In this sermon Greg Boyd introduces a new series entitled Dragon Slayers. A myriad of symbols tell about a woman who gives birth to a Messiah, while Satan seeks to destroy him. Then the woman goes into the wilderness. The focus of this sermon lies on the meaning of going into the wilderness and our calling to bring God’s love to those mired in a wilderness life.
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Flee to the Wilderness
• Greg Boyd
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This is the first sermon in a new series on Revelation 12 and 13. These chapters lie at the center of Revelation and the images found within hold the interpretive key to the entire book. In the first part of the sermon, Greg explains the meaning of Revelation 12:1-5. Then he highlights verse six, which is the primary focus of this sermon.
In verse one, we read about a “great sign” which is a reference to a grand unveiling. This unveiling is a radiant woman who is arrayed in cosmic symbols. This is about the grandeur of God’s people who are called to shine out into a world of darkness and despair. This woman is pregnant, an image of creation groaning and Israel’s longing for the Messiah.
Then there is another sign, a red dragon that refers to Satan, the ultimate force of evil behind all evil. The dragon swept away a third of the stars. One-third is the opposite of the perfect number of three, which is used to describe God. Satan is a three wannabe. He tries to rise to the level of God, but falls short. The dragon is a grim parody of a midwife, seeking to snuff out God’s people and God’s plans before they get off the ground.
Verse five quotes Psalm 2:9, the coronation psalm in which God promises his anointed king dominion over all the nations. John uses this psalm to fuse the birth, suffering, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus into one verse. John is ironically subverting its meaning, because the one who owns the iron scepter is the once-slain little lamb, whose way is the exact opposite of imperial top-down rule of fear.
Now we turn to verse six. The woman flees to the wilderness for three and one half years, a symbol for a season in which God’s people, and sometimes the world, go through a period of intense tribulation. Throughout the Bible, a “wilderness” is viewed as a wasteland, a realm of death and an abode of demons. Most of the time, we want to flee such experiences, but the woman goes to the wilderness which is prepared by God.
Followers of the Lamb are not only to expect to endure tribulations in the wilderness, we’re supposed to flee towards it, knowing this is where God wants us and takes care of us. Many Christians are waiting for Jesus to come and rescue us from the painful wilderness of this world. Our actual call is to run toward the wilderness that is our world. That’s the place God has prepared for us. The church is to storm the gates of hell as dragon slayers. We are not running from situations that need God’s love. We are bringing God’s love into those situations. This is the way of the Lamb.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: End Times, Justice, Satan
Sermon Series: The Unveiling, Dragon Slayers
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The MuseCast: October 13
Focus Scripture:
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Revelation 12:1-6
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
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Greg you blew me away again!
I was compiling a little more on WAITING with a couple additional thoughts from Idleman’s book “Gods at War” and had planned to add it, at some point, as a final comment to your sermon “Kindness Revolution”: but when listening to this sermon, at Rev 12:1, I elected to add it NOW!
CONFIDENT WAITING: When GOD is WITH you things work out for you but HOW, WHEN or EVER is a call to, [whether in the moment great, medium or terrible], exercise your spiritual world can’t see super-power to respond rather than react to distractions we can see in the sensory overload visible world.
2 Cor 4:18 So we fix our eyes NOT on what is SEEN, but on what is UNSEEN, since what is seen is temporary MIST, but what is unseen is ETERNAL.
The only thing we have control of [for better or NOT], in our life journey, is our super-power measured respond-ability, [NOT just merely relinquishing control reacting to become a mirror reflection], to the options presented to us along the way.
The struggle in our journey is choosing NOT the intuitive but the catalytic unnatural measured response **, Jesus invites, that has the potential to reverse the natural course of things.
