Sunday, September 17, 2006

Written for my Roommate

Dear Morgan,

In our recent discussion we have been conversing about the duality of thoughts. Your last journal post spurred this discussion and has turned the clockwork in my brain. I was sitting this summer listening to Bano speak about the duality of art and faith. The idea that we are trying to live this life that is messy and hard. We are searching for the truth.

Through this search we find ourselves on different levels of thought. Specifically about the world in which we live in, and the way that world sees us. This creates a plethora of emotional stigma which then leads to the incomprehensible and destructable thoughts that float through our atmosphere. We then breath in those thoughts and breath out every insecurity and flaw that we feel as mere mortals.

Sitting in my own disgust I then realize and wholly understand the action of these thoughts that are self absorbed. These thoughts seap through my pores and fill them in, becoming black foaming entities. Not only do they create oil filled pimples but the stink from those thoughts come off of my body. This could be compared to sitting on the train next to a man who has had to much to drink, and knowing that, not because of his breath alone, but because of the stentch that exudes from his body. I then carry around with me a mindset of muck because of my search for the truth.

This mindset becomes transformed over time when I come into the comfortable presence of the one who loves me. I then start to look over those old thoughts and create new ones, because of the great transformer. While I still see the remnants of those old thoughts I have air to breath that is sweeter. My face clears up and my stentch becomes and aroma, more like a women on a train who has the authority and genuaility of a proper lady.

However, the process of transformation should not be worried upon, but be praised, because the grace of God becomes clearer through the mistakes we make. We are mortal beings, with clear glass souls that are cracked upon contact, but when God comes in the picture that glass becomes filled. If the glass casing is broken than God is spilled out unto the viens, and this God consumes the entity of the body.

To all the doubters of my roommate's journey, I say to you, praise the process of transformation, because if you miss it, you miss the consumation of God.

To the best roommate of all time,

alison

Thursday, September 14, 2006

The Lord Appears to Elijah.

"And the word fo the Lord came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the onlly one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

The Lord said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by."

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

The Lord said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. when you get there, annoint Hazael king over aram. Also annoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and annoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him."

Thursday, September 07, 2006

the first conversation

Dr. Mangano brought up some interesting points in class yesterday. We were talking about the fall and he asked this question;
"Why did the serpent go to Eve?"
Here are some noted answers from the class:
1. She was collecting food for Adam and the serpent came at her then.
2. Eve didn't have the mental capacity of Adam.
3. The serpent was second to God and the women was second to man so the serpent knew they could relate.
4. The serpent wouldn't be able to pursuade Adam because he was the ruler of creation.
5. The serpent knew that Eve could be more pursuasive so he went after her first.

There were two trees in the Garden. The tree of life, which produced food for Adam and Eve. This tree sustained Adam and Eve because they were not immoral or eternal. The other tree in existence was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam that he could not eat of the tree of knowledge or he will surely die along with Eve. While we were batting around ideas my prof brought into the picture the basic components of the fall. The idea that because Adam didn't love his wife the way Christ loved the church he sinned first.

Adam was passive, which was the first sin comminted in the garden.

Eve was decieved by the serpent and broke God's commandment, which was the second sin committed in the garden.

Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowlege, which was the third sin commited in the garden.

When God came calling he found Adam and Eve hiding in the bush and cursed them. They didn't die physically, but they became mediums. Corpses, no longer living, but not dead.

Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden because God didn't want them living in their own Hell. He wanted to cut them off from the tree of Life so that they could not live in their state of wickedness for all times. He offered them Grace, rather than eternal deprevation.

While they headead out from the Garden they couldn't taste things, feel things, understand things through the eyes of goodness.

I know that when the church returns to that state we will be able to wear the white dress for our union with Christ.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Worship

"Soren Kierkegard compared worship to a theatre in a way that is particularly apt for the sacrificial rituals of Israel, especially when we grasp the point he was making. Theatres are places where dramas are performed by actors in front of an audience. In the worship of Israel the worshippers were the players, not the audience, and they were assigned an active role. It was God who was the audience, and whose benefit the drama was presented, and God who was to be satisfied. For that reason, the rituals were carefully prescribed and observed. How different from much present-day worship that turns the congregation into an audience of passive onlookers whose feelings need massaging and whose every taste and whim need satisfying! It is a foolish reversal of roles that places God on the stage as an actor who is required to entertain his people."

The Message of Leviticus, Tidball.