tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40024770944401212892024-03-13T02:21:54.069-07:00PastorDavidRN's DANCE with THE NAKED TRUTH(INSIGHTS AND INSPIRATIONS CONCERNING GOD AND CREATION)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-32659070119001573632023-01-20T00:49:00.003-08:002023-01-22T15:05:17.078-08:00LORD OF THE DANCE<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: helvetica;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4IEbGB_JRYI_6L34jpUjK9f67JXL9FaRHoohLjUm9dTBrZ0d1G8ftsR-rxSN1bDdbTtFM9qPeH7iKMAI0N5mxiOcmFK75JWSdLGh2igthj6traoAkleS0syZP1y1g8miRpWmpcGxkGXpUfh0jaZXgeIJHPvkvF5-LQZhOaB7DYVeVcBmkjH_TNzaJ/s761/AgnesdeMille.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="761" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4IEbGB_JRYI_6L34jpUjK9f67JXL9FaRHoohLjUm9dTBrZ0d1G8ftsR-rxSN1bDdbTtFM9qPeH7iKMAI0N5mxiOcmFK75JWSdLGh2igthj6traoAkleS0syZP1y1g8miRpWmpcGxkGXpUfh0jaZXgeIJHPvkvF5-LQZhOaB7DYVeVcBmkjH_TNzaJ/w281-h209/AgnesdeMille.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Agnes de Mille (niece of Cecille B. de Mille)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The art experience is a state of grace. It implies total submission, total service. You become transparent, perfectly used, reorganized. You become all self and selfless, a conductor. It demands health, not serenity or even happiness, but inner conviction, nerve and vigor. You realize at last, if only partially but with humility and joy, the meaning of the great promise in Revelation: “Behold, I make all things new.” — Agnes de Mille, <i>To a Young Dancer</i></span><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hrkC4vO2lz4og-mxOoW3AV02wcLavZlgN-Ar3CTwYyYmLisOPz2bXLLLI8Ag9m6TTksO8B8t2UyN4bVhLin7RANf1e2wR4fAdIkWg0XLgOmiQVfViVeAAiqBQ6-LSj5SYQLdN85E_6GqAwwMwVl77FUL_KgEmELGuRXcTrsmOJaVCpscKR0SHu67/s527/Ashley%20&%20Kenji.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="527" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hrkC4vO2lz4og-mxOoW3AV02wcLavZlgN-Ar3CTwYyYmLisOPz2bXLLLI8Ag9m6TTksO8B8t2UyN4bVhLin7RANf1e2wR4fAdIkWg0XLgOmiQVfViVeAAiqBQ6-LSj5SYQLdN85E_6GqAwwMwVl77FUL_KgEmELGuRXcTrsmOJaVCpscKR0SHu67/s320/Ashley%20&%20Kenji.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I decided to write this article a few hours after my niece Ashley was wed to Kenji at a very solemn, traditional marriage ceremony at a Catholic church in North Hollywood. I was totally awed by what the newlyweds did after they entered at the reception hall. Up front, on a centrally located dance floor, the two performed an evidently well-rehearsed choreography which amazed and delighted the gathered family and friends. Later, before the <i>garter tossing</i> ritual, her spouse and three of his groomsmen executed another impressive dance routine in front of the seated bride. Near the end of it, the rest of the groomsmen and bridesmaids joined them, having obviously invested much time and effort practicing for this performance.<p></p><p>The burden to write about <i>dancing</i>, however, came several weeks earlier when I met the woman who ran the dance academy where my daughter-in-law is a ballet instructor. This director told me that after becoming a Christian she gave up her dancing career, because her church considered dancing a worldly behavior. But after almost 30 years of missionary service, she discovered that such condemnation was not Scriptural. Realizing that she had been a victim of religious legalism rather than sound Bible teaching, she returned to dancing as an avenue for Christian ministry.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfSQxoWxQEo784yNzttPJKJCYYw3FK3_Cnreo1JrVynrrZRuv88uigAdoJfhAsN9uQhWYiDqSsImjT-a7oJUvSQy7enpeIEjEhkLnMKutWlLrZWhUnBs3rYBKIURl6bq1o04ChbagRwlWsnXWqcyf75jsGT8fOI0C9z6o64MSjy6FcsdSeQHgCxxyf/s778/danceacademy.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="410" data-original-width="778" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfSQxoWxQEo784yNzttPJKJCYYw3FK3_Cnreo1JrVynrrZRuv88uigAdoJfhAsN9uQhWYiDqSsImjT-a7oJUvSQy7enpeIEjEhkLnMKutWlLrZWhUnBs3rYBKIURl6bq1o04ChbagRwlWsnXWqcyf75jsGT8fOI0C9z6o64MSjy6FcsdSeQHgCxxyf/w297-h157/danceacademy.jpg" width="297" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Compass Dance Academy, Tyrone, GA</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Yet as I began to write, I recalled watching another sad episode of how this widespread legalistic censure against dancing played out at a Christian gathering. Several decades ago, I was at a men’s retreat sponsored by a strongly evangelical denomination. During an activity where talented people had an opportunity to show their skills, a man in his early thirties, dressed in gym shorts and a tee shirt, danced for us. After briefly introducing his theme, he used his body’s creative movements to emotively express that theme during nearly fifteen minutes of energetic dancing.</p><p>As he ended his dance, sweat soaked his outfit and was dripping from his face. But an uncomfortable silence reigned in the meeting hall. The sound of his heavy, rapid breathing should have been drowned in applause. But if there was any clapping, it was so brief, scattered and weak that it did not register in my memory. I felt sorry for the fellow but not enough to withstand the peer pressure of the unspoken consensus. Although I hesitated to applaud him, I now believe Jesus was clapping loudly. I could kick myself for not joining Him, but my rear-end is too far away in the past for my foot to reach it. Instead, I hope this article will somehow make amends for my cowardice.</p><p><b>Dancing on the Dance Floor</b></p><p>Long before that men’s retreat—and despite my own denominational background’s religious aversion to dancing—I named my talk on chaste relationships between guys and gals “The Dance of the Sexes.” The dance metaphor was too perfect to pass up. Every day, on many <i>dance-floor</i> environments (schools, jobs, churches, neighborhoods, various gatherings), we are routinely in a social dance with those of the opposite sex. To regulate behaviors and boundaries in those opposite-sex interactions, God has only one standard: <i>marriage</i>. The main thrust of my talk was to show that God’s holy and healthy rule for both marrieds and singles is an exclusive pre- and post-marital fidelity to spouses.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip8a4rtyjl_ABZdmxvVowZ4kndEH5jDGhSpbPYI6kI6EICV-Q1gFyzcZNWM1hCgg0UEgBQoTw73sbBlNkosj9GspuIdbynSsDIX01g772hXNXkbGWve4lpNvfRgz0rE0kP5K-jc3gI7swE3TjH_K7ji0aD3ts_CbxIjHIkg5actvMvQr6t-xuKHh0w/s443/DanceoftheSexes.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="443" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip8a4rtyjl_ABZdmxvVowZ4kndEH5jDGhSpbPYI6kI6EICV-Q1gFyzcZNWM1hCgg0UEgBQoTw73sbBlNkosj9GspuIdbynSsDIX01g772hXNXkbGWve4lpNvfRgz0rE0kP5K-jc3gI7swE3TjH_K7ji0aD3ts_CbxIjHIkg5actvMvQr6t-xuKHh0w/w223-h200/DanceoftheSexes.jpg" width="223" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/aHsCKOGU69I" target="_blank"><span style="color: #800180;">A Video Talk on YouTube</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>To dramatically illustrate how that spousal fidelity was possible, even on an extremely intimate dance floor, I used myself as an example. As a male L&D nurse, working mostly with female co-workers and helping many thousands of young moms deliver and breastfeed newborns, I had no problem remaining 100% faithful in thought, word and deed to my dear wife, to whom I had vowed marital loyalty. Whether my audience believed my testimony or not, I was telling the truth.</p><p>It was only later, after intense research, that I discovered solid reasons why women’s bare anatomy did not distract or stumble me sexually, when my religious training unanimously insisted that it would. But in that research, my biggest discovery was that the sexual objectification of the body creates a sex-focused society. The church’s prudish perspective on the body is actually a pornographic view that has unwittingly fueled the fires of our presently porn-addicted culture.</p><p>I immediately began writing about the evils of <i>body shame</i> and its antidote in a wholesome, godly, Creator-honoring <i>body acceptance</i>. But now I see from those same discoveries why the rhythmic bodily motions in dancing have been religiously banned in the past and are still shunned by some Bible-believers. Sadly but undeniably true, many Christians in Western culture are indoctrinated with an overshadowing <i>sex-focus</i> on human anatomy. With eyes mentally glazed over by this obsessive fixation on the sexual dimensions of the body, they see in the movements of dance a shameful display rather than a creative expression of God’s design.</p><p><b>Dancing: the Dirty and the Delightful</b></p><p>There is indeed <i>dirty dancing</i>. A Scriptural example of it is the dance by “<i>the daughter of Herodias</i>” which so allured Herod that he agreed to behead John the Baptist (<b>Mat 14:6-11</b>). And yet merely because it is exploited lewdly, dancing itself is not turned into a form of lewdness. Just as the body has been misused to promote pornography, so wayward choreographers have employed willing dancers to participate in burlesque obscenities or in manners suggestive of sexual gratification. But, whether the concern is the anatomical bare body or the expressively dancing body, guilt-by-association is unethical and fallacious, no matter how popular its practice.</p><p>Churches are right to ostracize the unwholesome exploitation of dance for sexually wayward ends. Yet they are deeply wrong to allow occasions of its abuse to jade their vision, blinding them from seeing its divine origin. Unfortunately, when the sex-focus of <i>porno-prudery</i> permeates religious thinking, such a mistaken perception may seem not only logical but supportive of maintaining that condemnatory focus.</p><p>That sex-focus is a <i>shame-focus</i> with philosophical roots in the exaltation of spirit over matter in ancient Gnosticism. Although resisted strongly by the early church, the Gnostic heresy unfortunately tainted later Christian thinking and still persists today with many socially destructive effects. Any Gnostic denigration of the material world and of the fleshly body is an attack on “<i>the Maker of heaven and earth.</i>” Praise God for the strong voice of the late Pope John Paul II in his landmark <i>Theology of the Body.</i> He not only dismantles Gnosticism but refreshes our forgetful memories that any true spirituality we manifest on earth may start in the heart but is only seen and practiced through the body.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vqLfb2A4GnEDGiB6Drd3f1E9KhjfwbSm4abpBNalZlFFzIV3ClsH5Ic4WTrW4z2KjoO53wyJo1ZStY5rwjHoZhV66InO86pAaHJd1upVYySS4D8gdKKCMcYMEIwTYKir-U2bJFF1180QEZnG3lU3Yg0xZhzAoxEL9mqo4I9Jyj_DMZHCfoGqcexq/s1024/folk%20dance3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1024" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vqLfb2A4GnEDGiB6Drd3f1E9KhjfwbSm4abpBNalZlFFzIV3ClsH5Ic4WTrW4z2KjoO53wyJo1ZStY5rwjHoZhV66InO86pAaHJd1upVYySS4D8gdKKCMcYMEIwTYKir-U2bJFF1180QEZnG3lU3Yg0xZhzAoxEL9mqo4I9Jyj_DMZHCfoGqcexq/s320/folk%20dance3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Down through human history, people in almost every culture have developed customary expressions of delight and exuberance through rhythmically synchronized motions. These rich dancing patterns did not develop as bodily activities to advertise lewdness but as wholesome ways to celebrate aspects of life. Joyous social dancing surrounded birth, milestones of growth, weddings, harvest times, sacred days, anniversaries of special events. Whether celebrating some form of public success or merely bringing a happy gathering of families to a delightful culmination, the dance included all, from eager children imitating dance-steps to the elderly moving slowly in reminiscence of their youthful vibrancy. But as a cross-cultural phenomenon of the human race for thousands of years, dancing was blasted or belittled by church leaders who failed to take a theological look before making a non-biblical leap.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpYups2NgqX0jXaJGYHmFXt9oKyZHtDWRyzHtDEfMNpXW9YLzifVW2fX0Ct31mtO6Ggjdd6iK5vce7E9go2SUbDD8ghyRtGS-Kw4KsXckpNyvmyA5l8nflMyO4pFrs2yPW87d91puf-iz6xK3UNKFNgZ5PW3fK5QvtJ3VbDl0yqfdoPiZSvZKKWBt5/s949/folk%20dance2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="949" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpYups2NgqX0jXaJGYHmFXt9oKyZHtDWRyzHtDEfMNpXW9YLzifVW2fX0Ct31mtO6Ggjdd6iK5vce7E9go2SUbDD8ghyRtGS-Kw4KsXckpNyvmyA5l8nflMyO4pFrs2yPW87d91puf-iz6xK3UNKFNgZ5PW3fK5QvtJ3VbDl0yqfdoPiZSvZKKWBt5/s320/folk%20dance2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><b>The Divine Dance</b></p><p>Dance, by definition, involves bodily motion. When several dancers produce a choreographed composition, the bodily movements are rhythmically coordinated. Astrophysicists, studying our incredibly humongous universe, molecular biologists, investigating the city-like complexities within living cells, and all other scientists working between those two extreme dimensions, often become poetic when describing the amazing phenomena of movement and rhythm in all of nature by using the word “<i>dance</i>.” The interactive relationships at play in creation, the fine-tuned performances of atoms and galaxies, reveal a choreography that is dynamically organized.</p><p>Skeptic materialists blindly deny that this <i>dancing</i> creation points to a <i>Divine Choreographer</i>. But Christians may also be blind, failing to recognize that God manifests Himself—especially His nature as a Triune Godhead—in His handiwork. There is such an eternal unity in the divine dancing of the Trinity that Father, Son and Holy Spirit have forever been working together as one Triune Dance Team. Many years ago, I was inspired to write a free verse poem about this:</p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>THE DANCE</b>
<br />
<br />
Three great pairs of loving hands<br />
Firmly grasped in joyous dance,<br />
Spreading brilliant, sparkling orbs<br />
Around a universe of void,<br />
Filling worlds with nature’s gems,<br />
Moving newly-fashioned minds<br />
With awe until they bow in praise!<br />
<br />
Years go by. . . the brilliance lasts;<br />
Yet creatures imaged from the Three<br />
Forget the awe, count commonplace<br />
The dazzling, artful universe<br />
And dwell upon their meager meals<br />
Of human wisdom’s pride and boast.<br />
<br />
Break out, Three Dancers! Dear God dance!<br />
Hit the pew, on pulpits dance!<br />
Turn classrooms to a whirling reel,<br />
Melt hardened hearts with prancing fire<br />
To spread the flame throughout the world<br />
And shine to all, this tale to tell:<br />
The Three still live! The Three still dance!<br />
Come join them for eternity!<br />
<br />
— David L. Hatton, 7/30/1984<br />
(from <i>Poems Between Heaven and Hell</i> ©1991, 2014)<div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Imaging the Dancing God</b></p>
