This is from the blog See, there’s this thing called biology . . .:

The butterfly effect is this idea that suggests that a butterfly fluttering it’s wings
on one side of the world, has the ability to impact the weather on the other side of the
world. It speaks to the inter-connectedness of us all and points to the fact that for
every action there is an equal reaction. The theory was received with some mockery,
became a thing of myths and urban legends, and eventually became accepted
by science itself.

Ideas like the collective unconscious and the butterfly effect demolish the belief
that a man can be an island unto himself, orbiting his own little planet and creating
his own little reality. Instead, everything in the world, including us, exists in a
kind of symbiosis, and the tiniest little thing we do, like a butterfly fluttering
it’s wings, has an impact on the world around us. Every kind word spoken has the
power to alter the fabric of the universe, to change someone’s destiny, to rewrite a
story. So does every cranky word, every famine, every war…..oh crap……

When I first learned about the butterfly effect, I had an anxiety attack, which
eventually progressed into a full blown existentialist crisis. One of the fun
things about being a Christian is that you can have a good existentialist crisis,
stare into the abyss, let go, free fall…and you’ll land in hysterics about three
feet down at the foot of a King. Plunk! I’ve done it so many times, I imagine the
angels just roll their eyes and say, “it’s that crazy woman again, questioning the
nature of Creation. Must be a girl thing. Seems to be some part of their design.”

At least that’s what happens when you’re a Christian and have the Lord’s favor.
If you don’t have His favor, you may well plunge into the abyss and the angels
watch you go by in a free fall and sing, “wheeeee, look at that one go!”
I have no idea and no desire to find out. It’s a long way down to the bottom
of the abyss.

We really do create reality for ourselves and for those around us. Everything we do,
no matter how small, has an impact on those around us and on those not around us, and
on those yet to come. People are far more important, far more valuable to the equation,
than most of us realize. Every single one of us, every word spoken, every breath we take,
every thought we have, alters the very fabric of the universe.

It’s a huge responsibility, enough to trigger a good existentialist crisis, and
underscores the profound implications of the Greatest Commandment.

Our lives really are the greatest love story ever told and we are called to live them
as if we are all madly and passionately in love with every breathless moment. As if
that is not the most awesome thing ever, our lives are only the first chapter.

Matthew 23: 27-31:  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.   Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.   Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,   And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.   Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.”

Matthew 23:  34-35:  “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:   That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.”

I have always been curious about this scripture:  “. . . because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous.”  And also this scripture:  “Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.”  That is quite a leap from someone who builds a tomb to someone who kills a prophet—especially when they are separated by hundreds of years.  How can a tomb-builder and a prophet-killer be related?

False Christians are overly concerned about external things like man-made organizations, rituals and the traditions of men.  A man-made building (e.g. tomb of a prophet) is not the temple of the Holy Ghost.  The human body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.  So if someone is unduly concerned about man-made things, then how can they truly be concerned about the things of God?  We are not here to serve two masters.

If we are about our Father’s business, we can only be full of the Light and Life of Christ.  If we are about external things, appearances, self-righteousness, we can only lead people toward spiritual death—and we would be just as guilty as those who killed the prophets.  We worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth.

Matthew 23: 37:  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem [American churchianity], thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

A Prophet’s Eyes
A Disciple of Christ
Refusing to Hear

Shiloh
The Spirit of a Prophet
Eagles over America
John MacArthur Rebuked by a Prophet

Oswald Chambers, 1874-1817

“We hear it said that Jesus Christ taught nothing contrary to common sense: everything Jesus Christ taught was contrary to common sense. Not one thing in the Sermon on the Mount is common sense. The basis of Christianity is neither common sense nor rationalism; it springs from another centre, viz. a personal relationship to God in Christ Jesus in which everything is ventured on from a basis that is not seen.”

–Oswald Chambers

_____

“One must be a great man indeed to be able to hold out even against common sense.”
“Or else a fool.”

–Fyodor Dostoyevsky

_____

“The warrior of God is not the man of muscle and a strong jaw, but the man of un-utterable weakness, the man who knows he has not any power; Jacob is no longer strong in himself, he is strong only in God, his life is no longer marked by striving, but by reliance on God. You cannot imitate reliance on God.”

