A Journal: Chapter 5 (continued)

March 21, 1997   *******************************************************************

. . . . . Okay, redistribution of wealth, coming up. First, one of a multitude of big picture verses I keep encountering: Psalm 92:7 "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:" 'Wicked' here translates 'lawless', and the people it addresses (today, just as in Jesus' day) are mainly, I'm convinced, the people who think(in the case of people who profess to believe in [and fear] God) they are obedient to God's laws mostly because they are obedient to man's laws and the doctrines of man. (Remember Jesus saying something like "In vain the believers worship God, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men."?) Mostly what we're talking about here is people who (try to) adhere to the letter of the law and manage to ignore the spirit of the law with splendid contempt (to borrow from the Wilson article). Well, there are lots of souls on the planet today, and if there's any truth to what I'm posting to this site people just aren't getting it (probably just not hearing it). Look around. Think about it. And ask yourself if these rich people (and I guess I have to include myself in this group despite the fact that I've been doing major bill juggling since I moved over here almost a year ago) don't rationalize their wealth as a by-product of right living basically. (Wow, maybe I'm amazed [again and again]). That's a pretty blunt ending in that verse though: 'they shall be destroyed forever'. In my Companion Bible, by the way, there is a note on the word 'fruit' in verse 14 that reads "the righteous for fruit, the wicked for fuel." Maybe that'll be fuel for the fire of ordinary mind. (Oh yeah, I did mean to mention that the hell I endured that night so long ago was kind of a fire in that my mind was like dancing in flames, bouncing off [unreal] walls.)

. . . . . I think I'll kind of work down from the big picture. Consider Deuteronomy 15:1 "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release." This is, remember, from the law of Moses, part of what Jesus called "the law and the prophets", and it referred to a release from debt of everybody in the country "save when there shall be no poor among you" a following verse tells us. (And I'm still maintaining ordinary mind interfering with God's Word, i.e., 'neighbor' and 'brother' refers to the neighborhood of the world. For that matter, why is it that, like I point out on the home page, in the Gospels there are two occurrences where Jesus says "The poor you have with you always" and only once when He says "and whensover you will you may do them good"? Maybe ordinary mind interfered with His mind when He said 'always' and He didn't mention the qualifying verse in that chapter and the disciple covered the 'mistake' like. ) Jesus talked about Moses taking it easier with the law he delivered to the Israelites "because of the hardness of your heart", and conventional theology admits that the release of this verse was not followed in Jesus' time. Sure made me wonder when I first encountered this. (To logically deduce is to figure something out from a bunch of facts, I think, and that's the basis for this admittedly lengthy and repetitive study.)

. . . . . Okay, so (surprise) people didn't adhere to part of God's plan for us. No one, I think, would argue that we continue in that vein. No one, for that matter, will argue against the goal of this web site. "Admirable intentions," might be a standard reply, followed by, "Of course, I don't think God wants me to waste my time on tilting at windmills."

. . . . . Actually, even in my mind, that is exactly what I'm doing, which is probably the main reason I'm so reluctant to continue. And why I keep hoping I'm through. Obsessive/compulsive I guess I have to admit to, to some degree, 'cause I sure have found myself back at it. I even recognize (in case anyone is reading this and wondering) that though I deride the masses for straining at gnats and swallowing camels (insofar as understanding God goes, i'll say) certainly I admit that gullibility in worldly affairs might be one of my long suits. It goes back to what I said a year ago on the site about being able to use scripture to validate any argument, and what I quoted this year about the Bible being a dangerous book for the same reason. Just today, for example, I opened my Bible to Ezekiel 9 and read about the mark on the forehead being a sign of the good guys (and dolls).

. . . . . I probably mention that because I have what I guess is a birthmark on my forehead. And yeah, it's scared me (kind of) for a long time. Like Revelation talking about a (the?) real bad guy having a mark on his forehead and leading the bad guys into a losing battle I just read again today and was saying "Oh dear God" to myself (again) and lo and behold I open the Bible to that chapter in Ezekiel and it's like war all over but the sides are switched. Like I said a year ago, I really don't like Revelation because it seems so much bad energy is put out in the world and there's enough of it and even though I think I've had enough people believe enough evil in their hearts about me to last for four life-times, here I am writing more of the same. Duhl, huh? (Let me mention also that I'm a second child, and despite being solidly middle-aged I don't doubt that some call me a child. [That's because of the prophecy in Ecclesiastes about "a second child shall lead them" that I mention it, thinking that's another of the unfilled prophecies, and the "except ye be as a child ye shall in no wise enter..."] And yeah, that little blurb in the meta-stuff on my index about 'author's name' being NotE. Worthy is kind of a double entendre(?) because, though I gotta consider myself not even worthy to be writing stuff like this, the possibility however remote is that it might be noteworthy as my middle name is Stone, and there's lots of stuff in scripture about stones and like I've said, I have these occasional fears that i might be some kind of precious stumbling stone that God put here for the express purpose of revealing the truths that Jesus told His disciples were too hard for them. Scares me. More likely the truths were too hard for us.)