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePNA7FPhYrvpcw50pVfu8GjjPh4YN-LOIY5KecTXydZfk3gbtKE4fbZdsdRWvnDjOiWOfxhlygMF4k-dT-Z2A-yDXvKt9prgllcvOnWhFzDfxl4hPKcj23zij27cwGE_B4olI4__JTmr3xQB8E9O4GmZDjYMtAxdj95aBhxd6xHbpPbtR6rfiB21z/s851/Dancing%20with%20Jesus1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="851" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePNA7FPhYrvpcw50pVfu8GjjPh4YN-LOIY5KecTXydZfk3gbtKE4fbZdsdRWvnDjOiWOfxhlygMF4k-dT-Z2A-yDXvKt9prgllcvOnWhFzDfxl4hPKcj23zij27cwGE_B4olI4__JTmr3xQB8E9O4GmZDjYMtAxdj95aBhxd6xHbpPbtR6rfiB21z/w286-h215/Dancing%20with%20Jesus1.jpg" width="286" /></a></div>Christians who have believed for years that dancing is a sinful activity, may have difficulty accepting the idea that God is a Dancer and the Creator of dancing. But they can overcome that difficulty by remembering, as they watch an innocent toddler spontaneously trying to move to a musical rhythm, that humans are made in the image of God. Humans dance because they reflect their dancing Maker.<p></p><p></p><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjhlbxYXVTfJJzaKxWTW1vj7kJ0h104zV6sHXsd_7IGVHXcKQL9C51CzdS7AnRVEwU82D3Q-UQJbUlK59IADulBD_DIY7yUIXEHdplL-v2vNPuM4RbrlNZSYjwlf7leEZDXJGbXdfBJ3YqFPUwiVlGKW0GfAaXrf53lALYj2jFh1AJLrH-_1caVVzT/s868/folk%20dance1.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="868" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjhlbxYXVTfJJzaKxWTW1vj7kJ0h104zV6sHXsd_7IGVHXcKQL9C51CzdS7AnRVEwU82D3Q-UQJbUlK59IADulBD_DIY7yUIXEHdplL-v2vNPuM4RbrlNZSYjwlf7leEZDXJGbXdfBJ3YqFPUwiVlGKW0GfAaXrf53lALYj2jFh1AJLrH-_1caVVzT/s320/folk%20dance1.jpg" width="320" /></a>Even those claiming to take a moral stand against dancing will sometimes catch themselves tapping their toes unconsciously to the beat of a lively Christian song. That foot movement is the built-in urge of the body to be in sync with the melody. God purposefully put that elementary tendency to move with rhythm into His image-bearers, and when it is creatively and expressively expanded, it becomes what all cultures in the world know as <i>dancing</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8khzaWE53y9MbFgFYAqU8ZzKRWKgWzgymI3aPvkBS9Cd3_dN-HzorqvqW6WoOMm09_Mywq7mKmD-399s5W2cIEVHzea2DI_t7EIXq12evigUZyiPAL_LS7iHxb402NRn5kSpfLj7orV9n5M0GlTba--KijqvBChn7EjooJpa186zManCIKWISEw0j/s864/tambourine%20dancing.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="864" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8khzaWE53y9MbFgFYAqU8ZzKRWKgWzgymI3aPvkBS9Cd3_dN-HzorqvqW6WoOMm09_Mywq7mKmD-399s5W2cIEVHzea2DI_t7EIXq12evigUZyiPAL_LS7iHxb402NRn5kSpfLj7orV9n5M0GlTba--KijqvBChn7EjooJpa186zManCIKWISEw0j/s320/tambourine%20dancing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>But the greatest cure for a Christian who legalistically condemns dancing is the “</span><i style="text-align: left;">reproof</i><span style="text-align: left;">” and “</span><i style="text-align: left;">correction</i><span style="text-align: left;">” of God’s Word (</span><b style="text-align: left;">2 Tim 3:16</b><span style="text-align: left;">). It is God Who turns our “</span><i style="text-align: left;">mourning into dancing</i><span style="text-align: left;">” (</span><b style="text-align: left;">Psa 30:11</b><span style="text-align: left;">). His Word tells us to “</span><i style="text-align: left;">praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!</i><span style="text-align: left;">” (</span><b style="text-align: left;">Psa 149:3</b><span style="text-align: left;">). When He rebuilds His people, Israel, telling them that they will celebrate, He says, “</span><i style="text-align: left;">you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers</i><span style="text-align: left;">.” (</span><b style="text-align: left;">Jer 31:4</b><span style="text-align: left;">). While merrymaking is not to be our perpetual activity, God’s Word tells us that there is “</span><i style="text-align: left;">a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;</i><span style="text-align: left;">” (</span><b style="text-align: left;">Eccl 3:4</b><span style="text-align: left;">). King David evidently thought it the proper time for a physically vigorous celebration, when he “</span><i style="text-align: left;">danced before the LORD with all his might… wearing a linen ephod</i><span style="text-align: left;">” (</span><b style="text-align: left;">2 Sam 6:14</b><span style="text-align: left;">), as the ark of God was being brought into Jerusalem.</span></div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS57eXJz9-2hQwuIrRMtcY6cNj8Y1yxdEs5eMqmWkZZ9lO8cW6YmyOwOAqf4Y5sh-kMUcEr9PCKFkUMwsvp2184fKGX5dW3y0vcnIpVATkYuni6vDkF7DPOJM2-2EVhOYFpHVrK15qifHjJhOekggSQlj57JU5Iv0D5xglXaFl3XPW5SXFK5Y19UV4/s536/davidsdance.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="536" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS57eXJz9-2hQwuIrRMtcY6cNj8Y1yxdEs5eMqmWkZZ9lO8cW6YmyOwOAqf4Y5sh-kMUcEr9PCKFkUMwsvp2184fKGX5dW3y0vcnIpVATkYuni6vDkF7DPOJM2-2EVhOYFpHVrK15qifHjJhOekggSQlj57JU5Iv0D5xglXaFl3XPW5SXFK5Y19UV4/s320/davidsdance.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>David’s wife Michal sarcastically chided him, “<i>How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!</i>” (<b>2 Sam 6:20</b>). Michal’s criticism of her husband’s devotional dance may have stemmed from her ideal of propriety, which entailed maintaining royal prestige. But, in one respect, it parallels the reaction of the Pharisees in their legalistic disdain of John the Baptist and of Jesus. Yet their responses went beyond hers. They repudiated both the ascetical elements in John the Baptist and the mundane practices of Jesus (see <b>Luke 7:33-34</b>). Jesus quoted a popular childhood aphorism to expose their legalism’s vacillating attitude. In it, Jesus presents dancing as an appropriate response to music, and His approbation of it aptly reproves the inappropriate religiosity that berates dancing today: <p></p><i>They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,</i><br /><i>
“‘We played the flute for you,<br /> and you did not dance;<br /> we sang a dirge,<br /> and you did not weep.’”</i> (<b>Luke 7:32</b>)<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDgX26yO47ZTINS_aLk5a9QYFGR3uT8ViMQ-QOmbdwVkuhPc2CBLJx-ayJr-5uwpx7ucLSmvn-WIWUNrfupMWz4yT-Sy2sA7qnMv5SLGGrhI4rvexg2ewvX6FIBST7rjerPCZq2tw1gukontX1oFaEjp0ZAPhVNsmjFHCvn4qQLSw3ABlYeTNh1SO/s696/balletdancers2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="670" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQDgX26yO47ZTINS_aLk5a9QYFGR3uT8ViMQ-QOmbdwVkuhPc2CBLJx-ayJr-5uwpx7ucLSmvn-WIWUNrfupMWz4yT-Sy2sA7qnMv5SLGGrhI4rvexg2ewvX6FIBST7rjerPCZq2tw1gukontX1oFaEjp0ZAPhVNsmjFHCvn4qQLSw3ABlYeTNh1SO/s320/balletdancers2.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>In regard to dancing, the modern Pharisee is quick to point out the tight apparel of the ballet dancer, which clearly reveals the shapely physique of the body, even as nudity itself would. The implication is that everyone should know that such a frank display of the body’s shape is lustful. That focus is perverted, coming not just <i>implicitly</i> from a cultural porno-prudery but <i>explicitly</i> from an objectifying <i>sex-focus</i> on the body’s physical anatomy. They view the anatomical features that give shape to the human form as lust-inspiring rather than God-glorifying. What God originally called “<i>very good</i>” (<b>Gen 1:31</b>) in assessing His unadorned creative handiwork, the porn-tinted mind calls “a lustful temptation.” Such a view of the human body is definitely not our Maker’s view, but <i>His</i> perspective should definitely be <i>our</i> perspective. <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLTZMmk2xO6oeHj6F1mQPyn8mjOZXL67C0mGo_-Kwkx8EwPo1OZjlAPb1SNpR3h74Dq3Siheh3C7KfXqhA13wnrguvkBbLldyqcibWBi38L3CsUqeplqxhr-ACT7_lKDlYg2omfRbb5J6hwGyGmH0YFVcQZ8-TyZvLs5DUUm6luDAUGoOV79rq-k_/s706/worship%20Him.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="706" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLTZMmk2xO6oeHj6F1mQPyn8mjOZXL67C0mGo_-Kwkx8EwPo1OZjlAPb1SNpR3h74Dq3Siheh3C7KfXqhA13wnrguvkBbLldyqcibWBi38L3CsUqeplqxhr-ACT7_lKDlYg2omfRbb5J6hwGyGmH0YFVcQZ8-TyZvLs5DUUm6luDAUGoOV79rq-k_/s320/worship%20Him.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Christians know from Scripture that the human body, in tights or in the buff, is “<i>fearfully and wonderfully made</i>” (<b>Psa 139:14</b>, KJV). Even if secular and religious majorities have a pornographic mindset, we should not emulate their worldly, Creator-maligning focus. Our reasoning should be obvious: 1) as Christians, “<i>we have the mind of Christ</i>” (<b>1 Cor 2:16</b>), with eyes that should be surrendered to see the human body as He does, and 2) we are to obey God’s directives in <b>Rom 12:2</b>, “<i>Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.</i>” Getting our minds renewed from conformity to a worldly sex- or shame-focus requires a willing submission to “<i>the washing of water by the word</i>” (<b>Eph 5:26</b>, KJV). Only by such a renewal of mind will the serious believer learn “<i>the will of God</i>” about dancing, His “<i>good and acceptable and perfect</i>” will.<p></p><p><b>A Concluding Finale</b></p><p>Investments in falsehood won’t get into Heaven. While I don’t believe in a place called Purgatory, I can envision a mind-cleansing obligation that Christian <i>dance-deniers</i> might face in the afterlife. Perhaps their naked souls will have to dance their way through the pearly gates, jumping and twirling forward after having wept tears at a devastating sight outside. Prior to entry, a consuming fire will incinerate all “<i>wood, hay,</i> [and] <i>stubble</i>” with flames that “<i>will test each one’s work</i>” (<b>1 Cor 3:11-15</b>, KJV). Will those who legalistically maligned dancing witness their efforts being consumed? If, after reading this, they adamantly reject what I’ve written here, I’m sure they will consider this article itself as part of the “<i>stubble</i>” destined for that fire.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpXQI-Zx19bHLyDrqA07YMAz_u7OpjimjJl_V_836Mhhg3vGRJ2q-F6uWJIxjQTckbYBnXNAKhllx09akqju5HTAI6aACJywn83sNJCRhAFrPR5I4vcuopWFAtJYITbZ7-8f-fp4tpgUWf3GEt_Qwf3gNncVROWnaPqG5ll9loSkkd_xh8qdELbj5S/s611/DanceQuote1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="504" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpXQI-Zx19bHLyDrqA07YMAz_u7OpjimjJl_V_836Mhhg3vGRJ2q-F6uWJIxjQTckbYBnXNAKhllx09akqju5HTAI6aACJywn83sNJCRhAFrPR5I4vcuopWFAtJYITbZ7-8f-fp4tpgUWf3GEt_Qwf3gNncVROWnaPqG5ll9loSkkd_xh8qdELbj5S/w193-h234/DanceQuote1.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>But if I’ve truly offered my readers a valid glimpse of the counsel of God on dancing, then I envision an opposite experience. I foresee that all believers in Christ, including any who formerly taught against dancing, will be celebrating quite frequently in joyously exuberant dances throughout eternity.<p></p></div>David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-26152021619594690132022-03-29T14:41:00.004-07:002022-07-05T11:17:41.622-07:00"DRESS ME IN YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ALONE!"<BODY>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHeAnskec5dJTjAiVsJUFdofsOsbFrG0UcYZI3uBcCc9YnLCNIlRJUmykRN3kHoJSB9NBZzgjx8KaDzxIydcXPvJilZ4MmLbdAdaJ2pFKPTqOkhoVQ-lBt9HULyEcQ1BMquBcm3VuVCrjVS8peKkjqHK-73LlVDu_v53KTOHjtUSg1SHppLqsWnW4/s1446/CFO-creatives%203-26-22.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1446" data-original-width="1123" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHeAnskec5dJTjAiVsJUFdofsOsbFrG0UcYZI3uBcCc9YnLCNIlRJUmykRN3kHoJSB9NBZzgjx8KaDzxIydcXPvJilZ4MmLbdAdaJ2pFKPTqOkhoVQ-lBt9HULyEcQ1BMquBcm3VuVCrjVS8peKkjqHK-73LlVDu_v53KTOHjtUSg1SHppLqsWnW4/w498-h640/CFO-creatives%203-26-22.jpg" width="498" /></a></div><br /><p>The above, quickly done ink and watercolor image was part of a recent online CFO retreat held using Zoom. This portion of the short, one-morning retreat was that part of our daily CFO camp activities called "Creatives." It's a personal time of prayer in which you ask for God's guidance in some creative activity (using clay, paints, pastels, poetry or prose), then let God speak more deeply to you through what you've created. Finally, if so led in the <i>show & tell</i> conclusion, you can share with the group what you created and what God said to you through it.</p><p>This image was in my mind as soon as "Creatives" began. After its completion, God spoke to me about how the righteousness of Christ is much larger than we are. We need to grow up spiritually so that it fits on us, or rather, that we fit into it. The verse that came to mind was <b>Ephesians 4:13</b>, where we must continue to be "<i>edified</i>" (<i>built up</i>) "<i>until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.</i>" </p><p>For almost 40 years of my life, CFO (Camps Farthest Out) has been a vehicle of spiritual formation, especially in the area of prayer. It was established back in the 1930s by Glenn Clark, a college professor who taught creative writing and coached sports. He took some students for a 2-week camping adventure in prayer on an island <i>the farthest out</i> from the New York coast. That's how the camp got its name.</p><p>Besides daily morning "Meditations" and afternoon "Prayer Groups," Glenn Clark's emphasis on experimentation in prayer involved using bodily movement in a daily part of the camp called "Rhythms" or "Devotion in Motion" or, less commonly, "Spiritual Aerobics." It is very much like the playful bodily exercises done in kindergarten. But after first discovering CFO as an adult, I found that it was a <i>stretch</i> for me to participate (pun intended). Now, however, with my body's <i>shortness-of-breath</i> issues, I can still stand and make gentle hand motions, but any kind of dance-like activity would send me to the ground praying for more air!</p><p>This year (2022), the Silver Sierra CFO Camp, which I usually attend, is scheduled at Camp Alta in Alta, CA (off of I-80, 10 miles above Colfax) from <b>June 12th thru June 17th</b>. If you'd like to attend, here is their link for registration: <a href="https://cfonorthamerica.org/events/california-silver-sierra-cfo/4616" target="_blank">California Silver Sierra CFO | Association of Camps Farthest Out (cfonorthamerica.org)</a>. Or on that page, click on the "Home" button to see where and when other camps are scheduled in the USA this year.</p><p>If you've never been to a CFO, I promise you, it will be a "far out" experience with God.</p>