** Technical note: Catalytic promiscuity connects well w “Molecules of Emotion” Pert, “Mimetic Theory” Guard, “The Master and His Emissary” McGilchrist
Love your enemy or pray for those who mistreat you, [forgive regardless], is NOT intuitive but the core function of following Jesus’s inside-out upside-down turn the other cheek idiom [NOT return insult for insult] Kingdom, [so as to no longer be a prisoner of a payback get even intuition driven contract society], by drawing out the image of God in you.
Joseph Jacob-son’s story, [interesting side note, thank you Greg, his dream in correlation with Revelation 12:1 great unveiling and in addition adding Roman culture], in a journey NOT knowing how it would end, is a testament to the sanity-preserving, course-reversing power of a measured response fueled by the confidence that [GOD was WITH him] from when he was powerless, abandoned and forgotten to his REVERSAL, [kind of like the song: sixteen ton talent reward going at first in this case to Potiphar’s household], when he from then forward held the power of life and death over others.
CONFIDENCE IN GOD is a catalytic measured response to watch, follow, and listen to JESUS, – rather than an intuitive reacting to reflect circumstances, [mistreatments, fears and insecurities] whispering you have NO choice but to make them your master, – because we have NO idea, but God does, what hangs in the balance of our ability to respond rather than react.
Side note: From this story his brother’s response to a life situation made them liars for life being haunted to continue to lie until the day that they died or got found out i.e. Comer’s “Live NO Lies” recourse.
There is not one square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: “Mine that belongs to me”! Abraham Kuyper
Idleman ends with:
So what are you thirsty for? Are you stressed out and thirst for peace? Are you lonely and thirsty for love? Are you bored and thirsty for purpose? Are you thirsty for acceptance validation or significance? Are you thirsty for something more? The God of me relentlessly calls to chase all these idols but ultimately we’re left more thirsty then ever!
Greg: “The danger in seeking a wilderness free existence lands”, [in chasing idols of this world], “in Herod or Pharaohs’ territory a place where the vicious god of mammon reigns”, [Easter’s ‘The Comfort Crisis’], “making easy street our goal, our best life now”!
IF Christ THEN outcomes belong to Him: THEN you’ll never thirst again!
I jumped the gun, sorry, so I’m both inserting and adding to my prior comment.
Kuyper’s quote ending might seem a tad extreme for some folks.
So adding to prior:
But we can become what God has uniquely called each of us, based on our given talent(s) say so; to resource manage some portion of ALL which belongs to God or to some degree NOT! 1 Cor. 3:4-15 again connecting to the ending point of my 2nd comment on Cedrick’s complex sermon “Overcoming Selfishness”.
I also jumped the gun in next going to IDLEMAN ENDS WITH: not considering the prior chapter 12 I had not yet read because I originally did not intend to place my prior comment in this sermon but to wait until I finished his book however Greg your Rev 12:1 great unveiling got me excited changing my plan.
So now adding thoughts from Idleman “Gods at War” chapter 12:
As T.S. Eliot pictures it, “God is the still point of the turning world”, your life is like a bicycle wheel with every SPOKE representing different and significant relationships that make up your life but God is to be the CENTER HUB that all the SPOKES come from and connect to.
Luke 10:41-42 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, [ALL GOOD BUT ONLY SPOKES] but few things are needed—or indeed only one – Mary has chosen what is better, [the CENTER HUB] and it will not be taken away from her.”
Lewis “The Great Divorce” bus ride to the gates of Heaven has Pam as a woman disappointed to see her younger brother, Reginald, sent to greet her instead of her son Michael who she devoted her entire life to and sadly, as a FALSE IDOL HUB, her chosen eternal destination which from a Lewis view, it’s not so much that God won’t let folks in Heaven but rather they won’t let themselves in…. ending with if they can’t learn how to say “Thy will be done” God sadly says “Okay then thy will be done”.
The OT STORY of God TESTING Abraham and Isaac [as an IDOL], is a troubling narrative, however IDOLS are defeated NOT by being removed but by being replaced, as is the NT Jesus in Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—, ALL SPOKE IDOLS, such a person cannot be my disciple.
