put before him. Jesus loves us with a Love that never stops: he only wants us to love him back in return. Turn back to your first love, to the one who knows and loves you best.
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