"You are really tempting God..."

Luke 14:11 "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

This verse was our text today.
Seems pretty harmless.

At least until you begin to listen to the speaker giving a handful of children an example of being humbled: "Say someone needs a fire lit. And you jump in there and say 'Oh, I'm a great fire-starter!'....you are really tempting God to put a rainstorm right over your head..."

God is a being with superpowers who is out to squash big egos.
In fact, He enjoys it!

We ended with this verse:

(I Pet. 5:5) All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Which, although it seems straightforward, was made to sound very condemning to any who were not being humble--in obeying their authority figures...

As yet untitled:

11/25/2008



My choice, my consequence,
My destiny
Molded by the hands which created
And love me

My life, my heart to You
Alone belong
Every tremoring, numbered heartbeat
Of my life’s song

At night to You I cry
My heart’s desire
Must be You, and You alone, O Lord
Your consuming fire

Purify me, burn away
All my dross
Let my heart seek and look only for
The foot of Your cross.

*Note: Inspired….slowly, but definitely. The last four lines, for sure!

Another poem

Every day I wait for the part to come in the mail in order to fix my computer...and it still has not come.

So, I think I shall post this poem. My original intent was THE "Defrauding Daughters" essay that I wrote last year...but it is still on my other computer....

07.23.09

Pain

No, NO! I cannot stand
The hypocrisy—the reprimand
The self-conceit—the pride
Of which she accuses me—
Oh, can’t she see?
Can’t she see!

There I sit ashamed
That I cannot stand and take it
and That I cannot hit her back.
I hate and curse and bleed
Inside where she cannot see

Forgive?
The dried blood sticks
I hate to pick my scars
I scorn with sarcasm, iron thick,
No one can pierce again to harm.

They say life is pain
An imbecile, I say
Sits around accepting
All and any pain
Others deign to send his way.

For me there is no solace
Between the knives and the wall
Of brick that surrounds
My life, the seconds tick
It quickly ebbs away.

For All My Sisters

Healing Is Slow (Inspired by the Quivering Daughters Blog)
written 1/10/2010

Careful please! I am healing
And healing comes slow,
Little by little the wounds close
Till scabs are all that show

Underneath, the flowing blood
Little by little brings--
Enough strength to knit together
The torn and fragile inner things.

A tender bruise remains
Much longer stays the scar;
A frank, jarring memory--
But time has brought me far.

They say there is a reason
For everything that happens.
In waiting, I hope to find it
But (you know) healing comes slow.

Perhaps some day I'll look back
And understand the "whys".
But for now I'm healing
And tears still fill my eyes.

Not a grandchild

I almost considered calling this blog "Not a Grandchild" after the somewhat repeated saying: "God has no grandchildren". I have a post being written out, but it is through open office, and that isn't installed on this computer.

I never really thought much about the saying, because I never understood the implications.
I am sure all of us have heard (John 14:6):
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

But how many times has this been applied in family situations? While the man is the head of the woman, is the father a priest to his children? Or are they allowed to boldly approach the throne of grace on their own merits?
God has no grandchildren

It takes a piece of You too...

Makin' a list of all of the good things you've done for me.
Lord, I've never been one to complain.
But, right now I'm lost, and I can't find my way.
My world's come apart, and it's breakin' my heart.
But it helps to know; Your heart is breaking too.

When I cry, You cry. When I hurt, You hurt.
When I've lost someone, it takes a piece of You too.
When I fall on my face, You fill me with grace.
'Cause nothing breaks Your heart, or tears You apart
Like when I cry.

Alone in the dark, face in my hands, cryin' out to You.
Lord, there's never been a time in my life,
There's so much at stake, there's so much to lose.
But I trust it to You. You'll bring me through.
And it helps me to know that I'm not alone.

When I cry, You cry. When I hurt, You hurt.
When I've lost someone, it takes a piece of You too.
When I fall on my face, You fill me with grace.
'Cause nothing breaks Your heart, or tears You apart
Like when I cry.

You're the one who calmed the raging sea.
You're the one who made the blind to see.
You looked through all of heaven and eternity,
And through it all you saw me.

When I cry, You cry. When I hurt, You hurt.
When I've lost someone, it takes a piece of You too.
And when I fall on my face, You fill me with grace.
Nothing breaks Your heart, or tears You apart
Like when I cry.

(bold is my emphasis)

Divine Patriarchy

The Divine Right of Patriarchy:

For thousands of years, rulers have claimed for themselves the divine right of kingship.
Wikipedia defines it thus:

“The Divine Right of Kings is a political and religious doctrine of royal absolutism. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, including the church. The doctrine implies that any attempt to depose the king or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute heresy.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings)

You may be familiar with the fact that the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs claimed to be the human form of the Sun God Ra, on earth. They were, then, not only worshipped by the people they ruled, but all their decisions were automatically what was best for (and in the best interest of) the people and the land of Egypt. The priests, as guardians of religion and all religious matters, worshipped the Pharaoh and previous pharaohs who were now united with their brothers in heaven.
This tradition continued through the ages, in the Sumerian and Assyrian kingdoms, all the way to the kings of France and England.

Replace the word “king” and “monarch” with father, and there you have the tenants of Patriarchy. A Patriarchal father, no matter what personal faults or weaknesses he may have, has a divine right to rule as he sees fit. Whatever mistakes or oversights might come from this scenario are the will of God as well, and the faithful under him will be protected by obedience and service. The ones who expatriate themselves are seen as heretics, ungrateful, undutiful to the will of both their god and their god’s servant, the father.

I believe that the reason this doctrine held sway for so long was (first) the willingness of the clergy to live easy (ie, be given food, houses, land, bribes, etc) for supporting the Kings in their deception. True, some probably believed the King was divine, but they were surely a rarity. Second, large masses of illiterate and uneducated people could by no means think logically, and were probably not in a position to see the faults of their ruler or be able to spread dissent easily. The invention of the printing press, and the progress in literacy helped many people unmask their king as a human being just like them, as well as spreading the winds of freedom, individual rights, and democracy to others.


Much like the self-centered and proud rulers of centuries, many patriarchal fathers have left their role as shepherds to become kings over the kingdom of their families. All decisions and issues must come through them for review. Dissent and disagreement are immediately labeled as rebellion (remember, as the sin of witchcraft! Burning at the stake!) and equated with dissent against God. Many times unhappy subjects are told to pray that God will change the heart or circumstances of whatever they don’t want or agree with.

The power of lies are in their secrecy. If ever someone thinks: “I am the only person on the face of this earth who feels this way…”, they will never speak up, they will never rebel. They will convince themselves that they are a misfit and strive to fit in and live as best they can with the situation.

Perhaps the only ways of breaking down the system is (a) breakdown in the status of those who are profiting from the system, or (b) publishing the truth, and educating people as to the true matter of things.

Sojourner's Song

Buddy Greene's masterpeice.
Unfortunately, the first few words of the song are garbled.
It begins: "It's not home, when..."