Side note: Abr[AHA]m’s father/son TEST was at Moriah where a couple 1000 years later our Heavenly Father sacrifices his only Son FOR REAL!
LIVING WATER – WORTHLESS IDOLS – BROKEN CISTERNS
From the OT: Jer. 2:11-13: Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for WORTHLESS IDOLS.
Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror, declares the LORD.
My people have committed two sins: They have FORSAKEN me, the SPRING OF LIVING WATER, and have DUG their own cisterns, BROKEN CISTERNS that cannot hold water.
From the NT (John 4) woman at the well account: Jesus’ offer of eternal life and spiritual satisfaction transcends mere physical thirst using the physical water from the well as a metaphor for a deeper, SPIRITUAL gift that provides unending fulfillment and a relationship with God. The woman’s initial confusion about the literal water, IDOL CENTER HUB, shifts to a recognition of Jesus as the Messiah after He reveals His knowledge of her past and offers SPIRITUAL LIVING WATER, which becomes a spring of everlasting life inside the believer.
A on 2nd from my prior comment on Greg’s sermon “Flee to the Wilderness:
Note: I did listen to Cedrick’s sermon “The Struggle for Spiritual Awareness” and there was so much THERE connecting to what follows HERE I was blown away. You super condensed my following Techie side babel, thank you!
What caught my attention was your focus on the Elisha Aramean STORY which I consider also an excellent metaphor STORY from Proverbs 25:21-22 and Romans 12:20 to make someone feel guilty or ashamed for their actions by being KIND to them speaking TRUTH in LOVE even if they have wronged you.
Techie note: If Interested see Greg’s sermon “Hearing His Voice” a really long set of comments, SORRY, so enter ‘Elisha’: on a Desktop after Ctrl F or on a Mobile Device tap the menu icon (usually three dots or a magnifying glass) in the app and select the search option.
In a life STORY, in terms of response variables, the only part we have any control over, a DECISION, is a response to the options presented and if events we don’t have any control over are DOTS our responses CONNECT with, noting two different people can respond in completely different ways to the same opportunities, challenges, dysfunctions etc., not only do they connect dots they influence what the next dot looks like making us no better off than our RESPOND-ABILITY, our SUPERPOWER, to CHOOSE, regardless of, adversity or prosperity, what life brings our way, a RESPONSE rather than have a REACTION relinquishing control to one DICTATED, positioning us to become EITHER/OR IF__ THAN for BETTER or REFLECTION WORSE.
Side note: If than either or conditional nested loops takes me back to my tinker coding days. Dates me!
If we stare to long in the direction of adversity or prosperity we run the risk of absorbing the characteristics of both rather than to pause and calculate, what STORY you want to tell, MEASURED RESPONSE because the response that has the potential to reverse the natural course of things ISN’T NATURAL placing for ALL TIMES, until your last breath, your TRUST in GOD’S capable hands praying for enemies RATHER than taking matters into your OWN HANDS.
Joseph’s STORY, detailed from my prior comment, illustrates the sustaining course-reversing, re-centering, sanity-preserving power of a MEASURED RESPONSE.
In Joseph’s SEASON OF UNCERTAINTY he RESPONDED, NOT reacted, as if God was with him even when it looked like he was abandoned, [Neurologically questions related to someone else’s activity are not logical or rational. Someone else’s activity or lack in accordance to what you want, is NOT proof for or against their existence their love or their power], so Joseph, once a prosperity owner, now OUT SLAVES all the other slaves.
Bible STORIES have NEVER embraced a GOOD God who has NOT ALLOWED BAD things to happen TO GOOD people, BUT [following a God that ALLOWED the WORST possible things to the BEST possible person], so before the REVERSAL Joseph Jacobson’s resume gets updated to Kidnapped once, sold twice, falsely accused, imprisoned BUT the Lord was with him, “maybe his DARK angle whispers seriously Lord how about you go be with someone else for a while all this With me stuff is killing me go be with my brothers take your time”, so years go by, TIME, and the Lord showed him KINDNESS and granted favor, a personal relationship, with the warden WONDERFUL!