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David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-32291196695461054452022-02-05T19:46:00.007-08:002022-07-05T11:20:03.336-07:00ADOPTING GOD’S VIEW OF BARE ANATOMY<BODY><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">(The title preface and accompanying image below were given to my article when originally posted on the Seedbed blog for pastors. For an unknown reason, it was removed recently. It had been listed in the "</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Top 14 Articles for 2014," but it disappeared. This is unfortunate f</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">or those with a </span><i style="font-family: helvetica;">sex-focus</i><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> on the body that chains them to porn and body shame problems. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I reproduce it here because its message remains prophetic and crucially needed by Christians caught up in the demonic lie of porno-prudery.)</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>Embracing Nakedness: Adopting God’s View of Bare Anatomy</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">by David L. Hatton</span> <span style="font-family: arial;">(published on Seedbed.com, Jan. 9, 2014)</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOTKsiC-lVGo9Xga3AiC0E1I4rc7QdP92dc_wavJWng1tUoHK5j1SQ_NvzgmBfJLf6pZD6J8QwweQIZyk_SDs5QPnfaIIctX2K7ngX90cRsRW3tk7KkcgT0JXYofFi0AXLGEJPak2ZAW5M_js-QM6DxjaB9WQ0cJAy2zMDDhQFbVGIBzbZ5yC8nW8y=s743" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="743" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOTKsiC-lVGo9Xga3AiC0E1I4rc7QdP92dc_wavJWng1tUoHK5j1SQ_NvzgmBfJLf6pZD6J8QwweQIZyk_SDs5QPnfaIIctX2K7ngX90cRsRW3tk7KkcgT0JXYofFi0AXLGEJPak2ZAW5M_js-QM6DxjaB9WQ0cJAy2zMDDhQFbVGIBzbZ5yC8nW8y=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m a Wesleyan pastor who is grateful for the landmark <i>Theology of the Body</i> of Karol Wojtyla (late Pope John Paul II). No theologian ever dealt so comprehensively with God’s purpose for gendered human embodiment. This quote summarizes his theme:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">“The body, in fact, and only the body, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it.”</span></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">As an art lover and amateur artist, I was surprised to read Wojtyla’s ideas somewhat echoed by Henri Robert in his book <i>The Art Spirit</i>:</span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">“There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body. In fact it is not only among artists but among all people that a greater appreciation and respect for the human body should develop. When we respect the nude we will no longer have any shame about it.”</span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">But before ordination or art classes, I was an L&D nurse, and still am. I work routinely and intimately with bare female anatomy. If this raises any brows, I’ve hammered out my own quote that brings Wojtyla’s and Robert’s together:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">“A Creator-honoring, incarnational view of the naked human body dispels the fantasy-laden, porno-prudish conception religiously taught and pornographically exploited in Western culture.”</span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">For almost 25 years, I put up with the uncomfortable contradiction between my experiential view of hospital nudity and the one taught by my Christian upbringing. Finally, when God opened my eyes to the dysfunctional immaturity of our culture’s reaction to public breastfeeding, I did my homework. Through intense research about the phenomenon of human nakedness biblically, historically, culturally, and psycho-socially, I experienced a radical paradigm shift in my thinking. My studies showed me the American church’s urgent need of repentance, reformation and restitution for having adopted and promoted Victorianism’s <i>flight from the body</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The bottom line is this: <i>a prudish view of the body is a pornographic one</i>. Religiously placing an obscene or indecent sexual connotation on the sight of gender-distinguishing body parts creates a sexually objectified body. Such legalism, if socially embraced, becomes the conceptual foundation for a pornographic culture, as ours is now. Also, this objectification trivializes the <i>body language</i> of human genitalia, allowing them to be ignored as features of personal gender identity and distinction. Take some time to do the math on this, and it should cause tears.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Theologically</i>, beyond shining a spotlight on the church’s notorious support of Victorian prudery, these personal insights showed me how Gnosticism’s influence on the early church still lingers in popular Christian thinking.[1]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Practically</i>, my discoveries led me to join some other pastors in creating a website to fight porn addiction. Our message at MCAG (mychainsaregone.org) is <i>body acceptance</i>, calling men to see women as the Creator does, in opposition to the traditional body-shame approach, which tells them, “Bounce your eyes!”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Ministerially</i>, I feel like “<i>the voice of one crying in the wilderness</i>.” Christian porno-prudery is so well established as a virtue that most are blind to its real nature as a vice. Yet it has kept Christians from being the world-renowned experts in sex education that our understanding of creation and the Incarnation ought to have made us. It has stopped multiple thousands of Christian art students from ever becoming skilled with the nude. If we hadn’t abandoned the human body by surrendering God’s image and temple into secular hands, these young artists might have become modern Michelangelos painting contemporary “Sistine-Chapel” ceilings. Such a holy display of human nudity in our churches might have been a realistic preventative to our current religious and social focus on naked anatomy as an avenue of lust and on gender-specific body parts as sex objects.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">I explained the gist of this article to one senior pastor who agreed with my viewpoint but believed the situation hopeless, saying that society and the church are too far into this to ever be changed. I must disagree. The naked truth of reality changed me. Porno-prudery is a learned attitude that can be unlearned through <i>repentance</i>. Gnostic ideas that devalue matter and flesh can be dispelled from our pulpits. Preaching theologically-correct <i>body acceptance</i> can bring a <i>reformation </i>in Christian thinking that restores the strong incarnational message our modern world needs to hear.[2] Although it means swallowing our pride, even the last step is possible: <i>restitution</i>. If our porno-prudery has played a role in the development of a society riddled with porn addiction, body-image dysfunctions, gender confusion issues, human-trafficking, and more, we must confess our error, ask forgiveness, and start behaving as if the “<i>fearfully and wonderfully made</i>” naked human body never stopped being “<i>very good</i>” (Gen 1:31).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">--------------------</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">[1] For further study on this, see my article, “</span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/132AhwwEnBMdh-DW4602xK_57DrN0ceWj/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Incarnational Truth about Humanity’s Sexual Nature (Doing Body-friendly Theology Free from Gnostic Prudery)</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">”.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">[2] Anyone truly serious about this area might like to read some of the same material I have on this subject in my webpage “<a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/rebuilding-links.html" target="_blank">Rebuilding a Godly View of the Unclad Human Body - </a></span><a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/rebuilding-links.html" target="_blank">Why and How to Stop ‘Thinking Dirty’ about God’s Image and Temple</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">”.</span></p>
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</script></BODY>David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-52050215200726204022022-02-03T15:18:00.008-08:002023-04-05T18:01:39.274-07:00MUSE - Naked Truth Poses Again (a novel)(<a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0768LP9P8" target="_blank">My books are available on Amazon at this link</a>.)<br /><br /><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsiRZlKjvYEM2qMClGbue0c-35hkzfhQEZnnDgsJtScC5hgylfIylTxN8FzRGl230qHmQE2f4ZSlXvhentIJKu-AlxIWtfFQ90TU1_jvVCgLD78cY4MqWVgvUxReSogL7Qn2m6b7fQixi1uxod8yGaqiygDVIVlkZihDRdvYvY-Eyl8MG1jD-AH4yu/s845/MUSEdisplay.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="653" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsiRZlKjvYEM2qMClGbue0c-35hkzfhQEZnnDgsJtScC5hgylfIylTxN8FzRGl230qHmQE2f4ZSlXvhentIJKu-AlxIWtfFQ90TU1_jvVCgLD78cY4MqWVgvUxReSogL7Qn2m6b7fQixi1uxod8yGaqiygDVIVlkZihDRdvYvY-Eyl8MG1jD-AH4yu/s320/MUSEdisplay.jpg" width="247" /></a></div></div><div>I started out 2022 by publishing a novel that I've been working on a couple of years. My son Samuel designed the cover to be similar to my other two books that deal with the subject of <i>body acceptance</i>. Rather than explain why I wrote a third one, I'm letting you read my explanatory preface. Or, if you would rather read both it and well into Chapter 3 of the story, you can skip it here and go directly to <a href="https://amazon.com/MUSE-Naked-Truth-Poses-Again-ebook/dp/B09PKW4C6T/" target="_blank">the novel's KINDLE PAGE</a> and use its helpful "<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red; font-family: arial;">Look </span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial;">Inside</span></span>" feature to do that reading.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;">I've already seen two favorable blog reviews of it, which you may also like to read. One is by <a href="https://dhjonathan.com/2022/01/14/muse/comment-page-1/?unapproved=16337&moderation-hash=b90359da9f5130e0b6de7e6dcdcc65bb#comment-16337" target="_blank">a fellow who does art modeling</a> and the other by <a href="https://achingforeden.wordpress.com/2022/01/21/david-l-hattons-muse/" target="_blank">a Christian naturist</a> (yes, there are such people who authentically love Jesus and enjoy fun in the sun as naked as God made them). And if you decide to read the whole novel, which I hope you will, please leave me a comment here or give it a review on Amazon. Thanks!</p></div><div><p></p></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />MUSE - Naked Truth Poses Again</span></b></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">"Preface"</span></b></p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A novel needs no introduction, if its narrative quality provides attractive bait to hook readers and reel them in. But I’m just an old poet-prophet, destitute of a seasoned novelist’s years of writing fiction. This explanatory preface raises no hopes for a big <i>catch</i>. I’m not even sure it will draw many <i>bites</i>. I merely feel that prospective readers, before investing their time, deserve a word or two about a book’s purpose. If you don’t need or want to know why this story was written, feel free to skip this section and dive into the first chapter, or at least to test its waters.</p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Some may be baffled by my title, <i>MUSE</i>, wondering if it stands for the mythical name given to <i>personified creative inspiration</i> or for the directive to <i>think over</i>, <i>consider carefully</i>, <i>ponder deeply</i>. But I refuse to tell which one it is. As most poets, I love the fruitful fun of employing <i>double entendre</i>. I even slipped it into my subtitle: <i>Naked Truth Poses Again</i>. So, is she replaying her role as artist’s model or posing again her searching questions? Actually, the reader’s own interaction with the story will determine whether it’s <i>either-or</i> or <i>both-and</i>.</p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Those familiar with my first two body-acceptance books—<i>Meeting at the River</i>, an annotated novelette, and <i>“Who Said You Were Naked?”</i>, a mixed anthology—will find these prefatory remarks redundant. But new readers should be warned about my continuing mission. I feel divinely called to confront society’s dysfunctional, <i>porno-prudishly</i> sexualized view of the body. This third book again utilizes fiction, especially focusing on a culturally supported context where nude human anatomy is creatively observed, maturely accepted, and respectfully treated. In <i>Meeting at the River</i>, the comparable contextual backdrop was my own years of experiencing normal, nonsexual nudity in hospital nursing. This tale involves another area I’m personally familiar with as well as perpetually thrilled by: <i>art</i>.</p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My novel started out as a short story, but as the plot thickened, new chapters kept materializing. In fact, I discovered first hand what I knew about only from rumors, that fictional characters can take a story down unforeseen paths, steering it wherever they wish. Drawing on subconscious reservoirs of thought, they make serendipitous decisions, bypassing the writer’s original plans. While watching this phenomenon play out, I decided to supplement the story’s main theme. Here and there, I slipped a few sub-messages into the scenes, allowing issues to come on stage directly from my own ideas and concerns. After all, shouldn’t I, as an author, have some <i>say-so</i> to add to that of the imaginary personalities I allowed to take control of my drama?</p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Finally, as with my other books, I aim at and pull the trigger on a special Christian audience: <i>those practicing and preaching the lie of porno-prudery</i>. On this world’s shooting range, they’re not the only guilty targets at which <i>the naked truth</i> needs to be fired. But unfortunately, the ammo loaded here is a liberating message Bible-believing churches have been dodging for years. My sights zero in on the same bullseye Jesus wants to hit: <i>the heart</i>. God delights in “<i>truth in the inward being</i>” (Psalm 51:6, ESV). There He’s able to transform our lives from the inward to the outward. Truth begins by leading us to change our thinking (<i>repentance</i>). But when truth firmly grips our hearts, we change our behavior (<i>reformation</i>).</p><p><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Truth sets people free; lies keep them bound. One deceptive web Satan spins to capture today’s Christians is a <i>sexualized body</i>. This falsehood traps multitudes in the devastating social evils of pornography, sex addictions, body-shame issues and a growing array of sexual excesses, aberrancies and abuses. For years, many pulpits zealously communicated this <i>sex-focus</i>, sanctimoniously translating it as a “holy” <i>body shame</i>. Such preaching tragically confirmed society’s sexual objectification of our bodies, which were meant to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Such false language has only reinforced our wayward culture’s sexualized treatment of God’s embodied image. My prayerful hope is that this novel’s presentation of <i>the naked truth</i> will help God’s people abandon the unwholesome, sexually-obsessed religious lie they grew up with and to adopt the emancipating truth of a godly, Creator-honoring, mature and healthy <i>body acceptance</i>.</p><p>— DLH</p><br /></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-50345017813279741532021-11-27T01:02:00.011-08:002022-12-24T00:25:03.732-08:00WHY THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT?<body>
<font color="#800000" face="arial" size="-1">[On PC only, hover mouse over Bible references for ESV, or use "<font color="#0000ff">more »</font>" on pop-up for more versions]</font><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvcDkECyeldlLiMUatpqkTVEhFPz2IoXwAbCQsxcvBJC0-VeVkUPE0CcvyeMtK8bPyzEHZ1n0-mrMf52mELqn-V8mK7Pqw9i8CsF555rTbIrmI9uxhkoNF6hqI0GKoOxTnEczIdSFNfa8/s832/Original+Sin.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="832" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvcDkECyeldlLiMUatpqkTVEhFPz2IoXwAbCQsxcvBJC0-VeVkUPE0CcvyeMtK8bPyzEHZ1n0-mrMf52mELqn-V8mK7Pqw9i8CsF555rTbIrmI9uxhkoNF6hqI0GKoOxTnEczIdSFNfa8/w400-h271/Original+Sin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">
<em>Why did God create the forbidden fruit?</em> It’s a
question for deep thinkers only. Some accuse God
of cruelty for putting a temptation like “<em>the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil</em>” in the Garden
of Eden. Such talk shows they either doubt God’s goodness or don’t know
how temptation
works, or both. When God pronounced everything He made “<em>very
good</em>” (<b>Gen 1:31</b>) that tree was
included. And long ago we were instructed about the nature of
temptation in <b>James 1:13-14</b>,</div><p><em>When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting
me.”<br />
For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;<br />
but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire,<br />
he is dragged away and enticed.</em><br />
</p>
<p>But the question remains, “Why the forbidden fruit?” If a
tree’s fruit was dangerous enough to
kill humans, then why did God create it and place it in Paradise [the
literal meaning of Eden], right “<em>in the middle of the garden</em>”?</p>
Nothing is directly stated about that tree’s purpose, but some clues in
those first 3 chapters of
Genesis point to its <em>edibility</em> and its <em>function</em>.
We already know God deemed it “<em>very good</em>,” and <b>Gen 2:9</b> tells us it was among trees that were “<em>good for food</em>.”
