Citrus Sunrise – 1

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it. —
Pliny the Elder from Excerpt from Many Thoughts of Many Minds A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age——

When Lilly first began attending school, her mom would wake her up just before sunrise, and each morning they would watch the sky fill with color and light together. Lilly loved those moments with her mom, before anyone else was up just watching the world come alive with a different painting that only God could make every morning. She would close her eyes and smell the orange that her mom was peeling for breakfast and imagine as the sky brightened with the orange hue that the whole world was clean and fresh, that it smelled just like that orange.

Most mornings she would just sit there, watch the sun come up and bask in the glory of nature. She pictured the fantastic way that the sun came up and nature took it’s course in a dance that could only have been choreographed by something greater than herself. Something deep inside her craved the next greater glory, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what that was. In the depth of her soul, she knew it was out there: something more beautiful still than even this.

By the time Lilly was in high school her mom no longer needed to wake her up, she just instinctively arose, grabbed a cup of fresh Columbian coffee, seized a fresh orange from the fruit basket and plopped into the padded chairs in the Florida room. She knew her mom would be there soon if she wasn’t already. It is these few quiet moments they shared that had brought them so close. They would chat for a moment about life after the sun had risen while they finished their breakfast. Lilly could tell her mom anything.

It was in this room that Lilly had decided that she was going to go to pre-med. Her grades were good enough to go just about anywhere, but familial obligations and finances dictated that she stay near home. The University at Buffalo had a good reputation and the full tuition was less than her half at a fancier school where they had teased her with a scholarship that left would have left her with huge student loans. She had firmly made the decision that she would not go to a school that she did not have enough saved up to pay for. In her family, debt was likened unto being a slave; always have to work for someone or something else.

Having grown up in many ways, so differently than her peers, she often did not understand they way that they saw the world. Even her friends seemed to often express that they felt victimized by the world, felt as if so few choices were their own. A view that made no sense to Lilly, was it not true what she had always heard that life was 90% attitude and 10% what actually happened to you? This was the paradigm with which she entered her first year in a liberal arts college. In many ways more mature than those around her, but in many still lacking in understanding of how others saw and interacted with the world.

Maybe that was why Patrick held such an initial attraction for her. He seemed so knowledgeable about the world. He always knew what was going on and he definitely had an opinion about it. He wasn’t too hard on the eyes either.

Homosexuality and organ donation

A topic that I have been wanting to look at for quite a while has been that of organ donation. I wish to thoroughly look at it from all angles. I had intended to begin at the beginning and determine if donation in itself was  moral. I believe it is.  God gave us minds to think and use for the good of mankind. I was; however deterred from this initial discussion when I heard the following story.

I  was recently having a discussion with a friend about the tragic death of her husband.  He was killed in a motorcycle accident, was a known organ donor, had a signed donor card and because the practioners were not able to reach her his perfectly healthy organs went to waste.  I feel so sad. Both for her loss and for the lives that could have been saved.  As the conversation progressed she mentioned personal knowledge of a friend of hers who passed away from a blood clot. He was gay and died in the arms of a life long partner.  Upon offering his organs for donation this grieved man was told that the organs were not appropriate for donation, because the donor had had sexual relations with another man in the past five years.  Now, the argument over whether or not homosexuality is a sin should not commence here. That is  conversation for another place and time. I am looking at whether or not perfectly healthy organs should be used for donation to save lives or if they should be turned away for no other reason than that the donor was gay.

Upon looking at the issue a bit deeper this link was found.  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/414107 you may read if for yourself, but most importantly it states that while being gay does not preclude you from organ donation being gay and sexually active does. I find it terrible to think that one would rather be dead, or let someone die, than to have a gay man be a donor.  Of course, the donor must be found to have healthy disease free organs. My research on this topic has only just begun and I am looking for responsible open minded feed back.

 

More to this life

There is so much more to this life than what we see. Why is it so hard for so many to accept that our world had to have come from somewhere?  It is clear that even the most educated scientists can not answer the questions of origin. I believe that there is a great crossroad where science and religion meet. This is the place that if we can all set our preconceived notions aside and listen carefully, we might see that we have areas of truth we can build on together. This would require for everyone to be open to the idea that some of what the other side is saying may hold some truth.

It is with this in mind that I would like to address issues where biology and ethics meet.  This is known as the field of bioethics.  In the issues that mean the most when they collide with real life the answers can seem to get blurred. Right and wrong seem to overlap.  One’s over all world view will have an impact on where they land on the issues. The problem is, it is one thing to discuss an issue, it is another to live it.