WAITING: Seemly unrelated pharaoh’s baker and cup bearer land in the same prison with Joseph, now serving these folk for years, than one night they both had dreams in need of, what was BIG pay to play temple business, interpretations and Joseph interprets, with accurate details, in three days good news for the cup bearer and bad news for the baker. He asks for the cup bearer after telling him his entire STORY, when his incredibly accurate detailed interpretations unfold, to remember him and waits and waits again for two more years but the cup bearer forgot until pharaoh has a disturbing dream that none of the BIG pay to play temple business folk can intercept so now finally Joseph with an audience with pharaoh on interpreting says “I can’t but my God Not yours can” and pharaoh more curious than offended listens hearing JOSEPH’S GOD, NOT HIS, after seven years of plenty has elected a famine and CONTROLS the GRAIN of your nation: so highly unusual but pharaoh taking heed REVERSES Joseph’s SLAVE STATUS, [as a DISCERNING and WISEMAN the LORD was with], to TOP DOG in a plenty to famine grain commodity trading/storage accrual system only second to pharaoh who heeding God’s proposition became 2nd only to him with all the benefits.
Side note: I was a private consultant, a mainstay, on a team for six years writing a commodity market trading/storage accrual system for a company, won’t say who but they were on the Index 500 back then, only to discover at the end the elevators where the grain was allegedly stored had been empty for 50 years, a false weight and measure system concerning where stuff is and who it belongs to that contract society loves making folks believe and as a private tinkerer having DONE TIME, like prison, at 27 or so different places, for the most part, the rule of thumb.
Hebrews 11 helps us understand FAITH in God’s CHARACTER as ALL encompassing (Heb.12) cloud of witnesses HOPE, [NOT as ACADEMIC theological explanations but], STORIES WITH NAMES, i.e. (Rom. 4:18-21), about “don’t give up” TINKER perseverance taking action and moving forward determination to act on what needs to happen, [rather than dwelling on how something happened], reaching forward to STORY intersections where decisions must be made between staying put and playing it safe or taking risk and moving forward.
Story outcomes belong to God, drawing to the DESPERATE, that we may not completely see this side of eternity!
Again from my prior comment side note: Josephs brothers LIARS for life FOLLOWED in their father’s, [NOT NOW ISRAEL “God strives” but], PRIOR name Jacob “grabber, deceiver, conniver, coercer” footsteps.
A little background on the Jacobson side of Joseph:
From the HOW, WHEN or EVER, of a prior comment, an over active amygdala secrets spikes of stress hormones adrenaline (positive and negative) with cortisol to regulate INSIDE our body that over TIME creates triggers, fight or flight, in the MIST of the uncertainty of outcomes and with Jacob in FEAR running, after having scammed is father Isaac and his brother Esau twice, only to meet, his scammer match, Laban where conning, conniving, grabbing and deceiving go back and forth until Laban catches on to Jacob’s cattle rustling ending with Jacob running only for Laban to catch up where Jacob says “I was afraid” Gen. 31:31 so IF his PATTERN to outplay and outthink fails rather THAN do the hard DON’T thing just GIVE UP outruns.
So Jacob is between a rock and a hard place Laban on one side and Esau on the other Gen 32:6 with four hundred men and still might be into hunting.
Jacob, after sending all his stuff off, finds himself that night alone and ends up wrestling, the rock and the hard place, with God all night and at day break God TESTING says: “Let me go” but this time NOT giving up and running Jacob says: “I will not let you go unless you bless me” so God gives him a new name Israel “God strives”, for he has finally struggled with God and humans and has AHA overcome.
Joseph would have been six and Benjamin not yet born. It appears a good likely hood that Joseph takes after his dad’s “God strives” name while his older brothers, note also NONE born to Rachel Jacob’s favorite wife, were still pulling the old school Jacob Laban scallywag scoundrel hoodwink skullduggery shenanigans game. Dates me!
