Shalom

Most know that the Hebrew word shalom is universally understood to mean "peace." However, "peace", or freedom from warfare, is only one small part of the meaning . "Shalom" is used to both greet people and to bid them farewell, and it means much more than "peace, hello or goodbye"....According to Strong's Concordance Shalom also means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. Shalom comes from the root verb shalom meaning to be complete, perfect and full.  When Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” John 14:27, he was blessing us with everything that we could ever need.  All things physical, mental, financial and spiritual would be taken care of.

 We don’t bless people very much anymore, probably only when someone sneezes, but we should.  Proverbs 18:21 tells us there is life or death in the power of the tongue. Therefore, whenever you employ the word "shalom" you are speaking into someone's life all the wonderful things that shalom means! Why not begin today to think in terms of passing along God’s goodness, bless someone. Shalom my dear friends!!

A Color-filled Life

As you know, I’ve been thinking about creation and the origin of man lately.  No atheist has ever adequately answered some of my queries.  For example, did male and female slither out of the same primordial ooze?  If not, whomever came first must have had to wait an awfully long time to reproduce.  And what about emotions?  If we are simply animated piles of matter, why would emotions be necessary?  Instead, like an artist’s  palette, human emotions run the gamut from maudlin hues of grey and black, to jubilant shades of fuchsia and gold.  Why?

At times like this, God directs me to his word, yet again!  Right there in Genesis he reminds me that all of us are made in his image. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Genesis 1:26.  Those of you who doubt the existence of a Creator might want to leave at this point, but hear me out.  If we believe that we are created in the image of our Creator, what does that imply?  God is spirit and is not limited to a physical body, hence what he passes on to us in his DNA, is our soul comprised of his emotions, so to speak.  Check it out.  From what I read, God not only has the ability to empathize with us, he literally shares in our feelings since they were His to begin with.

Go ahead, select any color from the spiritual palette and you’ll find scripture backing this claim up.  Let’s look at sorrow or grief, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” Ephesians 4:30. Paul warns us that God’s Holy Spirit can be grieved, especially by our actions and choices.  In another section we see Jesus weeping over the death of Lazarus, and the fate of Jerusalem. Sounds like emotion to me.  How about love, “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. He loved us first, what’s so hard to understand about that?  I dare you to pick any color, from anger through jealousy to delight and satisfaction, and not find a corresponding passage.  The Creator’s image is so evident in His prize creation, us!!  As we allow him to work with those colors in our lives,  and we don’t dwell solely on the darker hues, the beauty of God will shine through in the masterpiece that is our life in Him. “For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10.

                                 

Non-stop Flight

I’ve been trying to book a January vacation to Cancun, and have been searching for a non-stop flight.  In my opinion, non-stop is the only way to go.  No worries about missing a connecting flight, lost luggage or other problems that accompany multi-stop voyages.  I’m so sold on non-stop, that cheapskate me is willing to pay the extra cost that accompanies it.  While there may be those who like checking out other airports, I know that any additional layovers can lead to problems, and keep me from reaching my goal of being on the beach in less than 4 hours from St. Louis.  Believe me, I speak from experience.

 There are plenty of options to choose on Orbitz, Expedia or any of the other travel sites.  They tease you with cheap package prices, but you have to look closely to see why.  It can be less expensive because the flight takes 23 hours, and you lose a whole day of sunshine and all-inclusive living!

 Thomas, he of doubting fame, had the opportunity to question Jesus about the non-stop, one way to heaven.  Jesus had just told the disciples that he was going to be leaving soon to prepare a place for them.  Thomas wasn’t sure where this place was, nor how to access it from the Jerusalem airport, so “Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:5-6.  In essence Jesus was telling Thomas, and all of us in turn, that the only sure way to the quintessential all-inclusive, Heaven, is through him. The most perfect non-stop, one way flight we will ever book.

Sure, the world offers us endless options, but when you check into them closer you’ll discover the convoluted, out of the way path they will take you on, only to arrive at the wrong place.  Trust Jesus on this one, no matter what good-sounding deals you may come across, and best of all the fare has already been paid for you!