–Oswald Chambers

This is from the blog See, there’s this thing called biology . . .

Job is one of my favorite books in the bible and I can never give a coherent answer as to why.
What can I say, the poetry is just lyrical, every phrase speaks to me, and each time I read it
I discover something new. It’s an ancient text, probably one of the oldest books in the bible.

For those who don’t know the story, there was a man in the land of Uz 
whose name was Job…..Satan shows up before the Lord and there’s a bit of a wager going on,
a challenge attempted. I think Satan is bored because he’s been going to and from about the Earth 
and walking up and down in it. The Lord says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, 
that there is none like him in the Earth, a perfect and upright man….Satan tries to tell God
that Job’s life is pleasant that he’s very blessed, and that’s why he’s a good man and loves God.
Satan says, take all that away and he will curse you to your face. And God basically says, whatever.
Do what you want with Job, just don’t kill him.

So Satan goes down to Earth and every possible evil starts to befall Job. It’s gruesome, his sheep
are burned alive, his family is killed, he gets covered in boils. Job however, is a fighter and good
at the spiritual warfare, so he falls down and continues to worship God. The Lord giveth, the Lord 
taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job’s wife is extra special, she tells Job to just give up his faith, that this is all his fault.
His friends are special too, they blame and condemn him. They tell him that he must have
done something wrong. They say if he would just become a more righteous, things would get better.

What follows is Job having a conversation with God. Job never waivers, he just surrenders more and more.
Fine, I’m a wretch and what if God does hate me? Sounds reasonable, I hate myself right now. He will not
curse God, instead he tries to understand the nature of God, to reason his place in the universe.
Chapter 38 is my favorite part. God answers back, out of the whirlwind,  who is
this that darkens my council by words without knowledge?..Can you bind
the sweet influences  of the pleiades or loose the bands of Orion?…Who hath put
wisdom in the inward parts? Or who hath given  understanding to the heart?
God is saying, you do not know what you think you know. You did not hang the
stars in the sky. You are not God, I am. As this conversation proceeds, both Job and
God speak to the wonder of Creation, to the nature of God, to His awesome power, and to
people’s place in the whole structure of things.

When Satan fails and is finished with Job, God restores. The Lord blessed the later end of Job more 
than his beginning…After this Job lived 140 years..so Job died, being old and full of days.

There are numerous lessons to be found in the book of Job, but the one that I always remember is that in all
conflicts with God, all moments of despair, the error is always going to be on my end. Always. God is God.
He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always in control, and he’s never wrong. I may not like what’s happening in my
life, but God is always there to either offer comfort or to help me change my perspective. God is good, all of the time.

Spiritual warfare, that’s why I like Job. He’s a fighter, but he also knows the power of surrender.

 

 

This is from the blog White Raiment:

“If you are a called one, then you are a called out one. If God has called you at all then he has called you to live in spirit outside the world system. Originally we were in that Satanic system with no way of escape; but we were called, and that calling brought us out. True, that statement is a negative one, but there is a positive side also to our constitution; for as the people of God we have two titles, each of them significant according to the way we view ourselves: If we look back at our past history we are ekklesia, the Church; but if we look to our present life in God we are the Body of Christ, the expression on earth of him who is in heaven. From the standpoint of God’s choice of us we are ‘out of’ the world; but from the standpoint of our new life we are not of the world at all, but from above. On the one hand we are a chosen people, called and delivered out of the world system. On the other we are a regenerate people, utterly unrelated to that system because by the Spirit we are born from above. So John sees the holy city coming down ‘out of heaven from God’ (Rev. 21:10). As the people of God, heaven is not only our destiny but our origin.

“This is an amazing thing, that in you and me there is an element that is essentially otherworldly. So otherworldly is it indeed that no matter how this world may progress, it can never advance one step in likeness to that. The life we have as God’s gift came from heaven and never was in the world at all. It has no correspondence with the world but is in perfect correspondence with heaven; and though we must mingle with the world daily, it will never let us settle down and feel at home there.”

–Watchman Nee