God indicated its significance by
centrally locating it next to the crucially important “<em>tree
of life</em>.” But what was its function?<br />
<br />
After “<em>the serpent</em>”—identified in <b>Rev 12:9</b> as “<em>Satan</em>”—deceived
Eve by saying, “<em>You will not
surely die</em>” (<b>Gen 3:4</b>), both she and Adam ate that tree’s
fruit, and they at once died, but not at
first <em>physically</em>. Later, in the New Testament, we
learn their immediate death was <em>spiritual</em> (<b>Rom 5:12-24</b>). But Satan had told them a partial truth about the fruit’s
power: “<em>God knows that when
you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil</em>.” God
Himself confirmed this in <b>Gen 3:22a (NKJV)</b>, “<em>Behold, the man
has become like one of Us, to
know good and evil.</em>” While this divine statement greatly
supports the doctrine of the Trinity, it
also gives us a hint about <em>spiritual death</em>.
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
God warned Adam and Eve in <b>Gen 2:17</b>, “<em>you must not eat from
the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.</em>”
But when they did, He prevented them
from living forever physically in their fallen, spiritually dead state.
He removed Adam’s race
from Eden’s source of everlasting life: “<em>He must not be
allowed to reach out his hand and take
also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. So the LORD God
banished him from the
Garden of Eden...</em>” (<b>Gen 3:22b-23a</b>). Both alchemy’s old quest
for the life-extending
<em>philosopher’s stone</em> and the proverbial search for
the <em>fountain of youth</em> express a human longing
for regaining access to that “<i>tree</i>.” But Paradise and “<em>the
tree of life</em>” have been relocated from
our planet to Heaven (<b>Rev 2:7; 22:2,14,19</b>).
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
To see why fruit from “<em>the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil</em>” brought spiritual death, we
must first understand how the “<em>Us</em>” of the Trinity “<em>know
good and evil</em>.” The Eternal Persons of
the Triune Godhead have an absolute “<em>knowledge of good and
evil.</em>” If <b>Gen 3:22a</b> is a divine
Self-revelation, then They each “<em>know</em>”
independently in Themselves—intrinsic to Their
uncreated nature as God—the precise distinction between “<em>good
and evil</em>.” No created
being—angelic or human—intrinsically has that divinely accurate “<em>knowledge.</em>”
While they <em>can</em>
learn it (<b>Heb 5:14</b>), they are forever dependent on God for it. But in
Eden, through this “<em>tree of
the knowledge of good and evil</em>,” God made a way for
something “<em>like</em>” it to become a part of
humanity. Evidently, God wanted human creatures, who already <em>imaged</em>
the Trinitarian “<em>Us</em>” of
<b>Gen 1:26 (NKJV)</b>, “<em>Let Us make man in Our image, according to
Our likeness</em>...”), to be able, at
some future stage of progress, to “<em>become <strong>like
</strong>one of Us.</em>” Since we were already bearing His
representative “<em>likeness</em>,” this further “<em>like</em>”-status
had to be of another sort, perhaps <em>relational</em>.
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
Human survival <em>depends</em> on the God of Truth, for “<em>man
does not live on bread alone but on
every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD</em>” (<b>Deut 8:3</b>). The exact story of fallen angels
is obscure, but our own story is clear. Our human ancestors took and
ate that fruit when it was
forbidden to them, and its transformative power worked. It gave them
independence in their “<em>knowledge of good and evil</em>”—an
internal means,
independent from God, for <em>knowing</em> and
<em>determining</em> distinctions between “<em>good
and evil</em>.” In other words, we became morally
independent of divine guidance and direction, able to decide our own
personal and cultural
moralities, and that’s how human history has played out from our
earliest days up to modern
times. The spiritual death in such moral independence from God has
proved to be blatantly
obvious.
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
But in contemplating the Trinity—a Union of Three eternally distinct
Individuals as One God,
and so much One that They name and speak of Themselves in the singular
(“<i>I AM that I
AM</i>”)—we must come to terms with the mutual and simultaneous
Self-Denial, even Self-Death,
intrinsic to Their absolute Unity as morally independent Persons. God
never asks us to do what
He has not done or is not doing Himself. In <b>Mat 16:24-25 (NKJV)</b> Jesus
called us to a self-death
similar to His own: “<em>If anyone desires to come after Me, let
him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life
for My sake will find it.</em>” Our self-denying self-death is a
prerequisite for experiencing “<em>life... in
abundance</em>” (<b>John 10:10, CSB</b>) by intimate union with Christ,
and through Him, ultimate union
with the Triune God.
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
Adam and Eve’s sin of not listening to and obeying God contained its
own lethal consequence. It
was much like the death of children who, being told not to do it,
disobediently run into a busy
street after escaping balls or abandoned toys and are killed in the
traffic. The balls or toys did not
cause their death, but their desire for them, outweighing their fear of
the warning, tragically led
them to it. If they had listened and obeyed, their parents might later
have seen the traffic
disappear, grabbed their hands and walked them safely into the empty
street to help them retrieve
their desired items.
<br wp="BR1" />
<br />
Although the above illustration is inadequate, I believe it points to
the possibility of God’s
original intention for “<em>the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil</em>,” as hinted earlier: a <em>relational</em>
purpose. Created beings can never become the Uncreated, but God can
invite us to become as “<em>like</em>” Him as He has become
“<em>like</em>”
us in Christ’s Incarnation. In His Plan A, He might have
brought us to maturity in a self-death “<em>like</em>” His
own Trinitarian one. In that case, humanity’s
future might have had this tree’s fruit—deadly to us without that
<i>self-death</i>—served to us on the
table of “<em>the wedding supper of the Lamb</em>” (an
unsacrificed one), for Whom we, “<em>his bride</em> [had]
<em>made herself ready</em>” (<b>Rev 19:7-9</b>) through a much
less difficult <em>self-denial</em>. But, deceived into
acting on our own, we ate that fruit without divine permission, and in
Plan B, “<em>the Lamb</em>” <em>did</em>
have to die, to provide the way for us, the Church, to make ourselves
ready as His Bride.
Now—in a fallen world, surrounded by fallen people, and hampered with
our own fallen sin
natures—we must struggle daily to resist that internalized fruit of
moral independence and to
embrace a self-denying self-death that is much harder than it would
have been, yet is still
possible. Christ, living in us through the Holy Spirit, teaches us to
practice His prayerful lifestyle
of “<em>not my will but Yours be done</em>,” and the more
we do, the more progress we make in our earthly
sanctification.
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
While Scripture has “<em>the tree of life</em>” in Heaven
for us to eat from freely, we do not see there the
misused “<em>tree of the knowledge of good and evil</em>.”
We already carry its fruit inside of us as now
part of us. Even becoming “<em>new creations in Christ</em>” (<b>2 Cor 5:17, CSB</b>) does not erase its intended effect, for Christ
Himself had its result in Him through becoming genetically human through
Mary.<b>[1]</b> By learning from
Jesus how to use our <em>individual moral independence</em>
in the way God originally intended, we will
<em>make ourselves ready</em> for our coming wedding with
Him, our Bridegroom. It will be a true
marriage of equal partners, because He became one of us, partaking
fully of our <em>human nature</em>, so
that we could become “<em>like</em>” Him as fully as
humanly possible by partaking of “<em>the divine
nature</em>” (<b>2 Pet 1:4</b>). Without that comprehensive sharing of
natures, corporately redeemed
humanity could not even have a friendship with Christ, let alone an
equanimous marriage.
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
So, far from being a temptation, or even a test, as some teach, I
believe the Biblical clues behind
my speculation show that this, at first, deadly “<em>tree</em>” was to be an awesome wedding gift from our
Creator. It allowed us, as lowly human creatures, to stand in
exaltation forever beside Jesus in a
mutually self-denying, eternal marital union.
<br />
<br wp="BR1" />
Some people hate to read poems, probably because much poetry is written
as enigmatically as
Old Testament prophets sometimes proclaimed their prophecies. But I’ve
tried to capture in a
sonnet many of the concepts I’ve shared above. I hope it forms both an
adequate review and an
apt conclusion to this article.
<br wp="BR1" />
<br wp="BR2" />
<p><strong>FORBIDDEN FRUIT</strong></p>
No, not a test, but gift put on reserve,<br />
a present for unwrapping later on,<br />
a prize to guard and carefully conserve<br />
till youthful immaturity was gone.<br />
<br />
But Satan knew the fruit upon that tree<br />
could sow false independence in our race<br />
and blind—through open eyes—ability<br />
to fellowship with Maker face to face.<br />
<br />
What would have served as food for marriage feast,<br />
when Son of God would win His human Bride,<br />
became a path of bondage to the Beast,<br />
who laughed to think our destiny had died.<br />
<br />
But Mary’s Son would crush that Serpent’s head<br />
and rise to raise His Spouse back from the dead.<br />
<br /><em>— David L. Hatton, 4/16/2018</em><br />
(from <em><a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Fear and Faith</a></em> © 2019)<br />
<br />
— — — — — — — <br /><b>
[1]</b> See my blog article, “<a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-first-advent-incarnation_28.html">THE
FIRST ADVENT: THE INCARNATION</a>,” which explains this in great detail.
<p></p>
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</body>David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-3306404837979501972021-10-08T23:52:00.002-07:002023-04-05T18:15:03.431-07:00POEMS BETWEEN THE BEGINNING AND THE END - Introduction<p></p><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">(<a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0768LP9P8" target="_blank">My books are available on Amazon at this link</a>.)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIZapptxXay_8fDEHCJVhauFnnSfKnM1r1Ff3qkMJDkjT2lzAafLpvWkX9sbS3Ms2fiy2V29tEwAxrZw-_0Ljm6QakZdyJEjsyd4yg6fn-DogkQ1MLn8Gl0uE1PQgrZwKywvwsdW23wTSvIGFaER-7814g1yjR9ViTwoLgN-aE_ig290XsvP2iI4ja/s845/PBtBatEdisplay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="653" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIZapptxXay_8fDEHCJVhauFnnSfKnM1r1Ff3qkMJDkjT2lzAafLpvWkX9sbS3Ms2fiy2V29tEwAxrZw-_0Ljm6QakZdyJEjsyd4yg6fn-DogkQ1MLn8Gl0uE1PQgrZwKywvwsdW23wTSvIGFaER-7814g1yjR9ViTwoLgN-aE_ig290XsvP2iI4ja/s320/PBtBatEdisplay.jpg" width="247" /></a></div></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">(Before becoming a preacher, a nurse, an amateur artist, or a massage therapist, I was a poet. I still am. Getting my poetry published in more than homemade binders had been a dream for years. Health challenges and the rise of modern book-publishing technology merged to motivate me to make the effort. This and my other books are published through <a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B0768LP9P8?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader" target="_blank">Kindle Direct Publishing</a> in both </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">paperback and Kindle editions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I wanted to put </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">the introductory essays for each poetry collection </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">on my blog. If you want to know what makes me tick, my poems tell it better than a biography.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">This "Introduction" and the concluding poem are from my 7th book of poems. To read the posts from my others, click on these links:</span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/11/poems-between-heaven-and-hell.html">Poems Between Heaven and Hell</a></i>;</span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-darkness-and-light.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Darkness and Light</a></i>;</span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-death-and-life.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Death and Life</a></i>;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-birth-and-resurrection.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Birth and Resurrection</a></i>;<br /><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif""><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2016/09/poems-between-here-and-beyond.html" target="_blank"><i>Poems Between Here and Beyond</i></a>;</span><br /><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif""><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/poems-between-fear-and-faith.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Fear and Faith</a></i>.)</span></div><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"></span><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>“Introduction” to</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Poems Between the Beginning and the End</b></span></i></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 0; widows: 0;">
</p></div></div></div><div>In a philosophy class in high school, I became enthralled with Augustine’s idea of time. He tried to show that by their sequential nature, time past and time future have dimension, while present time does not. At the point where past and future meet, there is nothing. Any seeming dimension in the present can be further divided into past and future. But, from the perspective of this dimensionless present, the past no longer exists and the future is yet to be.</div><div><br /></div><div>These philosophically convoluted thoughts led me to ask, “Does time exist?” and to write an essay on it for that class. My teacher coached me in framing that same question into a suitable form and submitting it to Mortimer J. Adler’s weekly newspaper column. If that renowned educator and philosopher chose to discuss it, I would win a 54-volume set of Britannica’s <i>Great Books of the Western World</i>. That happens to be how I came to own that set of books.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite how valid the above arguments seem in showing time’s nonexistence, modern astronomers and cosmologists depend mathematically on time’s real existence for their knowledge of the cosmos. In fact, from a subjective, psychological viewpoint, all of us bring the past into our present experience by recollection, and we can dream or visualize the future now by anticipation and planning. At the speed of thought, we jump from one past memory to another or from one future prospect to another. God designed us with a subconscious repository from which the conscious mind accesses these preoccupations in a manageable way, usually one item at a time.</div><div><br /></div><div>From this psychological perspective, the past that we have lived has dimension in our present thought, and even our earthly future has a tentative existence and duration. What seems without dimension is our beginning and our end. They are like the front and back covers of a book whose pages contain the history of our earthly lives. We consciously experience nothing before our beginning, and unless we are told by God what comes after death, we cannot tangibly anticipate what comes after the back cover that ends our personal story.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of paramount earthly importance to our humanness are <i>identity</i> and <i>memory</i>. I’ve come to believe that both exist as a functional union of the physical body and the spiritual soul through a uniquely formulated and parallel integration of cellular and spiritual DNA. This interactive arrangement provides for both individuality and memory. The physical DNA produces a neuro-network for memory’s manifestation in the material world, while the spiritual DNA governs the repository God designed in a person’s soul for its storage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Neurologists can show that memories are consciously elicited by brain stimulation. Materialistic scientists take this as proof that the physical brain stores personal memory. To date, however, the actual physiological mechanism of that storage—in brains cells whose molecular matter is fully replaced about every 7 years—escapes explanation.</div><div><br /></div><div>The manner of cerebral memory storage can never be discovered, if personal memories are stored in the soul and merely accessed by the brain, as cloud or disk memory is accessed by computer operators. Many with NDEs (near-death experiences) tell of still having their memories and identities as they float from hospital rooms into afterlife territory. After they return to their resuscitated bodies, what they saw and experienced is stored not in their brains, which were nonfunctional during the episode, but in their souls, which actually had the experience.</div><div><br /></div><div>From the beginning of our DNA marriage between soul and body until it ends in death, our identity is not static. Sin and the Fall have damaged our biological DNA so that the deterioration of aging is part of our earthly sojourn. Old age changes us physically. Conversely, the memories stored in our soul also change us, becoming part of what makes up our personalities. God graciously calls us and lovingly provides for us to expand our identities in the direction of <i>who we really are</i> in Him. But our free will can choose pathways that lead us away from the moral and servant-leadership purposes for which He made us body-spirit beings.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the titles of all my poem books, I have attempted to convey the circumstantial tension in which human volition determines personal destiny. The context of life’s choices are both the pages between life’s book covers and the chapters that alternate between the way of self and the way of God—in other words, between <i>heaven and hell</i>; <i>darkness and light</i>; <i>death and life</i>; <i>birth and resurrection</i>; <i>here and beyond</i>; <i>fear and faith</i>; and now <i>between the beginning and the end</i>. It’s in this <i>in-between</i> space that we live and make choices, from the very outset to the final sunset.