The Scientific Method: Eat the meat, Spit Out The Bones!

The way we are taught in middle school science class to see if something is true is to say is it repeatable? That is can it be reproduced again and again with the same results?  And if it can, then it must be true.  Any good scientist if he wants to make it into the Journal of Scientific American and be published ( with honor) knows this.  He would not even attempt a lie, a falsity because he knows he could have his life's works de-bunked.  And this has happened to those who have tried to cut corners!  Remember back few years when fussion was supposedly accomplished in a rather simple experiment, but could not be reproduced again by others?
     In 1989 Martin Fleischmann (then one of the world's leading electrochemists) and Stanley Pons reported that their apparatus had produced anomalous heat ("excess heat"), of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes.^[1] They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium.^[2] The small tabletop experiment involved electrolysis of heavy water on the surface of apalladium (Pd) electrode.^[3] The reported results received wide media attention,^[3] and raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy.^[4]

Many scientists tried to replicate the experiment with the few details available. Hopes fell with the large number of negative replications, the withdrawal of many positive replications, the discovery of flaws and sources of experimental error in the original experiment, and finally the discovery that Fleischmann and Pons had not actually detected nuclear reaction byproducts.^[5] By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead,^[6][7] and cold fusion subsequently gained a reputation as pathological science.^[8][

     So if we apply this same methodology to say Christianity and Jesus....what do we find? Did in fact Jesus die? Yes we have record, but no body, bones etc.  Did he have witnesses? Yes, many say they saw him alive again after his death on the cross.  Can we believe it?  We choose to or not too, based upon what....reasonable and logical thinking that others have and we also have proven it true or not.  I would not continue to believe in something like as those scientists that proved failure, if something were not reasonable and true.  So, can we reproduce today the same things the Apostles did when they first believed the resurrection of Christ?  And if so, was there in fact a Holy Spirit, (though invisible) that was receivable in a tangible way so as to recognize that it would have to be of origin of another place ( as Christ's stated fact that he was not of this world). Paul the Apostle of Christ and a missionary to the Gentiles would have us believe so.  Here was a man trained from his youth and taught of from the very best  minds of his day to believe in and refute any lie of his day concerning false doctrine or blasphemy of and concerning his God.  What happend to him?
     He was changed.......Here was a man eating the best "meat" of his day but was forced to reject it or "spit out the bones" so to speak, and start anew in a belief that he was wrong all along and had persecuted the ones who chose to believe in a God (Jesus)( he was the one they were waiting for) who had indeed come to earth to share good news about a kingdom to be had here and now.  A spiritual one.  One that was reproducable again and again by the same methods, observeable by those with eyes to see.  Or those who were no longer closed to facts played out in front of them.
    Let's take for instance the reproduceable nature of the Holy Spirit.....Can it be received? Yes, according to scripture with the laying on of hands and prayer.  Did it happen?  On Pentecost it made those who gathered to hear Peter hear each one in his own accord hear the same thing though many different nationalities were present.  How they said was this possible?  By the infilling nature of what Jesus talked about during his earthly ministry.  He told those who followed him to wait for the comforter. (Spirit) that was to be poured out.  And it was.  When Paul traveled on his missionary journeys he met those who believed but had not yet received the Spirit.(Acts 19:2 )  and he layed hands on them and they also received.  Simon a sorcerer was once a follower because he saw the many signs the Apostles performed which were obviously visible in nature but was rebuked by Paul because he missed the truth to what was happening.  Money could not purchase the Holy Spirit.  So in the self same way we observe, define, propose a hypothesis, gather evidence, reject or retain the information found and  develop  it  further to see if truth is there.  Same as science.  Paul was no slacker in logical thinking.  Remember he met the most intelligent minds of his day, in Athens...intellectuals who were heavy hitters and who tried repeatedly to debunk his preaching.  Festus to whom Paul appeared to before being handed over to Caesar accused him of being mad (" much learning has made you mad.")  Festus replied in as much to say would you convert me?  Paul said, I would have everyone be as me. Why not? Giving up, murder, persecution, slander, and imprisoning  others for the sake of belief in a God, what's wrong with that?  Absolutely nothing.   So we all choose in some way or another when we hear of impossible things of a faith nature. We must be like a Paul, re-think and reason with what God has indeed given us, a mind to sort through the mud, and eat the meat.....spit out the bones!

Destroying The Destroyer!

