The Light of PD

 CS Lewis taught us in Meditations in a Toolshed the difference between looking at and looking along. 
When looking at Parkinson’s disease it appears dark and gloomy.  

But, looking along, in both directions, the disease is illuminated by the world view of Christ’s light.

When looking along as a Christian, I can observe the Theodrama, the redemptive drama in which I play a part.

The brilliance of God provides the appropriate stage lighting to set the mood and tone. 

The audience watches me to rate the playwright. My performance can glorify the author of all things or I can fall short and the director encourages me to do better.

I am never fired by the playwright and director, they again hand me the holy script for more study. 

Pride

Preoccupation with what others think is pride. Perhaps you long to be highly regarded. Maybe you hate the idea of being misunderstood (oh, how I relate). Whatever it is, it’s pride, and we know God opposes the proud (James 4:6). First published by Trillia Newberg.

Shadow

Dark and deed it lays

It plays in my sleep.

No kindness does it display. 

I try to keep it at bay. 

I cry while I lay.

I am stout. 

But, their shout lays me out. 

I begin to decay. 

Far I run, try remember not.

Sullied is my mind 

It’s chill through out my soul. 

I am bullied by its time. 

No place to hide I find.

It is disguised in lies.

My pace slows unkind.

Now it touts my sighs. 

Into the mind I belie. 

Photography of the Drama.

Now I see through a glass darkly. Then I shall see clearly.

U

How to live a righteous life?

Realizing sin exists in me yet I am a new creature in Christ I have struggled with why I am not now righteous. Or, to put it differently, why do I continue to be ( a verb) so unrighteous?

It dawned on me after reading Tim Keller’s The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness I should no longer fixate on my self and my sin.
My focus should be on my already perfect rightness provided by the death of Jesus and imputed to me by God.
I, then, should consider myself righteous. By this I can live by faith. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17
By living through faith I am righteous. I no longer need to work at righteousness. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness,righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3: 22-27.

Amen.

Losing self

For a great post on this read Bethany at: http://theparkforum.org/2014/03/28/843-acres-lent-the-freedom-of-self-forgetfulness/

Natural Revelation leaves no excuse.

Because what can be known about God is plain to them, a because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people a are without excuse. Romans 1:19=20

A method for Christians to counter the effects of modernism and postmodernism

That first version of the book focused mainly on the challenges of “modernism,” that scientific, rationalistic materialism that leaves no room for any kind of supernatural worldview. Though this way of thinking remains, the paradigms have now shifted, and we are in a “postmodern” climate, in which truth is seen to be not objective at all, not a discovery but a construction. Truth, it is claimed, is relative, culturally-conditioned, a function of the will, and ultimately unknowable.

Christians should use and develop their minds. The mental faculties of the human mind—the power to think, to discover, to wonder, and to imagine—are precious gifts of God. The Christian who pursues knowledge, seeks education, and explores even the most “secular” subjects is fulfilling a Christian vocation that is pleasing to God and of great importance to the Church. The Bible, by precept and example, affirms this and opens up the whole realm of human knowledge to the Christian.

Veith, Gene Edward (2003-10-07). Loving God with All Your Mind: Thinking as a Christian in a Postmodern World (pp. 7-8,11). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.

John Calvin. How sweet it is!

So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods. But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity; what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy will be condemned as the most miserable impotence. 

Calvin, John: Institutes of the Christian Religion Book I, Ch I, Sec 2. (Kindle Locations 783-788). Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.