</div><div><br /></div><div>At this period of my life, prostate cancer and heart problems have curtailed much of my bodily activity, yet each day only increases my soul’s desire to learn. While my thirst for theological knowledge is far from quenched, I have developed a voracious appetite for studying both molecular biology and cosmological astrophysics. The desire to grow in my experience with drawing and painting is still unmet. But, in the realm of poetry, part of that late-in-life ambition to learn and experience more is profusely reflected in the large number of explorations I’ve made in trying my hand at Japanese and Korean poetic styles. I’ll admit upfront that I’ve never made the proper distinction between <i>haiku</i> and <i>senryu</i>. I call all of my 3-line non-rhymes of 5-7-5 syllables <i>haiku</i>, when technically I know most of them fail to meet the exigencies of the form. On the other hand, I did try to follow the formal rules with my <i>tanka</i> and <i>sijo</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>My tendency to insert comic-relief into my poetic stream of frequently serious subject matter had a prolific growth spurt in this volume. Perhaps a closer view of my mortality, while increasing the depth of my seriousness, has led to interspersing these pages with much more creative humor. As you will see, I discovered some new outlets for that in limerick-making and other word-play experimentation. And I must admit that, along with those <i>fun</i> and sometimes satirical creations, I made some serious attempts at new forms or lyric patterns as a result of entering poetry contests on Allpoetry.com. In fact, it was from a contest requiring <i>a crown of sonnets</i> that I decided to go beyond the entry requirements and work on an <i>heroic crown of sonnets</i>—14 sonnets with the last line of each becoming the first line of the next sonnet, and concluding with a <i>master sonnet</i> composed of all those previous first lines. The result was what I now consider my <i>magnum opus</i>. I wrote it right at the outset of the Covid-19 lockdown, when everything slowed to a standstill, except the gift of time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Time truly is a gift. Cosmologists now realize that it had a beginning <i>ex nihilo</i>. But no matter how long the universe lasts, our personal slice of cosmic time has an endpoint. Someday all of what was our life’s future will be in storage as past memories. How our identities have grown toward God or away from Him will be all that matters in the afterlife. Skip my attempts at humor, if you must, but pay close attention to my serious stuff. As always, it is my hope and prayer that my more prophetic and spiritual messages in verse might help my readers make decisions for Christ that will bless them now and for eternity.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>— David L. Hatton</i></div><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><div><br /></div></div></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>PERSONAL PETITION</b></div></div></span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div><br /></div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>Lord, lead me safe on the physical plane</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>past life-draining pits on the upward path</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>where frolic’s folly brings bodily pain</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>or sins I avoid feed the devil’s wrath.</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>As my strength subsides and my powers wane,</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>Lord, lead me safe on the physical plane.</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div><br /></div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>God, govern my will, as my mind grows old,</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>while my life-clock ticks till its spring’s unwound.</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>When the final days of my stay unfold,</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>keep my feelings calm and my thoughts still sound,</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>discerning the dross from the goal of gold—</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>God, govern my will, as my mind grows old.</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div><br /></div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>As my soul declines, let my spirit sing;</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>as my mission ends, let my worship last.</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>May I still be grateful for everything</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>with a forward look, letting go the past.</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>To Your glory’s praise, ever-present King,</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div>as my soul declines, let my spirit sing!</div></div></span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div><br /></div></div></span></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>— David L. Hatton, 11/20/2020</i></div></div></span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div style="text-align: left;">(<i>Poems Between the Beginning and the End</i>, © 2021)</div></span></blockquote><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For more single poems from this volume, visit my website's “</span><a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/poetry.html" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Poetry Page</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></div></span>David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-52009287772305724272021-10-04T19:13:00.005-07:002022-07-08T22:34:58.904-07:00JESUS DREW A LINE<body>
<font face="arial" size="-1" color="#800000">[On PC only, hover mouse over Bible references for ESV, or use "<font color="#0000ff">more »</font>" on pop-up for more versions]</font><br /><br />
<p>What line did Jesus draw? He drew the dividing line between God’s
Kingdom of Light and Satan’s dominion of darkness. He didn’t draw
this line philosophically—leaving it open to discussion or to the
shifting definitions of human opinion and religious ideology. Because
Jesus was the Messiah King, His arrival on the scene of human history
created the real, spiritually tangible existence of that dividing
line. His incarnational coming inaugurated the earthly debut of the
Kingdom of God, and that Kingdom’s ongoing spiritual presence calls
for human wills to respond. Putting off or making excuses to avoid a
decisive response was then and is now to make a negative choice.</p><p>John the
Baptist—sent by God as a prophetic voice to <i>prepare</i> people
for receiving the coming King—preached, “<i>Repent, for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!</i>” Jesus preached exactly the same
message with another intent. He was now calling people to <i>participate</i>
in that Kingdom by putting their trust in Him. True <i>repentance</i>
or <i>metanoia</i> [“change of mind”] is not an emotional sorrow
over personal sins or an intellectual adaptation to a new concept.
It’s the full human person—body, soul, and spirit—fully
surrendering to Jesus Christ as the Savior King. The choice of
repentant faith in response to the <i>Good News</i> of God’s
Kingdom initiates in the believer’s heart the actual Reign of
Almighty God, “<i>the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation or shadow due to change.</i>” (James 1:17).
Forgiveness of sins and a renewed mind are the results of that
surrender, for both are found only in the King.</p><p>Satan is at work
24/7 to prevent sinners from crossing over that dividing line by
their surrender to Jesus. For all human history, he’s avidly
studied our fallen nature, learning how to play every field in order
to cater successfully to each human inclination. “<i>Satan
disguises himself as an angel of light</i>” (2 Cor 11:14), not pure and holy light, but creational forms of
light and enlightenment tinted to individual human taste with various
degrees of darkness. He offers as many shades of gray as there are
human personalities to be duped by them. He still uses his old
<i>forbidden-fruit</i> promise that “<i>your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil</i>” (Gen 3:5), and it still yields the deadly blindness of multiple
moralities, all independent from God. Long before humans fell into
it, the devil chose this path to moral independence from God. By
leading us into it too, he became “<i>the god of this world</i>”
who not only “<i>blinded the minds of the unbelievers”</i>
in Eden,
but continues to blind all
the unbelieving, “<i>to keep them from seeing the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.</i>”
(2 Cor 4:4).</p><p>Scripture reveals
that by God’s Son “<i>a</i><i>ll things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.</i>”
(Col 1:16). Jesus drew a line
symbolically in the beginning when He “<i>divided the light from
the darkness,</i>” (Gen 1:4). But in
the human birthright of moral conscience, from the beginning until
now, He has faithfully been “<i>the true Light which gives light to
every man coming into the world.</i>” (John 1:9).
All creation, including those made in His image to be servant-leaders
and caretakers of creation, were described by God as “<i>very good</i>”
(Gen 1:31). All creation, including
us, would have remained “<i>very good</i>,” if human leadership had remained
living in the <i>truth</i>, walking in the <i>light</i> of the Lord.
But we listened instead to the liar Satan and were deceived into the
spiritual death and damning darkness of his lies.</p><p>Jesus described the
deceiver: “… <i>He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding
to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks
his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies</i>,”
(John 8:44); and He contrasted the
deceiver’s works to His own: “<i>The thief does not come except
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have
life, and that they may have it more abundantly</i>,” (John 10:10). Satan extends his own rebellion against God through
us by luring us to sin against the God of light, thereby capturing us
as prisoners in his <i>dominion of darkness</i>. Jesus unmasked the
devil’s goal in tempting us to sin—“<i>Very truly I tell you,
everyone who sins is a slave to sin,</i>” (John 8:34)—and
the Apostle John told the end result: “<i>He who does what is
sinful is of the devil.”</i> John continues by telling why no
human can enter the territory of self-will and autonomy from God without falling
under Satan’s influential power, and sometimes, his full control: “<i>because the devil has been sinning from the beginning</i>.” Because he got there first and is the mastermind of
rebellion against God, he rules over the domain of sin. But these explanations
from 1 John 3:8 conclude with the divine intervention that is humanity’s only hope: “<i>The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.</i>”</p><p>Why does God’s
work of salvation boil down to this one thing: <i>destroying Satan’s
work</i>? It’s because <i>sin</i> means “<i>missing the mark</i>,”
and the divine <i>mark</i>, God’s true <i>target</i> for humans, is to walk in truth by living and thriving in the God of truth. Through lies, Satan tempts people to use their God-given desires in
God-forbidden ways. He uses creation itself, or his manipulations of
created things, to lure those “good” human desires into “<i>missing
the mark</i>.” And the result? “<i>Then, after desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown,
gives birth to death</i>,” (James 1:15). The incredible
but inconceivably gracious response of our loving God to our sins and spiritual death was the Cross
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. By personally paying for our sins
on the Cross, Jesus drew a line in human history between sin’s damnation and sin’s forgiveness. By His Resurrection,
which completed His work on the Cross, Jesus drew a line between the
spiritually dead and the divinely alive, between slavery in Satan’s
dominion of darkness and the abundant life in God’s Kingdom of light.</p><p>The vicarious
Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross went beyond taking away sins. It
also put the <i>sinner</i> to death. A crucial dimension of
destroying “<i>the devil’s work</i>” was for Jesus vicariously
to take into His own death the <i>false humanity</i> that Satan had
fashioned with lies: “<i>For we know that our old self was
crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,
that we should no longer be slaves to sin</i>,” (Rom 6:6). But, while the forgiveness of sins is God’s
instantaneous act, the emancipation from slavery to sin is
chronological, progressing in earthly time as rapidly as believers in
Christ let the truth of Christ set them free. In promising believers
this liberation, Jesus inferred this progressive pattern: “<i>If
you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know
the truth, and the truth will set you free,</i>” (John 8:31-32).</p><p>Many have knelt at
the Cross of Christ for forgiveness without completely surrendering
to the <i>abundant life</i> He brought to them by His Resurrection.
Death to the “<i>old self</i>”—the <i>false self</i> created by
Satan’s lies—is not a one time event. In Galatians 2:20,
the Apostle Paul made an amazing claim based on Christ’s work on
the Cross: “<i>I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.</i>”
In
this
statement, he
was describing
his victorious
walk
“<i>by faith in the
Son of God</i>”—his
experiential
journey
in
daily
manifesting his new
life in Christ.
In
our union
with Christ,
we can live life
“<i>more
abundantly</i>,”
but
not automatically. Day
by day, even moment
by moment, we
must choose to
follow
Him, choose to obey
Him. In the same way, while
we have been “<i>crucified
with Christ</i>”
we do not automatically die to the individual lies that shaped the
<i>false self</i>.
We
must,
by
a choice of our new will in Christ, reject
any
lingering lies. This
is why the
Apostle Paul exhorts
us, “<i>Put
to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is
idolatry</i>,”
(Col 3:5).</p><p>Placing
our faith
in Jesus
brings us across the line from death to life, because “<i>if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed
away; behold, all things have become new</i>,”
(2 Cor 5:17</a>).
But Satan
doesn’t easily give up on
repentant
sinners
who were
once his slaves. If he
can’t
keep
us in
his realm of darkness with the old
lies he once used to
enslave us,
he invents
a million others—appealing
half-truths, innocent-looking gray areas—to lure us back across the
line into
his territory.
This is why Jesus said, “<i>Do
not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not
come to bring peace, but a sword</i>,”
(Mat 10:34).
He
came
to draw a
line that meant <i>spiritual
warfare</i>
for the rest of this fallen world’s history. Believers
are to be warriors commissioned to help others find their <i>true
selves</i>
in Christ. In
order to do that, without themselves
becoming
spiritual
casualties in the battle, they
must
keep
their minds and hearts
fed on the
truth God has revealed in
His Word.
They must become skilled
in resisting satanic lies with “<i>the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God</i>,”
(Eph 6:17).<p></p>This
dividing line is absolutely precise.
There
is no middle ground, no room
for a mixture
of the brightest light of truth with
the
faintest tint of shading. Divine truth has no tolerance of a compromise
between
the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the most appealing precepts of ancient
or modern wisdom. Therefore, it can never ever be Jesus
<i>plus</i>
something else, for the
very
person
and presence of
Christ the King defines
the Kingdom of God.
He
alone is
the King of
Kings,
Who
said, “<i>I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me.</i>”
(John 14:6).
From
that exclusive stance,
Jesus drew a
line, and
everyone’s eternal destiny depends on what side of the line they
choose
to be on.</p><p>[If you found this helpful, you might also want to read, <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/04/finding-and-becoming-our-true-selves.html" target="_blank">Finding and Becoming Our True Selves</a>, <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/10/question-autonomy_11.html" target="_blank">“Question Autonomy!”</a> and <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2020/10/identity-amnesia.html" target="_blank">Identity Amnesia</a>.]</p>
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</body>David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-76067211265910144812021-02-03T16:14:00.007-08:002021-02-03T18:26:05.948-08:00DEATH IS REAL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiXXCnAlr7y2kzILn6PpI5Ft3K5CLq1mjm8466dcrz_8E8UJyyI2ucDLzyuRGJPTKePZzf1BntAtCbOP9ki5jCsDwl2GG5CVW9hawWBjWAThbJzlviCiPnSkx_GokkDDhj8nVwn5trGmE/s314/rip.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="204" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiXXCnAlr7y2kzILn6PpI5Ft3K5CLq1mjm8466dcrz_8E8UJyyI2ucDLzyuRGJPTKePZzf1BntAtCbOP9ki5jCsDwl2GG5CVW9hawWBjWAThbJzlviCiPnSkx_GokkDDhj8nVwn5trGmE/w130-h200/rip.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>The title is a no-brainer, but necessary. Almost universally, we avoid
contemplating the obvious fact of universal mortality. But ignoring
death’s inevitability can’t make it go away or help us face it. The
following free verse poem (rare for me) is my attempt to emphasize the
utter finality of eventually arriving at our individual earthly end
point:<br />
<br /><b>
TERMINUS</b><br />
<br />
Hourglass empty;<br />
Measured cord cut;<br />
Opportunities passed;<br />
Possibilities exhausted;<br />
Game over. . . .<br />
<br />
End of discussion:<br />
No more opinions;<br />
All choices chosen;<br />
Personal history frozen:<br />
The last period<br />
Forever terminating<br />
The last sentence<br />
In each autobiography<br />
(Once partly private,<br />
Hereafter an open book).<br />
<br />
End of the trail,<br />
Concluding all steps<br />
Down all forks in the road<br />
To finish the journey;<br />
Point of no return;<br />
The ticket’s last stop;<br />
End of the line<br />
At the final destination,<br />
Where earthly life stops<br />
And afterlife begins.<br />
<br />
Whether delight,<br />
In reward and rejoicing,<br />
Or disaster,<br />
In retribution and regret:<br />
Gate shut. . . .<br />
<br /><i>
— David L. Hatton, 8/28/2015</i><br />
(from <i>Poems Between Here and Beyond</i> © 2016)<br />
<br />
As a Gospel preacher, my wish isn’t to create a morbid focus on death.