I Am Complete

Earlier this summer, my husband and I took our two oldest grandkids, Ty and Ella, on a road trip.  We traveled down to Paducah, KY making stops along the way. While passing though Metropolis, IL, Ty spied this phone booth-looking thing.  He kept yelling excitedly that it was a TARDIS. Never having heard the term, I thought he said tortoise…silly me.  In actuality a TARDIS, which stands for, Time and Relative Dimension in Space, is a sort of time machine/spaceship found in the British Dr. Who series.  Ty is a fan, needless to say.  We turned around and I snapped a picture.  He was thrilled, but really wanted a TARDIS of his own, who wouldn’t?  We couldn’t find one, but on my trip to England in September, I happened to find a shirt and a pen with a TARDIS on it.  As he tore through his bag of goodies we brought home, he came to the shirt.  It was a bit too small, but no matter, he put it on over the one he was wearing, and was about to burst with joy, when I told him to dig deeper in the bag.  Pulling out candy bars and socks he uncovered the TARDIS pen.  Dramatically he withdrew the precious item and held it up proudly announcing to us all that, “Now I am complete!”  I had to laugh at this typical Ty response, but it got me thinking about what makes us COMPLETE.  

Ty’s 10 year old self was indeed serious about being made complete, but give him another month and he‘ll need something else to fulfill him.  What about you?  Is there something that you yearn for, the thing that you are certain will fill that empty void and make you whole?  We‘ve all sought after our own TARDIS, only to find that when we have it in our possession, it never quite fills that need completely. So then, what will truly complete us?  It‘s pretty obvious where I‘m going with this, it is a relationship with the one who created that empty spot in the first place.  I don‘t mean trying to adhere to religious rules, doing good deeds, or even church attendance, but entering into a life-altering relationship with God.  Believe me you will know when you are there, have no doubts about it.  But maybe you have doubts, are you still seeking the elusive TARDIS?  Well search no more.  The apostle Paul knew that perishable, human stuff would never satisfy or complete us, and he wrote this to the church at Colossi, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” Colossians 2:9-10.  Do you have questions?  Let me know, or start reading the scriptures and ask God to reveal his TARDIS, then you will be able to say, "I am Complete!"

Whitewashed Tombs

“You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.” Matthew 23:27.  While visiting Paris a few years ago, we decided to make a trek to the cemetery where Jim Morrison, of the Doors, was buried.  It was a huge place, and a gorgeous early Spring, Parisian day.  We passed tomb after tomb, most were neatly maintained, some even had little rooms which held chairs, presumably so visitors could sit and visit with the deceased.

As lovely as the surroundings were on the exterior, it was still a place that held corpses within.  Jesus pulled no punches when he told a gathering of  Pharisees that they were hypocrites and liars.  They professed one thing on the outside; learned, religious, white-washed scholars, but on the inside they were nothing more than unclean, dead bones. Yuck!  No matter how nice we make ourselves and our churches look outwardly, if we don’t have the life and joy of Christ within, we’re dead.  "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Ephesians 5:14.

Freedom from the Extra-Biblical

The main source of criticism, that Jesus faced, came from the Pharisees.  As you recall, the Pharisees were members of a sect of highly educated, super "religious"  Jewish men.  So then, what was the problem?  It emerged when their strict observance of the Law, crossed over into legalism.  Legalism, takes observance to a new level, one that is based on adhering to the letter of the law, rather than the spirit.  That in itself isn’t the issue either, if one wants to be uber-scrupulous, so be it.  As an example, the Ten Commandments stated that one was to refrain from work on the Sabbath.  It was then left up to everyone’s individual interpretation of what work was.  Well meaning rabbis and scholars, who felt it was their responsibility to fill in that blank, began  adding all kinds of codicils and amendments to the existing law.  They decided, for example, that digging a hole to put a plant in, on the Sabbath, was work. .  But then they thought about it some more and added that you couldn’t spit either because that might make a dent in the earth which could be considered a hole.  On and on it went covering every aspect of the Law, until it became humanly impossible to fulfill this new extra, hyped-up Law.

