When Things Go Wrong

I was blessed recently while looking at Psalm 11 & 12.

There will always come some point when things look bad.  These psalms point to what we should do when things are going badly.  The psalmist says it's so bad that it looks like the foundations themselves are being destroy (Ps. 11:3).  If the foundations are destroy, the house falls down.  That is serious.

Yet the psalmist does not dwell on that.  He acknowledges that it is a reality but he doesn't stop there.  He goes on and says (Ps. 11:4):

•    "The Lord is in His holy temple...."  A temple implies peace and calm.  A temple also refers to heaven where THE temple stands, THE temple that was the model for the earthly temple.  Look at Heb 9:24.  But it can also refer to here on earth; His church is called His temple.  I Cor.3:16; II Cor. 6:19.  So the psalmist says that he is not going to be overly concerned with trouble because first God is in His temple and second by implication, God, the covenant Lord, is in the midst of His people, His church.  
•    "...the Lord's throne is in heaven..."  He is ruling.  He is not merely in heaven residing; rather He also actively rules.  Heaven is not awash in hustle and panic.  It is stable and ordered.  He is a God of peace, not chaos.  "The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silent!"  Hab 2:20.  See also Rev 8:1--in the midst of judgment coming upon earth in the Last Days, heaven pauses and there is complete silence for the space of a half hour.  If God is in control, and if we are truly His, then we do not have to worry or upset.  He will take care of it.  It did not slip His attention.  
•    "...His eyes behold, He tests the children of men."  The psalmist takes comfort from the fact that God sees and knows and intimately understands.  The inference is that this is knowledge that will cause God to act.  See verse 6: He will rain snares, fire and brimstone upon the wicked.  But verse 7, He looks with favor upon the righteous.  His looking is a sign of His approval and His moving to action in behalf of.  No wonder the psalmist is comforted.

Psalm 12 starts out in the first two verses with an equally dire situation: "the godly cease; the faithful fail." 

But what encourages the psalmist? 

•    Look at verse 6: "The words of the Lord."  Compare psalm 19 where the psalmist extols the beauty and wonders of God's Word.
•    Also look at verse 7: He is taking comfort in the loving, sovereign protection and Providence.  Compare I Jn. 3:1.  How GREAT is the love that God the Father has lavished on us!

  
So when troubles come we should always take comfort in God, His love for us, His Providence, His Word and in His Omniscient, Omnipotent, Sovereign ruling in every area of His creation.  He has not forgotten us.  He is moving all things for His glory and our good!

Je Suis "Nun"!

First, let me say that I am appalled at what happened in Paris last Wednesday.  Second, let me say that I am not surprised.  Greater atrocities have been happening across the Mid East and Africa for much longer, but for some reason those events fly under most of the Media's radar.  ISIS and Boko Haram have created far more carnage than anything that happened in Paris or with Charlie Hebdo.

ISIS has been going door to door in Syria and other areas of its extended control and systematically killing, raping, crucifying and torturing anyone who is Christian.  Labeling their doors with the Arabic letter "Nun" which is the first letter of Nasrani--ie, Nazarene, as in a follower of Jesus the Nazarene.  In Nigeria Boko Haran has been conducting a campaign of terror and horror against anyone in the country who is Christian--especially anyone who is Christian.  The kidnapping of a couple hundred of school girls made a brief splash across the media last year (with its #hashtag campaign) before its significance faded from Western thought.

ISIS: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/24/this-is-not-a-one-eyed-smiley-face-its-a-symbol-of-frightening-things-happening-to-middle-east-christians/

Boko Haran: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30826582
            http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/nigeria-other-terror-attack-why-no-one-talking-about-boko-haram

Our society cannot hold a collective thought long enough to act on it unless the pervasive media tells us that we need to act on it.  In fact, most of what passes for breaking news might be more of a ploy to divert our attention from the previous atrocity that horrified us.

Thus our cause célèbre of the moment is Charlie Hebdo.  Tragic as it is, I cannot say that "I am Charlie."  I do sorrow with the loss of life.  I do deplore the despicable carnage that the Muslim terrorist inflicted.  I do shudder at the loss of free speech.  But I can't help but wonder at the blatant hypocrisy within the media itself.

First, surviving staff of Charlie Hebdo scoff and disdain the new-found friends:

First: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/13/charlie-hebdo-cartoonist-we-vomit-on-those-who-sud/  "Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard Holtrop says surviving employees of the Paris-based magazine “vomit” on those who suddenly support them in the wake of last week’s terror attack that wiped out a third of its staff.  We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends,” he told the Dutch daily de Volkskrant in an interview published Saturday.

Not exactly a warm way of welcoming support.