I want to remind everyone to take their life-decisions seriously before
death. But not all reminders about death do this equally well. <br />
<br />
Inundation with news of death can be a blessing or a curse. Hearing of
others dying warns us to prepare. We’re mortal, and sooner or later,
we’ll leave this life for the afterlife. But a constant media
stream—announcing the passing of faraway people unrelated to us—can
numb our perception. Tragic stories of freak accidents, lethal
illnesses, merciless homicides or desperate suicides may shock us, but
to preserve mental hygiene, we dare not dwell on daily mortality
reports too long. Yet dismissing them too quickly can dull us to what
news of any death ought to instill: <i>a resolve to be ready to face our
own</i>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDznCYwbZFOSWA6kn7zC0M68cGA5zlnB_kj8bVs9JNfTMVAHkaoPXyrVRE4SRsYfupkLoEka7tUIKhL6Ai6N3ISDZWLur7u7l03YbK04d83E7Y-LEcfGIFt62CzucExPWNi3B3QRmoWA/s640/SRAnthologyjpg.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="421" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDznCYwbZFOSWA6kn7zC0M68cGA5zlnB_kj8bVs9JNfTMVAHkaoPXyrVRE4SRsYfupkLoEka7tUIKhL6Ai6N3ISDZWLur7u7l03YbK04d83E7Y-LEcfGIFt62CzucExPWNi3B3QRmoWA/w132-h200/SRAnthologyjpg.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>If media journalism fails, sometimes literary fine arts can succeed,
especially when poets or novelists adeptly develop believable
characters. Edgar Lee Masters showed this skill in his <i>Spoon River
Anthology</i>—a free verse chronicle of an early 1900s Midwest
community. Masters had the deceased of a fictitious village speak their
own brief, autobiographical epitaphs from the grave. The voices of each
terminated life stirs reflection, draws sympathy, or offers a cautionary
reality-check. In the latter case, the message usually gives an alert
or an advisory about <i>life</i>, as exemplified in the following excerpts
from two of the poems, “Harold Arnett” (a suicide) and “Lucinda
Matlock”:<br />
<br />
I pulled the trigger… blackness… light…<br />
Unspeakable regret… fumbling for the world again.<br />
Too late! Thus I came here,<br />
With lungs for breathing… one cannot breathe here with lungs, <br />
Though one must breathe.…<br />
Of what use is it<br />
To rid one’s self of the world,<br />
When no soul may ever escape the eternal destiny of life?<br />
* * *<br />
At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,<br />
And passed to a sweet repose.<br />
What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness,<br />
Anger, discontent and drooping hopes?<br />
Degenerate sons and daughters,<br />
Life is too strong for you—<br />
It takes life to love Life.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjziVMZL0KZPWtXlyaAHzCsqf7EDZZLVfjZ1BcztBwtAawP0bbPTYW38qXL5WU3fjKF5O_ZW6nb7KjmznFLaaSkvl2r0r58puTSkcPsj-sBP0cVG7AIQCsxKUMfnx0wBBiB9e84AzVNC84/s400/Deadline.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="264" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjziVMZL0KZPWtXlyaAHzCsqf7EDZZLVfjZ1BcztBwtAawP0bbPTYW38qXL5WU3fjKF5O_ZW6nb7KjmznFLaaSkvl2r0r58puTSkcPsj-sBP0cVG7AIQCsxKUMfnx0wBBiB9e84AzVNC84/w132-h200/Deadline.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>Recently, I finished the murder mystery <i>Deadline</i>, a page-turner by
novelist and Bible teacher Randy Alcorn. His credible characters
allowed him to weave much into the story to provoke serious thought
about living right and dying well. Such novels can change a person’s
perspective on how to live and how to die. Certain readers might evade
Alcorn’s intent by claiming the obvious: “<i>It’s only fiction.</i>” But
this novel’s moral imperatives are not make-believe, and its decisive
fork in the road at Christ’s Cross leads either to the heavenly bliss
of eternal life or to the ultimate death of everlasting separation from
God.<br />
<br />
Death in fiction and poetry can be powerful and moving, but when closer
to home, it’s another matter. At the passing of neighbors, friends,
relatives, a parent, our spouse, a son or daughter, we mourn more
deeply and ponder our loss much longer. Over time, grief may subside,
but reminding memorablia in our immediate environment frequently
resuscitate and extend the pain of the parting. Achieving a complete
<i>goodbye</i> may take years, or we may still be in the process when it’s our turn
to depart. While some call belief in an afterlife superstitious,
the <i>goodbye</i> intrinsic to grief may unconsciously express the hope
contained in the contracted phrase from which it derives:
“<i>God be wi’ ye!</i>” Almost as a cultural reflex—and perhaps even contrary to
one’s personal doubts or unbelief—the human tendency is to add to “<i>God
be with you</i>” the colloquially familiar phrase “<i>till we meet again</i>.”<br />
<br />
Because these nearer and dearer incidents of death are not quickly
forgotten, the personal message they offer is not as easily brushed
aside. Our thoughts linger on missing faces. We reminisce about lost
embraces. I believe there’s a built-in human longing—an afterlife hope,
stated or unstated—for a heavenly reunion, where we regain the presence
of our departed loves ones and again feel their warm hugs.<br />
<br />
The sterile worldview of modern philosophical materialism—a belief that
time, space and matter are all that exist—cancels any hope for an
afterlife. It evaluates personal individuality after death as “dust in the wind.” Religions envisioning God as a moral scorekeeper, who
tallies our successes against our failures in life, provide no
assurance that we’ll make it to such a reunion. But the Gospel call to
follow Jesus Christ is relational. His personal promise is certain,
inspiring confident faith. In <b>John 14:2b-3</b> (NKJV), Jesus said, “<i>I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you
may be also.</i>”<br />
<br />
Many years ago I wrote a poem to contrast what philosophies and
religions offer with what the Gospel of Christ proclaims. I think it presents a perfect appeal on which to conclude these thoughts
about the inevitability of death and what we need to decide before we
meet it:<br />
<br /><b>
THE ANSWERING</b><br />
<br />
Is there any meaning, a purpose why we’re here,<br />
A reason for our living and dying day by day?<br />
Could there be a message that comes from the beginning,<br />
Outside our world of striving? Is someone there to say?<br />
<br />
If it is all illusion, if we are just machines,<br />
How can we measure value? Are we worth more or less?<br />
If we are merely atoms that clumped by time and chance,<br />
Why deem ourselves so precious upon vague hope and guess!<br />
<br />
If only Someone’s out there to speak His love by word,<br />
To tell us who we are; if only Someone came,<br />
Then we’d have an answer. (Religion gave too many—<br />
Science forgot our souls), but He’d have to leave His name.<br />
<br />
Science said, “Keep searching.” Religion said, “Try harder.”<br />
Some said, “Do your own thing.” And others said, “Be brave!”<br />
But tell me how to listen. The voice of pain is loud!<br />
The wounded scream around us. We face an open grave. . . .<br />
<br />
But One came speaking purpose and wept at pain and death<br />
And healed the brokenhearted. “A lunatic,” said some.<br />
But He said Someone sent Him named Father God and Love.<br />
He claimed to seek the lost ones; that One who came said,<br />
“Come.”<br />
<br /><i>
— David L. Hatton, 8/23/1978</i><br />
(from <i>Poems Between Heaven and Hell</i> ©1991, 2014)<br />David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-88811213933198434972020-10-17T20:27:00.002-07:002020-10-24T18:33:04.464-07:00IDENTITY AMNESIA<p>
When we, as sinners, get concerned about our standing before God, we usually think first about our sins. We’ve broken laws, transgressed commandments, trespassed forbidden boundaries, omitted obligations and in many ways “<i>missed the mark</i>” (the literal meaning of <i>sin</i> in the Bible, from how poorly aimed arrows miss targets). This initial concern is natural for humans, and God may use it to get our attention. In <b>John 8:24</b>, Jesus told those who doubted that He was God’s Son, “<i>if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.</i>” But earlier, in the same chapter, His words to a woman caught in adultery clearly expressed His Father’s attitude: “<i>Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.</i>”</p>
<p>
Because God is gracious to repentant sinners, He forgave sins and transgressions in the Old Testament, long before Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb of God. But, while guilt for sins was one problem the Cross addressed, God’s major target was the <i>sin nature</i>: our <i>disposition to sin</i>. Because God created us with an intrinsically united <i>body-spirit</i> nature—the human body created to be spiritual and the human spirit created to be incarnate—Adam and Eve could not help but <i>genetically</i> pass on to all their descendants this <i>bent toward sinning</i>. We all inherit it, and receiving pardon for sins doesn’t eliminate it. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A1-7&version=NKJV"><b>Genesis 3:1-7</b></a> tells how Satan strategically worked to get this functional source of sins <i>inside of us</i> as a race. But <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%203%3A8&version=NKJV"><b>1 John 3:8</b></a> proclaims that the Son of God showed up on earth to destroy “<i>the works of the devil.</i>” This was His pragmatic purpose, but not His motivating goal.</p>
<p>
The motive of His heart was revealed when Jesus said in <b>Luke 19:10</b>, “<i>the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.</i>” We lost much in the Fall of our first parents, but the most crucial loss was in the memory of our created identity. Personal sins, whether in thought, word or deed, do not cause this spiritual amnesia. Sinning is a developed habit, bred and fed by deeming ourselves independent from our Creator. Yet this way of thinking seems to come naturally to us. We are born with no memory of our absolute and total dependence on God. Complaining that this ignorant situation isn’t our fault will change nothing. The effects of this <i>missed mark</i> on the human condition are universally persistent. The personal multiplication of <i>sins</i>, in acts or attitudes, continues to confirm this race-wide matrix of <i>sin</i>, which functions in this absence of an authentic, dependent relationship with our Maker.</p>
<p>
<b>Mark 1:4</b> states that “<i>John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of <b>sins</b></i> (plural).” But when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, he said, “<i>Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the <b>sin</b></i> (singular) <i>of the world!</i>” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+1%3A29&version=NKJV"><b>John 1:29</b></a>). Oswald Chambers explained this theological difference between <i>sins</i> and <i>sin</i> extremely well:</p>
<p></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin; but that the disposition of sin . . . entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+9.26&version=NKJV"><b>Hebrews 9.26</b></a>)—an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization—I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. (<i>My Utmost of His Highest</i>, October 5th)</span></blockquote><p></p>
<p>
By a preoccupation with <i>sins</i> instead of a focus on <i>sin</i>, many have misconstrued what happened in the beginning. We know from <b>Genesis 1:31</b> that after completing creation, “<i>God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.</i>” This divine evaluation included “<i>the tree of the knowledge of good and evil</i>” (<b>Genesis 2:9</b>), even though its early misuse derailed its “<i>good</i>” purpose from being revealed. God merely told Adam to take care of it, to guard it, but not to eat from it, warning that, if he did, it would kill him. When Adam and Eve ignored this warning and ate that tree’s forbidden fruit, they immediately died spiritually, and afterwards, physically. What they took into themselves had the deadly effect of making them morally independent from God. Once ingested, it gave them their very own “<i>knowledge of good and evil</i>”—an ability to determine right and wrong for themselves. This laid the groundwork for humans to develop a myriad of conflicting personal and cultural moralities down through history, each relying on a <i>knowledge</i> not directly received from God.</p>
<p>
When a father warns his child, “Don’t play with the gun . . . it can kill you,” and the child disobeys and dies, the disobedience may have led to the death, but a bullet killed the child. Similarly, when Satan duped Adam and Eve into ignoring God the Father’s warning, they disobediently consumed something that had the power to separate them spiritually from Him and from the divine life He wanted for them. The ultimate effect of imbibing moral independence from God was to kill themselves and us, their descendants. Incorporating this spiritually lethal fruit into their lives and into the human race was the precise point where “<i>sin entered the world, and death through sin,</i>” as described by <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A12-19&version=NKJV"><b>Romans 5:12-19</b></a>. But in that same passage, God’s gracious solution to the <i>sin</i> problem is also explained.</p>
<p>
Any possibility of having restored human bodies, souls and spirits with clear memories of our original role in servant-leadership required a <i>new humanity</i>. This hope materialized when God’s Son became a <i>body-spirit</i> human being. Christ’s unique conception (<b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201%3A20&version=NKJV">Matthew 1:20</a></b>) from one of Mary’s <i>ova</i> and from the Holy Spirit’s <i>overshadowing</i> (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201%3A35&version=NKJV"><b>Luke 1:35</b></a>) combined both the necessary genes of the <i>sin nature</i>, which Mary inherited from Adam, and the essential “<i>seed</i>” of a new human race, which the Holy Spirit’s breath freshly created from earthly matter (as God had first done in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2%3A7&version=NKJV"><b>Genesis 2:7</b></a>).</p><p>
God’s Son becoming a human being is the greatest of all cosmic and celestial miracles. This marvelous <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-first-advent-incarnation_28.html">Incarnation</a> initiated a new human genome, one with an intrinsically divine nature. But the genetic presence of the <i>sin nature</i> in Jesus, and its utter defeat throughout His earthly life, allowed Him to take this <i>disposition for sinning</i> to the Cross. Paul describes this incredible fact in <b>2 Corinthians 5:21</b>, “<i>For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.</i>” It’s the theological ground for his insistence that “<i>our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,</i>” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rom+6%3A6&version=CSB"><b>Romans 6:6</b></a>). This amazing facet of the Incarnation enables both Paul and us to say, “<i>I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me,</i>” (<b>Galatians 2:20</b>).</p>
<p>
Because it’s our self-life of <i>sin</i> that produces <i>sins</i>, God’s goal in salvation was not just forgiveness but renewal. The DNA of the old Adam was nullified by Christ’s bodily death. But the new human genome, the immortal DNA in His resurrected body, made Jesus “<i>the firstborn from among the dead</i>” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1%3A18&version=NIV"><b>Colossians 1:18</b></a>), with many others to follow. Resurrection introduced a new order of human life, a new humanity destined to reign forever over “<i>a new heaven and a new earth</i>” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2021%3A1&version=NKJV"><b>Revelation 21:1</b></a>), led by Christ the Savior and King.</p>
<p>
Our upbringing in a world alienated from God’s will and ways confirms and nurtures our <i>sin-bent</i> false self in sinning. God’s plan for us is that we stop being sinners and remember our true selves. Christ’s saving gift of <i>new birth</i> begins a new creation in us that reinstates our lost memory. By indwelling us through the Holy Spirit, He facilitates our growth in remembering and living out our true identity as servant-leaders, created “<i>in the image of God,</i>” the Supreme Servant-Leader (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A26-27&version=NKJV"><b>Genesis 1:26-27</b></a>).</p>
<p>
If you’re not a Christian, you’re still suffering from spiritual amnesia. God wants to remedy that, but He will not override your personal will in order to do so. You must freely choose to surrender yourself to Him, the Lord of heaven and earth Who came to restore your spiritual memory loss. Heed Christ’s warning in <b>Mark 8:36</b>, “<i>For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?</i>” Nothing is more eternally precious than the <i>true self</i> God intended you to manifest in creation. He calls you to forget your false identity of a self-directed self-sufficiency, so you can discover your forgotten identity as a uniquely designed servant who depends on divine guidance. Your success in that holy remembering is enabled by the special grace that accompanies your choice to obey Christ’s familiar invitation, “<i>Follow Me.</i>”</p>
<p>
If you’re already a Christian, but have been so preoccupied by worldly concerns or distractions that you have forgotten “<i>your first love</i>” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%202%3A4&version=NKJV"><b>Revelation 2:4</b></a>), then you also must <i>surrender</i>. Choose to remember <i>who you really are</i>. Don’t let the world define your identity. Only your Maker and Lord can tell you <i>who you are</i>. If you wake up each day with your Christian memory foggy or fading, then realize your need for forming new habits. Start spending more time talking to God in prayer, more time reading His Word, more time focusing your mind on Christ and listening for His voice in your daily activities. Memorizing Scripture is one of the best habits to develop, and modern technology has brought modern help in that area (Google “the Verse-Locker app”). There’s really no such thing as a once-for-all surrender. The NKJV of <b>Luke 9:23</b> records Jesus instructing each disciple to “<i>take up his cross <b>daily</b>, and follow Me.</i>”</p>
<p>
The following verses offer a concluding summary and poetic reinforcement of these finals exhortations.</p>
<p>
<b>SURRENDER</b></p>
<p>
Never wait until disaster<br />
wraps your body in a ball,<br />
or your limbs get set in plaster<br />