If the Pharisees had wanted to follow this on their own, OK, but they held everyone to it, and judged others by their compliance or lack of it.  When Jesus came on the scene, he who had spent his life adhering to the Law, began deviating from the extra-legal.  This set the scene for confrontation.  The Pharisees not only began picking on his behavior, but worse yet, they judged him on it. It was a no-win scenario, for Jesus, from that point on.

 Let’s agree that the Law itself was never the problem.  We still need laws and rules, in society and as people of faith.  The Bible contains rules which are meant to call believers to accountability, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Without them there would be chaos and anarchy.  Not unlike the Pharisees of old, we have churches and people who have added extra-Biblical regulations to God’s word.  Regulations covering everything from what to eat, how to dress, baptism, and when and how often you should attend church.   And like those “religious” guys of yesteryear, they are always judging others according to these man-made elements.  This is nothing new, and Paul addressed it the church this was. “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Colossians 2:20-23.

 I think part of the reason there is so little passion for God in the church today is because people are too busy adhering to extra-Biblical “stuff, and not seeking relationship with Him. Are you feeling trapped in a sticky web of  judgmental laws?  You shouldn’t, that’s one of the main goals Jesus had in his ministry. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17.  His sacrifice fulfilled all law, remember that, and you will be on the road to freedom. " So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:36

Give Credit, Where Credit is Due

During one of my pondering on the origins of the universe sessions, I decided to do some Googling.  The first thing I looked up were some statements made by renowned scientists on the subject.  These uber-intellects were asked to expound on their personal opinion of creation and the participation of God, if any, in said process.  Here are a couple of them, look for the common thread.  “When people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the big bang, so there is no time for god to make the universe in. It’s like asking directions to the edge of the earth; The Earth is a sphere; it doesn’t have an edge; so looking for it is a futile exercise. We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no god. No one created our universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization; There is PROBABLY no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.” Stephen Hawking. Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)"Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time."

Hawking, in his “profound realization” says “there is PROBABLY no heaven or afterlife, and Asimov informs us that he doesn’t have the evidence to disprove God.  Even though these two men call themselves atheists, the door to belief is left open just a crack.  Why didn’t they just come out and say that the whole God/Intelligent designer notion was hogwash?  Because they can’t.  Hawking even uses the term “Grand Design” to describe the universe, when in the sentence before he said that no one had created it. Design, to me, implies a designer.

In contrast to these Nobel prize winners, my brain is miniscule, but how is it possible that they can, with a straight face, believe that there was never a blueprint for creation.  I think the problem lies in the fact that many learned individuals want everything to line up in concise, provable fashion. Creation is so far beyond human understanding that not even these geniuses can explain it fully.  It must be so frustrating to them not to be able to figure it out completely, and even more frustrating to allow for the theory of a supernatural, god-created universe.  It would be admitting defeat to say that someone or something could have been responsible.

 While there continues to be a rift between creationists and scientists, there are and have been those, who, without going so far as saying they believe in God, do give credit to an unseen force.  Sir Fred Hoyle, from whose writings the term Big Bang originated, wrote this; “Once we see, however, that the probability of life originating at random is so utterly miniscule as to make it absurd, it becomes sensible to think that the favorable properties of physics on which life depends are in every respect deliberate ... . It is therefore almost inevitable that our own measure of intelligence must reflect ... higher intelligences ... even to the limit of God ... such a theory is so obvious that one wonders why it is not widely accepted as being self-evident. The reasons are psychological rather than scientific.” This last one sums it up for me. American biochemist and science fiction writer Walter Kohn (1923-)"I am very much a scientist, and so I naturally have thought about religion also through the eyes of a scientist. When I do that, I see religion not denominationally, but in a more, let us say, deistic sense. I have been influenced in my thinking by the writing of Einstein who has made remarks to the effect that when he contemplated the world he sensed an underlying Force much greater than any human force. I feel very much the same. There is a sense of awe, a sense of reverence and great mystery.”

That sense of awe found in the magnificence and complexity of creation is undeniable, even to unbelievers. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20.   King David, who might have been a Nobel Prize winner, said this: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Psalm 53:1.   Science and God need not be at war, but let’s give credit, where credit is due.

Garden of the "God(s)" in southern Illinois