Second: where were all these supporter of "free speech" when Brendan Eich was ousted from Mozilla because he contributed a few bucks to a campaign to keep marriage defined as "one man, one wife"?  I personally think that anyone who applauded that ouster should be barred from holding a "Je Suis Charlie" sign.  Period.  End of subject.

Third, there is no real "free speech" allowed in the media.
MSNBC immediately blurred and obfuscated the cover of the new Charlie Hebdo magazine.  Afraid of angering Islamists worldwide.  See: http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/13/msnbc-blurs-charlie-hebdo-cover-during-interview-with-magazine-contributor-video/
The NY Times refuses to print any of the "offending cartoons" http://liberallogic101.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/B7MmThZIIAEbEW8-500x667.jpg
CNN says that it refuses to show news that is offensive to religions, yet was very glad and foreright to show a disgustingly offensive "art" piece called piss christ.  http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/01/07/cnn-policy-charlie-hebdo-muhammad-cartoons-forbidden-piss-christ-okay/
As one twitter user said, "CNN’s long, ugly history of anti-Christian bigotry is well-documented."

Thus, I cannot say that I am Charlie Hebdo.  I grieve with the loss of life and the loss of innocence and the loss of freedom, but I am not Charlie Hebdo.  Bernard Holtrop, a surviving employee, cast vitriolic dispersion on all who would so associate themselves.

Nor can I align myself with Charlie Hebdo because of the gross hypocrisy in applying the badge of "Free Speech"--Free Speech is "free speech" or it isn't.  There are not some brands that are okay and some that are not unless you have set up a judging station.  And then, I ask, by what standards judge ye?

But mostly, I cannot say that I am Charlie Hebdo because my brothers and my sisters are in peril and at the point of sword and death throughout the Middle East and Africa--yet the Western World is strangely silent.  Ominously silent.  Pathetically silent.  Cowardly silent and beaten into a quiet submission by another agenda that raises its head against all that would speak against it.

But, I'm not cowering in fright of that.  I am Nun.  Je Suis Nasrani.  I am Christian.  And these are my brothers and sisters.

Will you be silent too?

Upon the Sabbath Rest

After reading someone's joy at finishing their college term, I began thinking about how God gives us 6 days to complete our normal tasks; then a seventh day to enjoy as rest. I then thought how sullied and empty that Rest is if we still have work that needs to be done, hanging over our heads. Let us then make sure to complete the work of the week and so prepare our souls for deeper enjoyment of His Sweet Rest.

This is but a pale analogy of that great Sabbath Rest which He bids us to partake of. So how much more we should work hard and diligently make sure that we do enter into His Sweet Rest having done all--all that the Master requires! Then we will enter into His Rest with the sweet happiness of accomplishment--yet fully aware that all accomplishment is but because He accomplished it all for us with His great "It is Finished!"


Ah, sweet joy of blessed rest and accomplishment,
hebdomadal habituation heralding Heavenly hope,
irenic icon of idealized incentive,
perfect peace procured by pardon and partaken of by privileged permission,
sweet happiness of labors done and victories won.....

Christmas

Part of my work time is spent in the Lab.  In the Lab they play the Radio.  The only station that the Radio receives is a Pop-music station and from Thanksgiving to Christmas it ONLY plays "Christmas" music.

I have a lot of time to think about the lyrics.

All I can say is that modern Christmas songs are so devoid of deep content, focusing solely on emotions and feelings and warm, fuzzy "feel-goods" without anything to substantiate those feelings.

It reminded me of this poem that I wrote a long while back.

I see the twinkle in the sky, the spark-

    ling diamonds in a tree—‘tis shining bright

    against the dark: vivid colors of light.

I hear the sounds of people’s voices—Hark!

The glad carols peal across the cold night sky,

    proclaiming loud the News, the Gospel fair.

    I feel the crisp-fresh air, the crunching where

The shoes meet frozen turf—I know God is nigh!

‘Tis Christmas time and no silver bells could

    ever tell the gratitude of mine:

   My Jesus—my Lord God—though still divine

did take the form of man and for me stood

       to bear my punishment. My Lord, my King,

       of You my soul and Christmas shout and sing!

David Benning, 24 Dec 1981

Storm Beauty

UC Davis, December 2014, © D. Benning

GLORY be to God for stormy days—
   For skies of sodden-color as of foggy air;
     For roiling clouds all bunched up, jostling forth in flight;
Fresh rainfall, water-fall on sidewalk plays;
  Landscaped tossed and mottled—dank, drippy, misty snare;
    And all winds, their force and bluster and might.

All things showery, soggy, wet, dank;
  Whatever is blowing, blusterous (who knows how?)
    With swift, wild, dark, light; flashy, dim;
God fathers-forth—His glory without rank:
            Praise him.

- D. Benning
Originally written in Oct 2009
 

UC Davis, December 2014, © D. Benning