after feeble flight and fall:<br />
cease today to flee the Master,<br />
slowing down to heed His call.<br /></p>
<p>
Boast no sinful self-reliance<br />
to disparage Heaven’s Throne;<br />
wave no scepter of defiance,<br />
proudly claiming, “I’m my own!”<br />
or you’ll drown in dark compliance<br />
to a demon’s rule alone.<br /></p>
<p>
Inner conscience is observant,<br />
when away from God we swim:<br />
our Creator is a Servant,<br />
calling us to image Him<br />
with devotion full and fervent,<br />
waylaid not by wish or whim.<br /></p>
<p>
God won’t confiscate decision . . . <br />
we must relegate our will<br />
to His radical excision<br />
of the sin that made us ill.<br />
Dream no shallow, quick revision:<br />
we’ve a void He longs to fill<br /></p>
<p>
When a sinner’s heart is willing<br />
to become a saintly soul,<br />
Christ indwells by Spirit filling,<br />
making broken places whole.<br />
Even angels find it thrilling,<br />
watching Jesus meet His goal.<br /></p>
<p>
<i>— David L. Hatton, 10/17/2020</i></p>
David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-26422760245487880082020-07-25T11:34:00.005-07:002020-08-22T18:17:42.851-07:00THE PANDEMIC’S PANIC-DEMIC<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>and of love </i><i>and of a sound mind. </i>— <b>2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)</b></div>
<br />
Many Christians, including myself, began the year 2020 hoping it would be one of 20/20 vision, a year for gaining a clearer perspective on God’s will and purposes for us as His people. The verse prefacing this article encourages us not to despair of that hope. What the Apostle Paul proclaimed to Timothy predates all the fearful crises of history that followed its writing and still tells us what thwarts the “<i>spirit of fear</i>” that typically accompanies all such critical times.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When frightful dangers do take control of the mind, panic is the result. But God gave us “<i>a sound mind</i>,” one equipped with the spiritual fruit of <i>self-control</i>. This divine inheritance should distinguish our response to dangers from that of a worldly reaction, as Paul makes clear in <b>Romans 8:15 (NKJV)</b>, <i>For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”</i> Pressing down on one side of the contemporary scales is the authentically <i>bad news </i>of a global plague. On the other side of the scales is the infinitely weightier <i>Good News</i> of who we are in Christ. But, before examining how our identity as God’s children tips the balances, I want to discuss another balancing act between <i>bad news</i> and some <i>better news</i> that is currently in effect for everyone.<br />
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Despite heated disputes about the political and medical nature of this present pandemic, the <i>bad news</i> is very harsh: <i>many more will die from Covid-19</i>. Neither the growing fears broadcast by mainline media nor the reassuring rebuttals proclaimed in social media will prevent Corona-virus-related deaths from mounting. Yes, traditionally wise hygienic practices may slow the spread. But none of the public’s confidently debated opinions—about the need for masks or their risks, social distancing or its ineffectiveness, lock-downs or their socio-economic dangers, vaccine development’s possibility or impossibility—will eliminate these tragic deaths. That’s the <i>bad news</i>.<br />
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In the midst of this crisis, however, there is some <i>better news</i> that is more hopeful: <i>most who get infected with the virus will survive</i>. That statistical reality decreases with age, especially with those of us who are approaching or have surpassed the average human life expectancy. These same morbidity-rate statistics have characterized other epidemics, as well as life in general: the elderly always die at a higher rate than those younger. But the news media’s focus has been on the deadliness of the virus and not on the survival rate. That one-sided emphasis is a contributing factor in this pandemic becoming a <i>panic-demic</i>. Our stressed-out society needs some encouraging news right now. Hearing that <i>only a low percentage of those contracting Covid-19 will die from it</i> is a much needed encouragement.<br />
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But, while the <i>bad news</i> is outweighed by this <i>better news</i>, there’s actually worse news than what we’re facing from this current pandemic. In fact, it’s what most people feel is the very <i>worst news</i>. Yet, there is also some much better news than surviving Covid-19, for those who are willing to believe it. In fact, it’s the <i>best news</i> on the planet! The <i>worst news</i> is already well known but usually ignored: <i>sooner or later, all of us will die</i>. The <i>best news</i> is divinely true but often doubted: <i>because of what Jesus Christ did for us, we do not have to be afraid of dying</i>.<br />
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Death is a universal reality. It isn’t increased by lethal diseases, by acts of violence, or by unforeseen accidents. Such fatalities do shorten our personal lifespans, but regardless of what form death takes, it is always 100% effective in removing each person from this planet. This is much <i>worse news</i> than the <i>bad news</i> of the Covid-19 death-count. The fact that it’s really just the same old news we’ve always known about doesn’t trivialize everyone’s suffering from this pandemic, but it does offer us a realistic perspective on the limits of earthly life.<br />
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We will each die from something, and the odds are that it won’t be from the CV-19 bug. This virus should not be identified with the Grim Reaper. It is merely a new tool of his for maintaining human mortality. But the broadcast focus on his recent use of it has made some people stop watching TV’s <i>bad news</i> reports altogether. This popular media-boycotting may not be so much a way of ignoring the contagion as an attempt to find some peace of mind. Such a motive would be a tacit statement that humans do not thrive on morbid fear but on hopeful faith.<br />
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This is where the <i>best news</i> comes in, at least for those willing to believe in what was accomplished by the Incarnation, Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because of <b>Romans 3:23</b> and <b>6:23</b>, Christians know that “<i>all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God</i>,” and that Jesus countered sin’s universal sentence of capital punishment on the human race: “<i>For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.</i>” These basic Bible teachings confront the inevitability of earthly death with the divine provision of heavenly life.<br />
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Putting trust in Christ provides not just forgiveness for sins but a life where death need no longer cause fear or panic. <b>Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)</b> explains why this is so: “<i>Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.</i>” Until Resurrection Day, bodily death will continue, even if a CV-19 infection is survived. But for Christian believers, death is no longer a frightening terminus. Departing from this life escorts us into the presence of our Savior and Lord.<br />
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Having <i>healthy</i> fear is a necessity, especially when it alerts us to moral and mortal dangers that God wants us to avoid. Jesus was highlighting healthy, godly fear, when He said, “<i>My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!</i>” (<b>Luke 12:4-5, NKJV</b>). But, because anxious human fear is <i>unhealthy</i>, Jesus also told us in <b>Matthew 6:34 (ESV)</b>, “<i>Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.</i>”<br />
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Despite these troubled and trying times, those following Jesus should not cave in to this pandemic’s <i>panic-demic</i>. We are not called to imitate those who, by rejecting faith in Christ, are still “<i>held in slavery by their fear of death</i>.” This global crisis is indeed extremely troublesome and tragic. But it’s only one episode of trouble in a world that has been full of tragedy ever since our first parents were banished from Eden. Whether or not the gatekeepers of modern media continue to inspire fear with <i>bad news</i> reports, believers must heed and hold on to what our death-conquering King told us in a special verse that we should all memorize: “<i>I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world</i>,” (<b>John 16:33, NIV</b>)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZKtpZhWDZiyMBUSXxYrjsUQUmSPIszbVnMWZqhE-hiJaG01OitQJKJbwxN6mVODD7TeGD6Th-YKbyHUsfj2qePad0y6CXlqz80K09wMsCr104hVKQxOXyhRDMqIJP5I8XbG8kDZv904/s1600/John16-33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="452" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZKtpZhWDZiyMBUSXxYrjsUQUmSPIszbVnMWZqhE-hiJaG01OitQJKJbwxN6mVODD7TeGD6Th-YKbyHUsfj2qePad0y6CXlqz80K09wMsCr104hVKQxOXyhRDMqIJP5I8XbG8kDZv904/s320/John16-33.jpg" width="320" /></a>In a poem I wrote some time ago (“Be of Good Cheer”—the KJV’s rendering of the NIV’s “<i>take heart</i>”), I expand and expound these personal words that Jesus spoke for our encouragement. It pictures Jesus telling us how we need to respond to critical challenges like those imposed by this viral plague. Its rhyming lines also offer an apt conclusion for my intent in this article. My goal is not only to keep my Christian brothers and sisters from letting this pandemic fill their lives with panic and pandemonium, but to encourage them to be living and dying witnesses to unbelievers who do not yet share our faith and marvelous hope in Christ.<br />
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<b>BE OF GOOD CHEER</b><br />
<b>(John 16:33)</b><br />
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Trials and tragedies, trouble and pain,<br />
Hopes that are dashed amid dreams that are slain:<br />
All of these pepper the world where you dwell,<br />
Making your life just a little like hell.<br />
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Satan may threaten, and demons may swarm,<br />
Yet I am with you in tempest and storm.<br />
This I will promise: your heart will have peace,<br />
As you let go in My Spirit’s release.<br />
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Yes, there is darkness, disease and despair<br />
Marring My beautiful world everywhere.<br />
That’s why I came, to connect with each loss<br />
By the embrace of My sin-laden Cross.<br />
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Be of good cheer in the Message you’ve heard.<br />
Others have suffered who knew not My Word.<br />
Others are hurting who still know Me not—<br />
Yours is the cross that can light up their lot.<br />
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Take tribulations and trials you face . . .<br />
Plunge them in love by the strength of My grace.<br />
Follow My path, when the suffering grows.<br />
Cherish the Cross! It will conquer your foes!<br />
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<i>— David L. Hatton, 7/12/2000 (revised, 1/17/2014)</i><br />
(from <i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2016/09/poems-between-here-and-beyond.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Here and Beyond</a></i> © 2016)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-61633850038917186122020-06-05T12:28:00.002-07:002020-11-27T15:36:58.498-08:00DEATH & LIFE AT THE TABLE(Online <a href="https://youtu.be/lWQtfOM3caY" target="_blank">Holy Communion link</a> here and at bottom of this article)<br />
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Holy Communion, or the Eucharist [from the Greek word for “thanksgiving”], is a powerful <i>means of grace</i>. I touched on this briefly in my blog article of 3/9/2018, “<a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2018/03/two-means-of-grace-for-healing.html" target="_blank">Two ‘Means of Grace’ for Healing</a>,” which you might want to read before this one. God has never stopped using <i>means of grace</i>, although most Christians today have stopped thinking clearly about them. But we must be very clear on the Table. For too many years Holy Communion has been treated as merely an act of ritual obedience. The Eucharist must be retrieved for what it is: a <i>means of grace</i> for personal spiritual growth, inner healing and, at times, spiritual warfare.<br />
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<b>A Mystery Beyond Human Speculation</b><br />
<b></b><br />
The Lord’s Supper is a mystery. Making what’s on the Table fit our theological explanations may comfort human minds, but it often robs Holy Communion of its centrality to Christian life and witness. Disputes about the virtues of one position over another have divided the Body of Christ. It might be best to approach the Table always repenting that we ever tolerated such division. Roman Catholics insist on <i>transubstantiation</i>, the more ancient Orthodox on <i>objective transformation</i>; for Lutherans it’s a <i>sacramental union</i>, for the Reformed a <i>spiritual union</i>, or for many other Protestants, a holy <i>memorial</i>; unfortunately, for some denominations, it was a <i>temporary rite</i> no longer needed. Please, for the sake of our King, put all these rationally-defended theories and viewpoints on hold and bask in the mystery. Heaven will eventually vindicate or obliterate your chosen view. But right now, and for the rest of your earthly life, be a servant subject to our Sovereign Lord, and take Him at His word. With the trust of childlike faith, regardless of your viewpoint, accept at face value what is written in the Book:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”</i> (<b>John 6:53-57, NASB</b>)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood,”</i> (<b>Luke 22:19-20, NASB</b>).</blockquote>
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And to solidify your meditation on the Eucharistic mystery, plunge your heart deep into what Paul says about the ongoing celebration of this Holy Meal: “<i>The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a <b>participation</b> in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a <b>participation</b> in the body of Christ?</i>” (<b>1 Corinthians 10:16, ESV</b>, emphasis mine). Both Paul’s understanding and Christ’s clear instruction should convince us that approaching this sacred Table is physically the closest we can get to what Jesus accomplished on Calvary. In a mysterious way, to “<i>eat this bread and drink this cup</i>” is to both <i>participate</i> in and “<i>proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes</i>” (<b>1 Corinthians 11:26, NIV</b>).<br />
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<b>A Table of Death</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Christ’s crucifixion was a terminus, an end point for many things; His Resurrection, the beginning for many others. The Cross and empty tomb divided time into BC and AD—now renamed BCE and CE, which hasn’t altered that division. They closed the Old Testament with a New Covenant, turning a Jewish story into a global one. For every believer, they end the old life with new birth, as sacramentally portrayed in baptism.<br />
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Baptism—a one-time rite for initiation into the Christian community—is a burial of the old life (as in a watery tomb) and an emergence into a newborn life (as from a watery womb). Paul describes this in very plain language: “<i>Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.</i>” (<b>Romans 6:3-4, ESV</b>). This break with the old life and entrance into the new life is demonstrated once in baptism, but our ongoing need for replacing old ways of living with Christlike living is repeatedly demonstrated at the Table. There we <i>participate</i> again and again in the fruits of Christ’s sacrifice and empty tomb for the rest of our earthly sojourn.<br />
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It’s highly significant that Jesus introduced foot-washing in the context of His Table. He told Peter its purpose in <b>John 13:10 (ESV)</b>: “<i>The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.</i>” Whether or not foot-washing accompanies Holy Communion, the need for cleansing is ongoing. We bring to the Table an array of worldly attitudes and behaviors that we must part with and leave behind. They need to die, and Paul says their death is the work of Christ’s Cross: “<i>May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world</i>,” (<b>Galatians 6:14, NIV</b>).<br />
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God is not into magic. Physically taking the Eucharist does not automatically free us from worldliness. This is why Jesus said, <i>“you are clean, but not every one of you.”</i> Judas missed out, despite having his feet washed by Jesus and eating the new Passover meal. An authentic <i>participation</i> in the body and blood of Christ at the Table is a relational act dependent on personal faith. Just as baptism is a physical confession of faith in Christ’s work on Calvary, so is partaking of the fruits of the Cross presented to us again on the Table. This makes Holy Communion a <i>means of grace</i>—a focal point where God’s power can put to death those vestiges of worldly ways clinging to our lives—as long as we faithfully bring them to Him, remembering that the purpose for His death was to eliminate them from our lives.<br />
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Practically, this means spending time in prayer before coming to the Eucharistic Meal, asking the Holy Spirit to convict us in whatever areas we have <i>participated</i> in those dispositions and deeds that belong to the realm of darkness. It may be helpful to ask Him to show us if we have:<br />
<ul>
<li>any attitude we need to confess and forsake</li>
<li>any behavior we need to bring to an end</li>
<li>any habit or addiction from which we need to be set free</li>
<li>any laziness or laxity needing banishment from our lives</li>
<li>any ties we have inherited or formed that need to be severed</li>
<li>any obsessions or compulsions that need to be broken</li>
<li>anything else in us that needs to die</li>
</ul>