. . . . . Allow me a digression: C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, wrote that the devil has "now so dealt with the learned that they are of all men the least likely to acquire wisdom by doing so. . . . (W)hen a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true (but puts it into the context of current thinking). . . . To regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge--to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behavior--this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded." Now admittedly I'm talking about the Bible in particular, and those of the Jewish and Christian persuasions in particular do profess to modify behavior and (hopefully) thought through their reading of this book, but almost without exception we are talking about people who are, as I've said before, indoctrinated, i.e., their thoughts are conformed to no small degree by conventional wisdom (which we are told, don't forget, will be confounded by "the foolish" I think Paul wrote). And yeah, I realize I'm repeating myself ad nauseum, but I wanted to put that Lewis quote in here for some reason.

. . . . . Another gnat I ran into was in Zechariah 8:16-17: "These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD." This one got me thinking for two reasons: One, I just talked about how short my list of adversaries is, and it ain't from thinking I don't have many adversaries/enemies, it's from not believing it, from not letting my mind turn my heart on that path. I'm not gonna say I need much convincing to believe it, but I'm not trying to be convinced and hope I never am; and two, the reference to 'gates' which in the primary root of the Hebrew means "to split, or open" but also translates "to estimate; think". The Old Testament is full of strangers and widows and other "undesirables" having encounters at "the gate(s)", and also full of admonitions about judgment (Vine's Expository Dictionary gives one definition of judgment being "the present period in which man's mere 'judgment' is exercised, a period of human rebellion against God" [which is where I say we're at now]) and justice and such being performed at them. One of Stephen King's 'novels' which was published under his pseudonym has a scene where he's agonizing a bit about lying to his daughter, who's in junior high, on the reasons the police treated some transients badly, and thinking to himself thusly: "Because that is really what it's all about__just keeping the undesirables out of town. But that was more truth than he could muster."

. . . . . Here's another gnat: When Jesus was telling whoever "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures", my Companion Bible Appendix points out that the negative used is a subjective one, meaning "they did not wish to know." And while I'm thinking about it, let me go back to ordinary mind and not imagining evil in our hearts (like so many did about Jesus when He was first walking the earth) about anyone and the fact that the Greek word 'satanas' translated 'satan' (yeah, with a kapital) actually translates 'accuser' and the Greek word 'satan' which translates 'devil' doesn't appear in the New Testament. Like I actually accused somebody I said might be Jesus of being the anti-Christ (wowowow) and I talk about other people having ordinary minds. But the point I really hoped to make there was not that I have ordinary mind, but that I (and every other sentient being) might have God's spirit in my heart but I fear I got the devil (a little, now and then; really__I do have a functioning brain, I don't care what the eeg says<smile>) in my mind.

. . . . . Oh yeah, I think I started this entry with a gnat about every seven years we're supposed to release everybody from their debts to us. And actually, in the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus, we learn that after seven of these seven-year releases plus one year, we're supposed to have (and yeah, I realize this was Israel and this is Amerika, but it is a Judeo-Christian God we as Americans profess [generally] to worship and I hold this truth to be self-evident: as it was in Old Testament times, it also was in Jesus' time as a man, and it also is in our time: He's gonna come not to destroy The Law and The Prophets but to fulfill them) what the Bible calls a Jubilee and not just release people from their debts but give everything back to anybody we got anything from, like it's just a game we play and we can brag about how much we got but it's just stuff and we don't like covet stuff you know. Yeah, ain't that wild.

. . . . . Here's some of the gnats that landed on my eyeglasses lately (and don't forget the Psalm on the home page: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor..."):

(Psa 12:5 KJV) For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. (emphasis added)
. . . . . I just don't think many rich people can objectively claim to not oppress the poor, regardless of their intentions or desires. And if that doesn't cover enough bases (like, say, the majority) for this here demokracy, look at the next gnat: "the sighing of the needy" and maybe anybody reading this will quit wondering why in the world I'm writing it.