Personal Responsibility

Mike Huckabee spoke of wanting to do more than continue to be poor while waiting for the government to come rescue him. I could not agree more. Having a spirit of entitlement can do nothing for this country except to hurt it.   Early in our history, it was a spirit of entitlement that caused men to believe that they had the right to force other men to work for them as slaves.   When abolitionists demanded the end of slavery, how many men said “  but, how will I run my farm without my slaves?” it is the same spirit that says “how will I have the things I want if the government doesn’t step in and help”.  Charity is important, we must help those who can not help themselves, but while we have the right to pursue any path that we would choose, while we are free from a caste system that says you can never rise above your station, we do not have the right to have everything provided for us from the government. We have the right to work, to produce, to achieve the best that we can with what we have been given.  We have the right to be treated equally, but not the right to own things we didn’t earn ourselves.  The American economy will not completely recover to be all that it can be until we understand that in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “we can not be a truly free nation, unless we are a truly moral nation”. Each person must learn a lesson from our history, and take personal responsibilty for the choices that we make.  This simple step, if taken by all Anerican’s would rectigy much of the problems that this nation faces. Health care for example, if people would take responsibility for the choices and stop trying to blame cigarette manufacturers for lung cancer, or McDonald’s for weight problems, if we would realize that these things are preventable and make better choices fewer people would need to be treated for these diseases and money could be diverted elsewhere. If Dr,’s did not fear frivolous law suits then they would not need as much insurance, and with out paying all that insurance, the Dr. could charge less in fees. We must realize that we are responsible for our own choices, and that everything we do affects those around us.  None of us live in a bubble. We are all connected and must live as such.

muslim questions -2

We started yesterday with point number one that Jesus Christ was Himself God and that he came to earth and died so that we would not have to, thus, willingly becoming our propitiation.  The next question that was asked was why does the death of Christ change things? Why does his death pay for my sin?  This question is a little tougher but, I am going to try to answer it. the Bible tells us we are slaves to sin

Romans 6:5-16

5 For if  we have become united  with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old  self  was crucified  with Him, in order that our body  of sin might be done  away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he  who has died is freed  from sin. 8 Now if  we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised  from the dead, is never to die again; death  no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead  to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign ^R in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting  the  members of your body to sin as instruments  of unrighteousness; but present  yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments  of righteousness to God. 14 For sin  shall not be  master over you, for you  are not under law but under  grace. 15 What then? Shall  we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May  it never be! 16 Do you not know  that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves  for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin  resulting  in death, or of obedience resulting  in righteousness?

So, we are slaves to sin, our nature can not help but, to sin. In OT times if a person was in debt and owed more than they could pay they would sell themselves into slavery for a period of time that they would agree covered what was owed, but if a family member had the money that family member could become the “kinsmen redeemer”. This person had to meet certian familial and financial requirements.  Leviticus 25 has a lot to say about this.  Here is where Jesus comes in – we are Spiritually poor, unable to get to God. No man can pay our debt of sin because man is sinful, the debt must be paid by someone who has known no sin. God’s plan was to come to earth as a child, thereby making us family as we all descend from Adam and Eve. his outer appearance was that of a man, he was 100% man- but, his inner Spirit was God. He was 100% God. He became our kinsmen redeemer and paid the price of death for our sin. The law has been fulfilled. He paid a debt that I could not and that He did not not owe, because he loves us, and wants to know us.

So, to you my muslim brother, we both descend from Adam and we are family. may you know all of God’s greatest blessings. I live not in fear but peace because I know that my redeemer lives and loves me.

Questions from a Muslim man

I was recently asked about how the old testiment laws given directly from God could be over ridden now. He asked how everything seemed to be worthy of ” death, death, death…” It  was and is. Our sin is deserving a death.  romans 6:23 says ” for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” . In those old testiment days the jews were instructed to regularly put thier sins onto a perfect animal, often a sheep, and then sacrifice that animal before the Lord. it comes down to the spiritual laws. God has a plan for our lives, but we can not know it because we are sinful.  You may have noticed that no one sacrifices lambs anymore. It is because the lamb of god offered a final sacrifice that covers our sins. Jesus, God with skin on, offered himself the as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. So, in this there are a few things that we need to address.

1.  Jesus was more than a man or a prophet he was God.  John 1 tells us

The Deity of Jesus Christ

¹ In  the beginning was the  Word, and the Word was with  God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All  things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the  Light of men. ⁵ The  Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend  it.

The Witness John

⁶ There came  a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so  that all might believe through him. ⁸ He  was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

⁹ There was the true Light which,  coming into the world, enlightens every man. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the  world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own,  and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children  of God, even to  those who believe in His name, ¹³ who  were born,  not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Word Made Flesh

¹⁴ And the Word became  flesh, and dwelt among us, and we  saw His glory, glory as of the  only begotten from the Father, full of grace  and truth.  ¹⁵ John testified  about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, `He who comes after me has  a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ” ¹⁶ For of His fullness  we  have all received, and grace  upon grace. ¹⁷ For the  Law was given through Moses; grace and truth  were  realized through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No  one has seen God at any time; the  only begotten God who is in  the bosom of the Father, He  has explained Him.

We are deeply loved by God, so much so, that he sent his son to earth to pay the price for our sin, so that he can know us.  When we accept the gift of forgiveness, we are presented to God as though we are worthy of knowing Him. He has become our propitiation, or covering, and he offers us freedom to live for him, apart from the law. the New Covenant goes above the law, and lifts us to personal relationship with God Himself.

Why reflecthim

My name and my goal are one and the same to reflect Him. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the light. I shall endeavor to reflect His light and speak His truth! In this world of post modernism many have lost sight of the fact that some truth is absolute.  My hope is to share my pilgramage, and challenge people to run this race well. That at the end our Lord will say,”well done, good and faithful servant”.  He is the light of the of the gospel of the glory of God, the light that will peirce the darkness of this world.

2 cor. 4:1-6 Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.