     Is he killing you softly with his song?  With his words?  Remember the old song (Roberta Flack in the seventies?)  Or is he killing you outright?  With death, destruction and violence and disease?  Aren't these things the very things we see boiling like a caluldron before us daily?  Are we seeing with our eyes and tasting with our souls and spirits and it is more than enough to make you sick inside. Just what kind of a world are we in?  Or are we still being killed softly, with his words? Ignoring the very nature of things before us and maintaining our lives in the midst of these horrible events?  Have we become content with our insular lives in our daily living and so no longer feel the extent of the things around us? I know it is possible to shut out these times and events because I try too also.  But, here is the thing, I cannot any longer, the events played out before us are to big, too in my face to ignore. I pray with the conscience that Christ permits and forms within me.  I must put on the mind of Christ to endure all that is around me. If not I would enjoy a hermit's life.
     We must destroy the destroyer.  And that is possible.  It is possible because The Son of God did it for us first.  He over came this world and not only ours but in his time he overcame the biggest and fiercest one of his time the Roman world.  We have not yet been forced to bow to a Caesar and fear our death if we do not.  However things play out for us in our time, we can face all of these events, unrest, disease (ebola) and destruction ( planes falling from the sky) and "rage against the machine." Our governments failings, big business controling way too much and the disappointments of life, the struggles to get ahead and so forth.
     We destroy the destroyer when we make a conscious decision to turn over our lives to the one who is ultimately in control of all of these things. And this is achieved by grace. And we make a leap into another kingdom. We are in the world but not of it. Jesus, makes a new creation, when the Holy Spirit descends upon us and fills us to the point of surrender and we turn our lives over to him and the Spirits's leading.  Just like Peter, Paul, James and those who went before us has testified.  A witness that is strong that to this day it stands.  But it is up to you (personally) you will decide if it is so.  No one person can change that fact. Yes we can be influenced but ultimately it is a choice of surrender and belief that there is a justice greater than our own.
     We are translated from a kingdom as a prisoner of darkness that blinds us to the truth and into a kingdom of light where truth begins to take shape and the words of Christ are empowered to us by appointment of Christ himself, and we become clay all over again able to be molded by the one who know us the best.
     14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[a]

     Martin Luther King held protests in his time to stand against the wrongs inflicted upon his race and did this peacefully and eventually won the battle, though he lost his life.  He had stength of conscience to do so.  And I believe the strength lies in  biblical understanding of God's ways and his principles.  Where as in contrast Malcolm X tended to use fiery rhetoric to stir up protest.  In stirring up he caused violence to rise in the hearts and minds of men instead of turning the other cheek and not resisting an evil.  There is a great power in standing in Christ.  As the scripture attests above, we as Christians are to be as obedient children and put on holiness in living our lives before the eyes of men.   
     As Paul preached "fight the good fight, we have not yet resisted to the point of blood." The good fight is Christ's
     Suffering might endure in that we watch with heartbreak the events of our time but know there is as with hope a better ending.  We are caught up in a play of acts pre-written and unfolding daily to a course that is pre-set but can be altered by us. Make sense?  We have the ability to alter pre- destination! It's our decision to insert ourselves in the acts of the play. We are not on a unalterable course but a pre designed course where we know what is to unfold by the will of the one who designs it. Like an Arnold Palmer designed golf course Arnold knows the slopes and turns and all of the traps that lay ahead and so there is no surprise. 
      Four-hundred years  before Christ entered the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, the decree went out, the decree of Cyrus to re-build the temple and 483 years later a Messiah would be "cut  off" 3 and one half years into his ministry. (Daniel's 70 weeks.)  But he would rise to change the unalterable that is  (death) forever.
    So we  believe that though we live in a time of turmoil and events of extreme violence throughout this world we have escaped the destroyer through Christ. We do not not live as Satan wishes us too! I can do all things through Christ.
                     We resist with the help of the Prince of Peace.
     