So Jacob learns there is grain in Egypt and send the ten sons NOT born to Rachel down. The stage is set for the ultimate test of Joseph’s SUPER POWER because now he is prime minister of a super power. Does he need the Lord to be with him any longer? How do you respond when you have all the power when you are confident that God is with you?
Being in the top two percent of folks living in the richest country in the world I, most of us, need to consider, possibly some additional thinking & reading, before we can discuss more on that topic concerning Joseph.
Some new thoughts: from Ideman’s book “Don’t Give Up” again, in my opinion, worth a peak!
Potential fears distort perception of reality with, [when NO responsibility, courage or fighting through the night or getting the blessing that comes in the morning], late night in the DARK elusions of jacket strewn over chair monster intruders rather than just turning on the LIGHT to expose that often paralyzing fears are harmless props or potentials that never materialize.
From a prior comment as Albert Einstein famously stated that “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one,” suggesting that our perception of reality is NOT an absolute TRUTH but rather a CONSTRUCTED EXPERIENCE based on our five senses and interpretations thereof based on, as Greg would say, the limited 5 to 9 chunks of SOUL DRIVEN, [so how is Ortberg SOUL “Steps” going], meaning our avatar flesh body can FOCUS on at any given: [a perception illusion].
“The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is NOT to run WEST chasing after the setting sun but to head EAST plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise.” Gerald Sittser “A Grace Disguised”
That’s counterintuitive; if you think about it ALL instincts rebel. What if DESPERATION is GRACE DISGUISED and we need to embrace it fighting our way through the darkness to the light.
Stop running grab hold of God and refuse to let go of your___ and DISCOVER HIS BLESSING i.e. loneliness to PRESENCE, fear to PEACE, weakness to STRENGTH, pain to PURPOSE, DESPERATION to GRACE, darkness to LIGHT etc.…. but like Jacob you might have a limp STORY or two!
“The average child today exhibits the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the 1950s.
We’ve become a nation of nervous wrecks.”
Robert Leahy “Anxiety Free”
WAITING DISCOMFORT ANXIETIES, with a long list of symptoms, has two flavors BIOLOGY serotonin and dopamine emotional altercations and 2nd SOCIETY physical malfunctions.
Name pretty much anything bad and anxiety can get it done.
THE UNKNOWN: “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom in the possibilities of life” Soren Kierkegaard “The Concept of Anxiety”
We just wish Jesus would show up and tell us what to do instead He just tells us what NOT to do (SUPER GROK like): so our part is to take the Good possibilities and tinker, trial with some error but with hopefully MORE success, discover RACE, to VARIED degree FAST, forward.
When you run the race God has marked out expect tinker opposition. If you’re content to stay back with the pack and not push ahead, and if you fine with the status quo—chances are you won’t have much opposition, I’ve landed there lots, but as soon you start running, as soon as you do something, there will be trouble.
That’s how opposition works it criticizes and ridicules and…. folks can make fun of your effort and try to discourage you; barrage can be relentless and it can hurt.
People often react in one of two ways with opposition they become more discouraged or RESILIENTLY determined.
What’s true in the physical realm tends to play out in the spiritual realm. For every spiritual action there is an equal and opposite spiritual reaction. So when you set out to build you’re taking action consistent with the character of God. He’s the creator, sustainer, restorer and rebuilder but while your action aligns with his character, it opposes Satan, who is at his core a destroyer.
God creates; Satan destroys and when you begin to be a part of rebuilding what Satan has destroyed, there will be opposition. Expect that your tinker discover construction effort will be met with an equal and opposite attempt to distract!
The word race, in the Greek, is ‘agon’ where we get our word agony. The word indicates that the race marked out for us is NO “fun run”.
Greg: Remember the blood on your best run! It’s difficult and demanding challenging race. This isn’t a jog on the beach; it’d running until your sides hurt and your lungs burn and your muscles begin to cramp.