Psalms 73: Chapter Note: 3/18 This chapter really speaks to my heart; I can so relate to Asaph it's kind of mind-boggling. I can imagine Jesus reading this and realizing that His generation was addressed, how people had even then chosen to obey what parts of Moses' law they wished to, and to ignore the hard parts. This is, of course, the big-picture view even though I'm picking gnats out of the Bible in my efforts to remove some of the tint on this dark glass through which humanity seems to be peering.

(Psa 73:7 KJV) Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
. . . . . "More than heart could wish" makes me think of Jesus saying repent (implying to think and act differently; remember He wanted us to change it all, to help effect God's will on earth as it is in heaven) and "Give us this day our daily bread" referencing (I've thought for decades) Proverbs 20:13: "Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread." And ain't it beyond grief to think that He was using this to justify his (worldly) poverty?

(Psa 92:7 KJV) When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
. . . . . "Nuthin' you can say that hasn't been said" the Beatles sang, and "nothing new under the sun" the preacher wrote in Ecclesiastes.

(Isa 23:18 KJV) And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
. . . . . The burden of Amerika. Seems to me this echoes the thrust of my message, that we shouldn't treasure stuff or horde it but just use it (and what a line:) "to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing."

(Isa 58:10 KJV) And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:
. . . . . These chapters through here are, I think I've written before, just immense. "Draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul." That's what I think God wants us to do, together, and like I just wrote somewhere, it might make a big difference to a lot of people, and I ain't talking about a day or two here on earth (which sure can be like a thousand years can't it).

(Mal 3:5 KJV) And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
. . . . . Now I ain't worried about the sorcerer part, and I've never been the boss of anybody, but all the rest of it (and yeah, I guess you could say I've tried to do magical things, which is one definition of a sorcerer, for that matter), I mean I walked by a guy just a couple of weeks ago with bucks in my pocket that I might should have given to him, 'cause he sure did strike me as a stranger. "There is no secret thing, which shall not be made known" or something like that. This world is a mess and I'd like to help straighten it out 'cause like I've been saying, it could be a big ol' fire and it might be a really beautiful rapture and I'm watching and praying. (I loved the Russian preacher from St. Petersburg who told his sister church here in Mississippi to "pray with one hand and work with the other" ['cause I'm sure he'd had a earful of how much we here in Amerika were praying for them there in Russia].)

(Mal 3:15 KJV) And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
. . . . . I've been reading this for a lot of years (thought it was in Isaiah) and wondering when the proud rich happy people would learn the truth of things, and have the tables turned, just like Jesus and the money-changers. And please remember 'wickedness' translates 'lawlessness' and Jesus said all the law which is based in the Old Testament.

(Mal 4:1 KJV) For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
. . . . . Here's another of those table-turning verses.

(Acts 3:21 KJV) Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
. . . . . "The times of restitution of all things" might be upon us; so (according to the first part of the verse) if these are those times, Jesus might be back. (wowowow) That's the only place this word (restitution) appears in the New Testament (and it sure ain't in the Old Testament). That, to me and others, places added significance to it.
. . . . . Notice also, "the times of refreshing" in verse 19. I remember (for some reason I can remember where the car was on the highway even the second time I read Isaiah 28:12 [notice verse 16 too] which is the only place the Hebrew word for refreshing appears in the Bible) alluding to a real weird possibility in my would-be journal last year about this refreshing business.

(Acts 3:23 KJV) And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
. . . . . I'm including this verse because verse 21 tells us "all His holy prophets since the world began" have spoken of the restitution of all things, and anybody who says Jesus wasn't wanting the world's wealth to be redistributed is straining at gnats and swallowing camels.

March 24 ******************************************************************

. . . . . I've kind of been following the tragedy in Arkansas this afternoon, trying to be as prayerful as possible throughout the earliest reports and spending some time in Mere Christianity, a book by C.S. Lewis I've been marking, as well. Thumbing through that book and considering what CNN was reporting, I decided to post a bit of the book today in memoriam as it were.

. . . . . First let me mention (if I haven't earlier on this site) that Lewis is highly regarded as a Christian writer, and I told someone recently not to be put off by the title as Lewis meant, I thought, to indicate that some people consider Christianity as merely another movement of sorts but he considered it not merely important but critical. Here's something I under-lined in the book:"(Christianity) thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again." I think Lewis is right, and this horrible event bears witness to the truth of his observation. And perhaps I would be remiss in not mentioning the Stones' classic ode to ordinary mind, "Sympathy for the Devil", which contains the line "They shouted out 'Who killed the Kennedys!?!', when after all it was you and me."