    

     he
   

The Maladies That Afflict Us:

    The weeks that have recently unfolded have been difficult for me. Has it also been for you?  Having to bear with the news of loss of innocents (children) stuck in places of unrest and danger (war) and the loss of one (Robin Williams) to suicide because he could not shake his depressions and addictions took a toll on my mental faculties. It seems as if the pace of bad news quickens daily as opposed to the good news we desperately need to hear.  It is as if we are being shaken down to our roots and then viewing what it is that remains of us.  Without some sort of foundation that strenghens us where would we be?  We would be the same as Mr. Williams who succumbed to his personal weaknesses and his inability to shake them off.
     I know that the war between Israel and Hamas was deadly and I want to believe that the outcome was worth the price of the deaths that occurred, but I have my doubts.  In watching these events unfold it was my tendency to want to "choose a side" a side that was more right than the other. But it is difficult because I know the the governing powers of Hamas directly put it's own people at risk and the women, children, and innocents suffered the severest consequences of that power.  Israel, vilified for the destruction and loss  of life was made to be a scapegoat for the world that watched as they overan cities and  seemed to target buildings of hospitals and UN facilities while trying to root out the evil ( the hidden mortar installations and militants who convienently hid them within the cities buildings intentionally bringing risk to those who lived there also.)  The tunnels that run underneath the border between Gaza and Israel are not natural and are a portent for influx of terror, subterfuge and inflitration into another land with the intent of causing terror and death.  Israel had no choice but to root out this evil.
   Go back in time and read the Old Testament accounts of the establishment of Israels borders and read what was necessary then.  Did Joshua refrain his hand in destroying men women and children and those who lived in the city?  Did he want to? Probably.  But,no he did not.  Looking at the situation from our standpoint (man's) we see the innocent trapped and then slaughtered because they are there and are subject to the governing power (who were evil and corrupt and had insidious practices of sorcery, magic and human sacrifice, all of which are abominations to God). So, then we must see that ultimately God is in control of nations and of people.
     We who live in the United States also have governing authorities who daily make decisions for us and we know from experience we do not agree with all of them.  There are innequities and wrong decisions made every day.  It's just the we have more of a voice to stop some of the injustices done.  Or at least protest to make our voices heard.
   Islamic Jihad or Holy war is unbending in it's belief and it's methods deadly.  To eradicate the "other" belief systems is it's goal and how it does so would seem to them to "please God."   Murder, suicides, terror are not methods that God uses to obtain what he wants.  These works are the work of the "thief and liar from the beginning."  That is the Devil or Satan.  And so it was also the work of the Devil in Robin Williams life as well.  What ever that was available to him in drugs or alcohol only weakend him and strengthened that weakness so that he could not over come it.  It was a sad loss and magnified because of the ability that media had to introduce a side of him that was funny, moving, caring and intense and we did not see clearly the other side of him as maybe those close to him did.  So when we vilify Israel's decision to do what they did, do we see what they do?  The other side? Or is it cleverly hidden by the one who deceives and accuses?
     There is one who overcame the world and all of it's maladies, sufferings, and terror. One we can read about who willingly healed hundreds, thousands, and yes even millions ( given the time Christianity has been around).  So Robin Williams could have heard the good news somewhere, sometime, that there was a power to defeat all of the things he suffered.  Did he? I do not know. Yes he was also a rude, crude, dude and sometimes foul but..... I wish he did. I wish that Hamas did too.................

LIGHT

     The rising of the sun gives light, the striking of lightning the brightest of all, the turning of a lightbulb in a darkened house, all these give us the ability to see.
     The rising of Christ?... From a darkened tomb should be the brightest light of all!  But in these days so many object to the notion that there is only one God.  Why does there have to be many? And not only one?
It is because of deception and deception at it's best!   And who is that one God?  It has been preached 2000 plus years since his crucifixion. Six thousand years since our falling.   We know who he is and the great story of what he has done.  He is the deliverer.  And why do we  need one?  Because without him we are so far from what we should have been.  Death, destruction, confusion, loneliness and emptiness are maladies that follow us even in the richness of the times we live in.  Never before in the history of humanity has there been so many breakthroughs of science and technology yet there remains a trememendous gap in the fulfilment of our lives lived.  Easy living with plush cars that deliver us in luxury to our jobs and ferry us home again with the  sounds of our favorite music pulsating in our ears as we drive.  Super sized refrigerators six feet plus tall in (some)  of our homes keep cold all the foods we can consume and then those we stock for our future kept locked away in basements frozen to temperatures to -20 F.  Yet with all these niceties we can have in this country along with them come the uncomfortable truths that still something is amiss.  Our hearts are dry and empty and our children hope for the true touch of heartfelt relationships.  Jobs we hold do not mean happiness, (though some manage it all of their lives.)  others bounce from place to place and from situation to situation all in the hopes of fulfilment of the heart.   There is nothing physical in this word absent the presence of a God that will fill this place.  Why do so many try so many different spiritual experiences?  Why are some places in this country magnetic in their atmosphere and draw people from all over in the hopes of finding that particular place of enlightenment?  Roswell draws sci-fi, the boonies draw bigfoot, Salem might draw Witch hunters and Ghost chasers!  There is a point to all of this.  People want answers.
     Only the one answer that is to be found  is rejected as foolishness and too simple.  Crucifixion was not simple.  Walking for three years constantly in rejection harrassment and chided as maybe...crazy and taunted by the very leaders he wanted to show truth too is not easy and simple. Living on purpose with twelve men who never quite got who he was until he died and who squabbled over position in the future kingdom of God and who constantly had to have their faith renewed over and over again was not easy.  And finally deserted and betrayed  with a kiss he was mauled, spit at and hung up for all to see with spikes driven into feet and hands until he was dead.  The intensity of the mortal pain suffered along with the emotional pain knowing his mother and friends had to watch his suffering was unbearable. Most of all ...Eli, Eli Sabachthani!   