The Bible DOESN’T tell us to mark out our race just the way we like it and run—it’s been marked out for us, so we don’t choose it’s difficulty level, nor do we receive a map of the territory obstacles that lie ahead. It’s a very narrow winding path requiring a whole lot of WISDOM.
Some Christians expect, Cedrick loved yours, life to be a fun run simply because they’ve signed up with Jesus. The whole point of signing up for these folks is to avoid obstacles; normal life has enough of them. Yet we ALL are part of a plan so running a race with the presence of regular unexpected challenges doesn’t rule out a God’s plan RACE.
The whole of Scripture echoes this RACE STORY theme; (Hebrews 12) is an excellent example!
Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”.
Greg’s TRITARIAN WARFARE THEODICY (4) and therefore our potential for morally responsible goodness TRUTH must be PROPORTIONATE to our potential for morally responsible evil LIES.
Note prior: Easter “The Comfort Crisis” Taleb “Skin in the Game”
Matt. 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
A lot of our anxieties fall under the, losing ourselves in the dizziness of possibilities, category of tomorrow.
THE UNLIKELY: Today for the most part beware of FAKE NEWS!
THE UNCONTROLLABLE: Transfer the weight! 1 Pet. 5:6-7 humble yourselves….casting your anxiety on him who cares for you. Peter doesn’t mention pills, priests or psychiatrists however whatever your brand of anxiety Peter makes clear, to run a competitive race, God wants you to travel light and get there fast.
The HUMILITY PROBLEM > PRIDE: refuses to ask help – has control issues – makes one self-centered, selfish, stubborn, jealous, and critical – get the drift – Dan wrote a book!
When we pray and ask God for help, Phil. 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”, don’t just tell God about your anxieties; tell your anxieties about God. – HE’S BIIIIG so scare them and keep RUNNING!!
Greg wrote a book on this: INSTITUTIONALIZED RELIGION, [attractive because it offers a pecking order with a sub-clause, proviso, and codicil measure set standard], disguised as a GOOD WEIGHT creates ANXIETY.
Matt. 23:4 they CRUSH people with unbearable religious demands and never LIFT a finger to ease the burden.
Heb. 12:1 therefore, SINCE we are surrounded by such a GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES, let us THROW OFF everything that HINDERS and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us RUN with perseverance the RACE marked out for us.
Matt 11:28-30 MSG “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep Company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and LIGHTLY.”
CONTENTMENT: All people everyone, you and I included are faulty, broken and inconsistent so quit worrying about FOWOT, fear of what others think, acceptance and just rest in God’s.
Gal 2:19-21 MSG What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ; my ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is NOT “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that….
…..Is it NOT clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
In my second comment, on Greg’s sermon “Kindness Revolution”, in the seasons of WAITING POWERLESS ending with God’s PEACE FILLED CONTENTMENT is worth the WAIT has a correlation with TRUTH and LIES.
If you knew they were LIES you wouldn’t believe them but when lies are believed they MANIPULATE to have the power of TRUTH over us. Merritt
LIES: The “pleasure paradox”: The harder you chase happiness the more elusive it becomes as a shortcut to misery in a clever disguise. “A Grace Disguised”
TRUTH: The “happiness paradox”: When people try to make themselves happy, they are more likely to be depressed, but when they try to make others happy, they are more likely to be happy themselves.
Until Jesus returns God offers us a world where, if we can navigate past LIES, if we can ground ourselves firmly in TRUTH, happiness is possible. Happy people are happy, “A Grace Disguised”, NOT because God gave them the right circumstances to be happy, they’re happy because God give them himself and that makes them more than happy CONTENT.
How BIIIIG?:
There are 47 different fine-tuned cosmic constants, that at just the right time God can call into play, with the most intense stating, in essence, in this bubble left of Eden there is at least, of so far discovered, two trillion galaxies or universes for the string theory folk, and if there was one less proton or one more neutron somewhere in one of them we would NOT be here! Extremely specific!