March 25 *******************************************************************

. . . . . Today I went back to Psalms, seeking solace (again) for my soul, balm for my would-be life, and stumbled upon a verse which had led me to an earlier study I did on redistribution, which I intend to share (with el computor anyhow :-) ). First, though, let me mention something I heard a preacher say on television Sunday and an interesting study I encountered in my Companion Bible's appendixes. The preacher mentioned a particular verse and said, rather humbly I thought and naturally liked it, that it was a verse he had wondered about upon which someone who was listening might have the correct insight. Then he talked about "levels" of understanding scripture like there were written or oral exams you could take and progress to LEVEL THREE say, like knowledge is spirituality. Hopefully that isn't the doctrine of any church just 'cause it's so conformed to the worldly view of things, such a (has-been anyway) conventional attitude. Right now I don't see the particular appendix I stumbled upon, but it was referencing all the sevens and seventies of weeks that Daniel mentioned in some of his prophecies, and it talked about needing to read "weeks" as "years" in order to understand the prophecies, and of course talked about how perfectly it fit into a time-line and all that stuff. I admit it's real interesting, but it reminds me again of the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times", and it makes sense even, but most of all it makes me wonder about how much energy we are collectively putting into a wrong way. Perhaps interestingly I was trying to see the big picture again this morning by investigating what I guess is conventional wisdom (perhaps 'knowledge' would be a better word) by looking at the structure of the Psalms and found that the particular ones which are included in the study (yeah, it's nice to be able to call a 'good luck approach' [I prefer to break that old phrase down and call it 'good' as opposed to 'lucky', and am reminded of the Time magazine cover story on Andy Grove whose good fortune was attributed to his being lucky and good and also, interestingly, to his being paranoid] a 'study') include the rather stand-out (in terms of structure) Psalm 50, which is the only Psalm of Asaph in book 2 (his other eleven are consecutively found in Book 3). And it might be appropriate to mention that, seeking context and big picture per usual for my minor 'finds', going back to Psalm 49 (one of eleven Psalms "for the sons of Korah" in book 2) I found it to be, first of all, big on materialism. It is, I believe, the sort of thing a father might write for his sons if he thought in his heart that he wouldn't be believed. But the coincidence I mention centers on appendix 65 in my Bible, where the author writes that the titles "refer to momentous truths and not to musical terms; ... to instruction and not to instruments; to sense, and not to sound. They are for those who have a heart for music, and not merely an ear for music; they are for Enochs who walk with God, and not for Tubal-Cains who handle the harp and the organ" and then in verse 4 of Psalm 49 the author writes "...I will open my dark saying upon the harp" and, amazingly enough I had played a tune on my harmonica (an instrument I've basically neglected for months) this morning. 'Dark', by the way, is marginally translated in my Bible as 'deep', and I wondered if it might also be correctly rendered 'hard'. But yeah, though it might be refreshing for my self-esteem to even consider the possibility of a coincidence being more than that, I do want to try to impose a little self-discipline by getting to the continuation of the redistribution study, in my for-what-it's-worth department.

(Psalm 50:23 KJV) The 'bottom line' of this chapter, by the way. ... And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
. . . . . 'Conversation', in both of the two instances the Hebrew is rendered so in the Old Testament and all seventeen times the Greek is rendered so in the New Testament, might be better understood by using 'way of life' instead, and it strikes me (ouch) not only that I've mentioned this in one of my sermon critiques (i think) but also as being at least interesting that going back to the roots of the Hebrew and Greek I found an implication of 'turning', like we grow up perceiving things (like 'the ways of the world') thus and so and at some point it behooves us (where did 'behooves' come from? [hopefully not ordinary mind]) to turn from worldly ways and be transformed (as we're admonished in Romans 12:2 for one place). And there's the sudden school I have alluded to and the gradual. Just like Zen Buddhism as opposed to what might be (in the view of some Buddhists) Orthodox Buddhism. And I feel compelled to add here (maybe someone is reading) that one of the verses I've struggled with most in the Bible and must be considered important to Christians just because it's in the Sermon on the Mount is the one that goes "You cannot serve God and money." I mean, let's not nit-pick, money makes the world go 'round I've heard and money is the root of all evil ('cause if there weren't such a thing there wouldn't be a root to it). It all seems to make sense I'm thinking.

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