                                                       
                                          My God, My God,Why have you forsaken me!

 If God forsook his only son for only that moment in time, then we too are forsaken in our knowledge of him and lost of that knowledge,  that is until we accept that he is the ONLY ONE.  And the good gospel still being (correctly) preached by the hearing of the word saves us from ourselves and reconciles us back to the one who Fathered us.   He beckons us................

Chicken soup: It's in there!

     Today I listened to a good preacher, preaching on the cleansing of the temple.  Three times a year in Jewish Law the people would go up to Jerusalem and the temple and present themselves to God.  They of course would bring their sacrifice ( one without blemish) and the Priest would perform the rite of sacrifice and atonement for that particular individual or families sins for the year.  The temple had and inner court and an outer court. The outer court was reserved for  "gentiles"  or those outside Jewish law. It was there they could also offer sacrifice to God.  Of course Jesus being a Jew and following the law, he came upon the temple and was seized with a zealousness and rage because of the money changers and merchandise being sold in the house of God.  He cleansed his fathers house.  "My father's house is a house of prayer and you make it a den of theives and robbers!"  In other words sin was present in the house of God.
     The same goes for us today.  We are steeped in our sins from birth.  We cannot help it, or avoid it, it is what it is!
      We are like chicken soup everything, necks, gizzards, fat and grisle are in their.  Though it makes the soup taste good....we strain it out later for our benefit of not eating anything yucky!  
     So we when we are before our God he sees our true self our sins that are ever before him and he requires we also like the temple be cleansed before he will have anything to do with us.  We are his temple, the place he longs to dwell in now.  And he can, provided we do it his way!   Anything that is our way and not Christ is essentially against Christ or Anti- Christ.....Get that...?  Our way is not God's way.  So turning ourselves away from our way is  basically a repentance and a doorway for God to enter in and start a cleansing process that can last and should last for our entire lives.  The things that stick to us over the course of time that we have involved ourself with, drugs, alcohols, sex, and lieing and so many other "self" things can and do get God's attention. He wants us better and put together in a healthy lifestyle.
    So we do not have to be in the "Court of the Gentiles" forever out of the reach of God but can enter into his rest and receive of him his blessings and benefits of a good life, here and now.  Yum. Chicken soup! free from Yuck! 
   

Skin deep, bone deep, "The Law"

      Pardner! This here town ain't big enough for you n' me.  I'm the Sherrif here and your breakin the law!  The old west themes of rough and ready sherrifs, Wyatt Earp vs. the Clantons... the O.K. corral and right vs might.  Law prevails.
   
     Robin Hood steals from the rich and gives to the poor, a law unto himself reversing the role, the Sherrif of Nottingham who is himself a law unto himself and is unjust and corrupt.

"Off with her head," says King Henry the Vlll, as he merrily executes his 1st wife in defiance of the Pope and makes the Church his own The Church of England. Self rule over God's.

Judge Roy Bean of the old west rules with a rope, hanging those he deems unfit and law breaking. Justifying his actions with swift and cruel justice.

The United States is a Democracy and the largest in the modern world, a country where "the rule of law" is held high.  Ingrained from birth we obey laws until the day we die some ambigous, some we don't even know exist. Speed in your car get a ticket, park in the wrong place pay a fine.  Emminent Domain....here's a foggy one.. you can lose your home to a large corporation if it's in the interest of 'progress' or a highway going thru.