To put this in perspective; the best example of human engineering design to date is The James Webb Space Telescope, a gravity wave telescope capable of making measurements within one part in 10*(37), using gravitational lensing to measure the distance to JADES-GS-z13-0, a galaxy that is 13.8 billion light years away, the distance light has traveled since the Big Bang however what we actually see, what is now reaching us, is how it looked 400 million years after the Big Bang. Still pretty expressive!
Doing the math comparing space energy density ratios to the telescope equates to that this Creator, [outside this bubble of universes], at a minimum is [TEN TRILLION], trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion times MORE INTELLIGENT, KNOWLEDGEABLE, CREATIVE, AND POWERFUL than all WE HUMANS together.
Greg: our friend Al Larson once told me to consider God plays with a full deck of cards and we are each give, based on talent say so, a given amount, all we have to play, for our RACE marked out for us.
I told this to a pastor friend of mine, at EB, and he thought NO each on averages a half deck (1 Cor. 13:12), [a Taleb anti-fragile – even position on the long and short], and our job, [though NEVER POSSIBLE to end with a FULL DECK], to get as many cards as possible back in our life journey, solid academic thinking, however this leaves out Taleb’s thought with “skin in the game”.
I put brackets around [TEN TRILLION], above, because it strikes a PATTERN with something I think Greg you said: UMWELT MATRIX, the visible Light that we see 760 – 380 nm, is only .0035% of the ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM, that’s less than ONE TEN TRILLIONTH.
From a prior comment:
A COSMIC DANCE WARFARE FACT: The 1 actual partial of mass (matter) for every 10 billion photons of energy, quarks, DANCE inside protons and neutrons in the nucleon both ATTRACTING and REPELLING within a range of, [again a PATTERN this TIME RATIO**], a quadrillionth, [God] to ONE TEN TRILLIONTH, [our part] of a centimeter by exchanging color within themselves via gluons (the strong FORCE) or between each other via pions (the nuclear FORCE) and this happens every .0000000000000000000000023 (10-23) of a second, [every PARTICLE has an ANTIPARTICLE. – TRUTH LIES WARFARE], leaves me thinking ONE TEN TRILLIONTH is the amount of MATTER in our bubble, with ALL the rest back in HEAVEN, matches well with what we can actually see.
**tech note: Consider the Ralph Nelson Elliott “time ratio wave theory” in contrast with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a distinguished ACADEMIC HE REGRETS professor of risk engineering at NYU, “ANTI-FRAGILE even position on the long and short”, NOTING however, as a former IN THE PIT derivatives trader risk analyst his most REDEEMING SKIN IN THE GAME QUALITY!.
So at best being dealt a 100 talent amount of cards, a FAR CRY, wild and crazy scary, SHORT of [TEN TRILLION], it’s urgent to RUN the RACE marked out for us by following JESUS by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT on this narrow winding path of WISDOM, over the course of a long time with proof being we have so far DISCOVERED radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma rays, the REST of the ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM, by using a POWER OUTSIDE it..
What we can SEE, limited by BUBBLE only light, and our limited flesh DANCING, 100 trillion atoms inside, each of our 37 trillion cells living and dying at several million a second is NOT a fun run but a whole creation groaning and when Jesus returns possibly get a HUGE upgrade or, on the other side of the coin, maybe just a few more added cards to an already not so bad dealt hand.
Just maybe, where you land, in community at the party with no more narrow winding paths: AND/OR 1 Cor. 3:4-15 alone in the lake of fire, a refining process, has to do with NOT letting go of could a, should a, would a replay paths because folks, [STILL not yet sure they can trust God so Matt. 5:25 not quite ready to suffer loss], are STILL in hopes, as Napoleon in the Great Divorce perpetually pacing muttering in endless repeating perseveration that everything was someone else’s fault, of gaining a few more cards back.