     Skin deep and bone deep are the laws we live with daily. So how come the invisible ones the ancient ones go unheeded?  Ones that set morality in the heart, are they moveable, shiftable at our convienence?  Are they  the ones to shift at a moment's notice for our own self interest?  Do they infact convict anymore to influence the course of individuals lives to stay a true course?  Wall Street, big banking, Enron, mortgage and hedge fund managers all stuffed with people who were tempted to stray with the delusions of not getting caught. Morals that slid into "off limits zones of conduct but nevertheless they went anyway.  Thousands  were affected by those who used sub par standards to lend money to those who could not afford it.  This country bankrupted and millions left without jobs, income and homes.   Did they suffer?  You bet. Is the average person stung wary and maybe a little scared? Yes.  Can we even trust elected officials anymore to carry out what once was an honorable position to hold? Elected office was designed to represent the common  people.
     Only a few short years ago this country went all out for hope....in a man many thought would change things only to have suffered setback after setback with partisan squabbling all played out in the nations media outlets.  End runs around congress were made and necessary because men would not give to one another. Our legislators or" law makers" stuck in neutral for years to frustrate one another's agendas.  While those who work 9-5 faithfully  toil daily day after day hoping that things like the ones mentioned don't rock the boat of their lives.
      Law exists Pauls says to  "show the strength of sin", in otherwords it magnifies our weakness in doing the right thing.  Blood of goats and bulls could never cover transgression of the law.  Only grace as it is poured out from Christ covers us, redeems us and makes things "right".

     In all of 6,000 years of law one event stands paramount above all others............Forgiveness of our law breaking (sin) and of going our own way.....
 
      13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who  obey the law who will be declared righteous. 




     1415 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, 


                    (The Gentiles)  or anyone who takes a stand morally  were not under the law..................but were a law unto themselves..........
   

CROSSROADS

                               “Stand at the crossroads and look;
                                                ask for the ancient paths,
                                ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
             
                                and you will find rest for your soul. 
                                                

                               “Set up road signs;
                                                put up guideposts.
                                Take note of the highway,
                                                the road that you take

     There comes a point I believe in all of our lives that we stand at the crossroads, two points in time and place where we make a crucial decision. This decision is almost always a hard one.  A hard one because most of the time we are in a place of being comfortable and maybe unwilling to change but perhaps there is a deeper calling or yearning inside that forces this decision.  
  Take for example the movie Castaway.   After being castaway for 5 or more years Tom Hanks ( the actor) portraying that man who is lost, seeks meaning and a deeper sense of life after suffering immense loss.  Unable to return to his love or his former life he returns a fed-ex package he had held with him on that deserted island and finds the address and places it on the door step and leaves.  Ironically on the package are two depicted angel wings. Driving away the scene shifts upward and a vista of plains and of roads crossing and then long nothingness.  Unable to decide which way to go he gets out of his car and stands at the crossroads trying to decide which way to go, and then he meets some stranger a woman, casually talks and then watches her drive away and on the back bumper there shown are angel wings!  First on the package, second at the farm he delivered the package to and third on the truck these wings appeared to him.
    Needless to say he has found that the decision may be divine or so implied and heads in the direction of the stranger and we leave the movie with a sense of completeness.
     Oh! if only life's decisions were as easy at that!  In Christ I think we all get a chance to stand at some crossroad and ask the question, which way now? And why?  If we are those who trust in a God that showed himself incarnate and then rose from the dead for us then we can also believe that he can lead us in the paths he wants us to travel on.  The lines of scripture above tell us to "seek the ancient paths where the good way is." and walk in it.  The Israelites often marked their way with stones and they were not to be removed so that passing generations would see the way their ancestors came.  It was for a reason.    The times God had shown himself faithful to the nation and people he had chosen for himself  they then responded with the only thanksgiving they could with landmarks to remind them of former things.  Because they could forget.  
   It would always point to the way they had come. 
     Today we can be led of the Holy Spirit and sometimes it is not so easy to follow, either because we are settled (Or Not) and change comes harder than no change at all.   
       If we stay were we are we run the risk of stagnation like a slow pool of water with little or no movement.  Things grow and not necessarily good things.  I think God keeps up moving.  Think Caleb  and Joshua, old men who never stopped until they literally passed on at ages above 100 years but were still vigorous.  That's what I want too.
     So I stand at the crossroads like Tom Hanks, and I wait... to see which way to go. Go, I must.