I consider; Jesus parable on talents teaches about using the gifts and abilities God gives you to serve and grow rather than hiding them out of FEAR or LAZINESS,
[a COMFORT CRISIS in that only two percent intentionally seeks out challenges and small discomforts to build resilience and improve their lives],
must, [because if there was one less proton or one more neutron somewhere in one of two trillion universes we would not be here],
have serious consequences in that whatever is taken from one MUST be given somewhere else.
Cedrick: What do we say? NOT so much say but [“Love Does” Golf] so consider concerning your [say so]: “Kindness is loaning someone your [say so] strengths instead of reminding them of their [NOT say so] weaknesses”!
Got that from Andy, [maybe “each of us, a universe, is unique in having, the absence and presence of, differing stars”], however I believe I may have got this, as a vibe, from you Dan…
…and “I realized that he shares not only my DHA but also the dreamy side of who I am. I look at him sometimes and I am filled with awe, for he too is a universe that displays the glory of God—a mysterious, miraculous and majestic universe.” Hetland “Seeing through Heaven’s Eyes” *beginning backdrops “Astrophysics” Ross, “Quantum Physics – Chaos Theory” Abarim Publishing, “Morphic field resonating Hierarchies” Sheldrake, “Philosophy Theology” Greg specific “Seeing is Believing” “Repenting of Religion”
God’s NOT willing that any should parish but is, from Bell’s book “Love Wins”, everybody really in?
Charles Stanley, Andy’s dad, somewhat concerned about the book came to Andy on just that and Andy’s only response to his dad was: “don’t you at least HOPE so”. There was a LONG PROCESSING PAUSE and Andy thought this might be the final straw heretical thinking fallout with his dad: however his dad finally with a, NOT NORMAL for him, feed checking perseverating ***t eating grin says: “Yes Andy, that’s right Andy, that’s right”: an AHA “Awakening Honesty Action” moment!
For years, the predominant measure of potential was a person’s, can’t do much to improve, IQ but there are too many folks with high IQ’s that are failures so there is something that predicts success much better AQ, adversity quotient, how much can a person endure that, “sixteen ton fold”, increases with GOD strengthening and developing your ability to overcome adversity and persevere (2 Cor. 4:8-9 Prov. 24-16). Stoltz “Adversity Quotient”
Taleb: “We are NOT quit WIRED right to FIGURE things out so we ALL, whatever the given talents say so, have somewhat the same problem”.
A few more reads worth a peak:
The book “AHA”, Idleman, the ANTITHESIS of SELF-HELP, [follow our (PICK A NUMBER BETWEEN 1-8) easy steps, and we guarantee you will (INSERT FINANCIAL GAIN, WEIGHT LOSS GOAL OR RELATIOAL STATUS) it’s only a matter of (PICK A NUMBER BETWEEN 1-5) (INSERT A MEASUREMENT OF TIME)], begins with an AHA STORY at JUST THE RIGHT TIME the rejection of self’s offer AWAKENING to the reality of our true spiritual condition, seeing ourselves and our need for a Savior with raw HONESTY, God’s WORD and POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT realization, leading to “ALL IN”, Greg Al would say that, follow Jesus ACTION for lasting Change.
“Drawing CIRCLES around our biggest dreams and greatest fears ISN’T JUST a mechanism whereby we accomplish great things for God but MORE SO HOW GOD ACCOMPLISHES great things for us THROUGH US”. Batterson “The Circle Maker”
The Gospel costs nothing you can’t earn it or buy it, can only be received as free gift compliments of God’s grace costing nothing, but demanding everything in that we go ALL IN, PUTTING ALL that we have INTO GOD’S HANDS. Batterson “All In” You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life
and….. If you want to know how you’re doing look around [horizontal] to the folks on your left and right, Ideman “One at a time”, for there is NOTHING more sacred… a CIRCLE back connecting with my 2nd comment ending on Cedrick’s sermon “Overcoming Selfishness”.