But the most profound question to be asked and answered is the one Jesus asked of the lame man, <i>“Do you want to be healed?”</i> (<b>John 5:6, ESV</b>). This is the primary question. Do we really want to change? Are we ready to bring to His Table whatever needs to die, whatever needs to end, to cease, to stop? If we do, we will agree with whatever the Holy Spirit points out to us and make it our intention to bring them to the crucifying work of Christ represented on the Table and leave them there.<br />
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<b>A Table of Life</b><br />
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If we have made our prayerful preparation and are bringing our worldly trash and baggage to leave at the Table, we will likely approach Holy Communion with tears of grief. It is right to be sorrowful that such things have been held back from our Lord, in spite of having received new birth from Him. But when what the Holy Spirit has shown us is left on the Table, we can then take His life from the Table with tears of joy and celebration. Holiness and wholeness and freedom must fill up those areas where unrighteousness and darkness and bondage have been banished.<br />
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This <i>participation</i> in His resurrection life is a relational act of faith in its initiation and its continuation. When you accepted Christ as your Savior, you entered salvation by new birth. But you have been exhorted to “<i>continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose</i>,” (<b>Philippians 2:12-13, NIV</b>). Jesus stipulated baptism as a physical faith-affirmation of new birth, and He gave us His Table as an ongoing physical faith-reminder of our need to let His resurrection life fill every area of our personal lives.<br />
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With the same heart-searching prayer and personal intention, we must come to the Table of Christ’s resurrected life, taking from Him what we need in the area of:<br />
<ul>
<li>attitudes and desires aligned with the mind of Him Who indwells us</li>
<li>choices and behaviors that reflect “not my will but Yours be done”</li>
<li>habits of devotion to prayer, Bible study and spiritual growth</li>
<li>a serious concern for others and commitment to serve them</li>
<li>gathering with other Christians for spiritual fellowship</li>
<li>waging spiritual warfare against the realm of darkness</li>
<li>whatever else God reveals that needs to come alive in us</li>
</ul>
Christian growth is based not on accumulating knowledge about God and the Scriptures, but on obeying God’s will and making Jesus Lord of our lives. We can’t do that on our own. We’re totally dependent on Christ’s resurrected life in us to empower us to live and grow as Christians. But God has given us physical <i>means of grace</i> to highlight our dependence on Him, and Holy Communion is one of them.<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
<b></b><br />
We may not be used to thinking of physical rituals, like baptism and Holy Communion, as truly spiritual activities. We may have a Gnostic view that sees no relationship between the physical and the spiritual, no intrinsic union between the body and the spirit. If so, have ignored God’s many uses of physical <i>means of grace</i> throughout Scripture, but worse, we have fail to uphold the central significance of Christ’s incarnation, bodily death and resurrection. Our faith is incarnational, or it is not the Christian faith found in the New Testament. The fruits of the Cross and of the Resurrection are on the Table, and Christ’s <i>“in remembrance of Me,”</i> includes His words, <i>“my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”</i> Embrace the mystery and <i>participate</i> in it.<br />
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I hope that all reading this article will discover a new way of coming to the Communion Table. I hope all will start seeing it as a return to the Cross, where Christ’s death brings us life, by putting our old life to death so that we can freely <i>participate</i> in His resurrected life. The following poem makes an apt conclusion, describing the approach both to the Cross and to the Table.<br />
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<b>THE DARK SIDE OF THE CROSS</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Brokenly we stumble down the twisted trails of life,<br />
Struggling to discover peace in self-made worlds of strife,<br />
Fighting to escape our fears of losing what we gain,<br />
Craving for a feast of pleasures free from any pain.<br />
Yet, upon these broad and damning roads beneath our feet,<br />
There’s a solemn shadow that our steps may often meet.<br />
In the setting sun of earthly dreams there stands a Cross,<br />
Casting hope upon those paths of everlasting loss.<br />
<br />
From its slender shade, which seems at first so cramped and tight,<br />
Comes a whispered offer for a journey into Light.<br />
Once, there was no exit; now a doorway stands in view,<br />
Open for the weary passerby to walk on through.<br />
<br />
Oh but how it looks constricted, narrow as the grave,<br />
Waiting to convert the seeker’s soul into its slave<br />
By its strong death-dealing nails for fixing limbs to wood:<br />
No more wandering the world we thought we understood;<br />
No more squandering of precious gifts that God bestows;<br />
No more pity for ourselves for self-engendered woes;<br />
No more place for stubbornness within our willful heart—<br />
Selfish thrones must topple, proud dominions fall apart;<br />
No more so-called freedom for our flesh to play the fool;<br />
Only crucifixion, setting Jesus free to rule . . .<br />
<br />
Harsh and strict, this pathway through the Cross of Christ appears,<br />
Warning all who enter of its dark side’s loss and tears.<br />
Yet, if we have thought it out and in that way have stepped,<br />
We elude what choked our lives, rejoicing where we wept.<br />
<br />
Such emancipation on the Cross’s other side<br />
Opens up to us a realm extremely rich and wide.<br />
Heaven’s light unveils a vast expanse where glory shines.<br />
Holy wealth with pure delight and beauty intertwines.<br />
Far beyond imagination, rapture fills our souls.<br />
Endless joy in useful service flows from godly goals.<br />
What were not true friendships in the world we leave behind<br />
Change to new, real fellowship we’d always hoped to find.<br />
On the Cross’s brighter side, our destination’s clear.<br />
Working out His Word and will, we sense His presence near.<br />
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Jesus walked the dying side to hellish depths below<br />
To unlock the living side, where treasures overflow:<br />
Mysteries of faith and prayer, His Body’s bread and wine,<br />
Light of Life, a life of Love, and love for Light Divine.<br />
What He purchased when He hung as “nothing” on the Tree<br />
Was to be our everything: His life in you and me.<br />
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So, don’t flee the Cross because you see its darker side.<br />
Don’t keep running off to find a wider place to hide.<br />
Stop and leave the worldly highway, choose no more to roam:<br />
Make the Cross of Jesus yours, and it will lead you home.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 4/6/1993</i><br />
(from <i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-darkness-and-light.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Darkness and Light</a></i> ©1994, 2014)<br />
<br />
( For a 10-minute, online <a href="https://youtu.be/lWQtfOM3caY" target="_blank">Holy Communion</a><br />
observance, go to https://youtu.be/lWQtfOM3caY )<br />
<br />David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-61030443516930193432020-05-04T18:31:00.000-07:002020-05-04T18:31:00.703-07:00WHAT IS SPIRITUAL MATURITY?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The answer to that title’s question is probably more easily described than practiced. Nevertheless, I’ll try describing a personal, biographical answer through sharing my attempts to practice <i>spiritual maturity</i>.</div>
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Having become convinced in high school that philosophy was the key to knowledge and that theology was the path to spiritual wisdom, I began my college education trusting the academic study of both to bring me to <i>spiritual maturity</i>. But after getting my B. A. in Bible and still feeling inadequate to enter the ministry, I began seminary studies in San Francisco. That was back in the 1970s, right after the surge and crash of the Hippie Movement, just when the Jesus People Movement was taking off. A few weeks into my seminary studies, my spirit was suffocating, starving in a spiritually dry desert.<br />
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About that time, someone in the Jesus Movement introduced me to the writings of Watchman Nee. Despite my Bible college education, I struggled with his book <i>The Normal Christian Life</i>, because, as simple as it was, it presented a depth of Christian experience that was foreign to my knowledge-based ideas of spirituality. In his books <i>The Ministry of God’s Word</i> and <i>The Release of the Spirit</i>, Nee taught that only by a break-through from the Holy Spirit, Who wrote the Word of God, could anyone minister that Word effectively. A senior seminarian I carpooled with trivialized Nee as shallow and simplistic. Since I knew the opposite to be true, his haughty gibe at Nee began to sour my perception of the seminary path. Doubts merged with my sense of spiritual dryness to make me contemplate abandoning seminary. That thought was soon confirmed.<br />
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I had been asked to preach at a rescue mission in Oakland, but I purposefully did not prepare a sermon. Instead, praying for guidance, I opened my Bible during the song leader’s last song and my eyes fell on a familiar passage in Romans. Immediately, I saw in my mind’s-eye a vision of Christ on the Cross, being overwhelmed by the sins of humanity, past and future, converging on Him to stifle His very life. Just as described by Nee, when I stood to speak, an unplanned message began to flow out. Somehow I knew what to say and how to say it. But when it came to the vision I had seen of Jesus crying out “<i>Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? . . . My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?</i>” my mouth poured out words to describe what was taking place without the help of my rational thought. When I sat down, I knew God had showed me the inadequacy of studying my way into a spiritual ministry. Shortly thereafter, I quit seminary just before the end of my first semester.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv987aknRr0IyUcP2BEC2-715Xlhd7E7Tk29xUw1uTSyZq3avrQ3Rw7DmCgzvTzpKsFDSVPRXgOaRgIzBZE3lWvdYs1Kjw_Ic8cpiXC8XKICNyitFxn-mevwDu7iI74mrhtbHUldqS9gw/s1600/Lord%2527sLand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="800" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv987aknRr0IyUcP2BEC2-715Xlhd7E7Tk29xUw1uTSyZq3avrQ3Rw7DmCgzvTzpKsFDSVPRXgOaRgIzBZE3lWvdYs1Kjw_Ic8cpiXC8XKICNyitFxn-mevwDu7iI74mrhtbHUldqS9gw/s400/Lord%2527sLand.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those living at the Lord's Land in the 1970s</td></tr>
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Around that time, the fellow who told me about Watchman Nee had invited Rosemary and I to visit him at a Christian commune near Mendocino called The Lord’s Land. We’d had our first child after Christmas in 1972, and I was still working at a paint factory—our only source of income. On my way to work one morning, I felt the Lord telling me, “<i>Don’t go to work</i>.” Ignoring this as a strange thought, I kept driving. But as I turned onto the road to my job, I heard, “<i>Okay then, there will be no work for you today.</i>” When I got there, the foreman told all of us that there was no work. I quit that day, and Rosemary and I headed off to Mendocino to visit the commune. I discovered later that everyone else was called back to work shortly after I left.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cross at the bluff - Lighthouse Ranch</td></tr>
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Our visit to The Lord’s Land impressed us tremendously. These Jesus People, living in a communal setting, had an amazingly mature level of spirituality. It showed me how my academic education in God’s Word had not trained me to practice the Word, as these young believers were doing. Later we visited the group’s headquarters in Eureka and ended up moving to their original commune called Lighthouse Ranch, housed at an old Coastguard station on Table Bluff near Lolita.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the water tower at Lighthouse Ranch</td></tr>
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I soon began to grow spiritually in this group, especially under the powerful preaching of Jim Durkin, a Foursquare Gospel minister who led Gospel Outreach, the name they chose for their ministry. Under his evangelistic preaching, several hippie communes had become Christian communes, and I eventually became what they called “a coordinator” of one of them, Living Waters Ranch near Whitethorn, an hour west of Garberville.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young Hattons at Living Waters Ranch</td></tr>
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Every few weeks, we caravanned up to Eureka for a general Sunday gathering of the communes at the War Memorial Auditorium, the only place large enough to hold those meetings. One such Sunday, I clearly remember discussing a question with Jim DeGolyer, another leader who later helped lead Gospel Outreach teams in Guatemala and Ecuador: “<i>What is spiritual maturity?</i>” He offered his idea of it, but suddenly an illustration popped into my head, and this imaginary narrative has stuck with me as a defining answer all these years:<br />
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A Christian counselor is approached by a young couple having marital problems. He listens, then prays, asking God, “<i>Lord, I’m helpless to counsel this couple without Your guidance. Please, show me what I’m to say to them</i>.” God tells him to share a certain passage of Scripture with them. It solves their problem. Soon, another couple comes with seemingly the identical problem. Instead of assuming that he has God’s answer, he prays again, “<i>Lord, I’m helpless . . . </i>,” and God directs him to the same Bible verses as before. The problem is solved.<br />
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The next couple, and the next, and the next, 25 times in a row, come to him with what he perceives to be exactly the same problem. Instead of assuming he knows what God wants him to share, he does not turn to that passage to answer them, but always prays with complete sincerity the same prayer, “<i>O Lord, you know what this couple needs, and I’m at a loss to help them without Your guidance. Show me what to say.</i>” Again, God directs him to the same Scripture, which he then uses as his counsel to them. Their marriage is sailing smoothly again.</blockquote>
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Some would define <i>spiritual maturity</i> as having the gumption to learn the mind of God from these many episodes where He did not vary in His guidance. After all, how many times does a lesson have to be repeated? Isn’t it obvious that God wants to give that Scripture passage to such couples, whose relational troubles are obviously so similar? For the spiritually mature counselor, absolutely not! Nothing is obvious, because only God knows the human hearts involved. Only He can give them what they individually need for healing.</blockquote>
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The example of that counselor’s <i>spiritual maturity</i> is confirmed when the 26th couple arrives with the same problem. He prays the same prayer, desperate for God’s clear direction, and God shows him a different passage of Scripture to share with them. It uniquely meets their need.</blockquote>
<i>Spiritual maturity</i> has nothing to do with how long we have been Christians. Some young believers are far better at seeking and obeying God’s guidance than older ones who have tons of Bible knowledge but a poor track record of personally listening for divine guidance. Yet it is God’s will for all of us to listen to Him directly. Jesus in <b>Matthew 4:4</b> quoted from <b>Deuteronomy 8:3</b>, “<i>Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.</i>”<br />
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From the very beginning, we were to get our guidance from a direct, personal relationship with God, not from an internal, independent “<i>knowledge of good and evil</i>.” In <b>John 10:27 (NKJV)</b>, Jesus said, “<i>My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.</i>” When self-confident of being right about things, based on our own experiences or education from others, we easily end up listening to the voice of our own mind. Guidance from God should always be checked against His Word, for He will not direct us to do anything in conflict with what He has already revealed. God’s Word, however, was not intended to substitute for hearing from Him directly for guidance in areas where His Word does not specifically give direction.<br />
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Believe His promise in <b>Psalm 32:8 (NKJV)</b>, “<i>I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.</i>” I know it takes faith to trust God to guide, and it takes practice to learn how to hear His voice. But we are all called to <i>spiritual maturity</i>, and we get there by practicing the prayer the little boy Samuel learned from Eli in <b>1 Samuel 3:9 (NIV)</b>, “<i>Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.</i>”<br />
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Jesus, our best example of <i>spiritual maturity</i>, said in <b>John 6:58 (NKJV)</b> that He came “<i>not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me</i>.” That was His whole ministry, to do and teach what He heard and saw from the Father (<b>John 8:28, 38</b>). We know, as Christians, that is our calling too, because He said, "<i>Follow Me</i>."David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-44694246393485284562019-12-28T09:12:00.010-08:002023-04-05T18:04:21.385-07:00POEMS BETWEEN FEAR AND FAITH - Introduction<div>(<a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0768LP9P8" target="_blank">My books are available on Amazon at this link</a>.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0A4-Im-KeMFtc_yff-hJF30ARERY-LoloaLLTN35oD9cdTk4aYg0JWp52QQvX80IP44QmwpBfYNsZWaOc53X0LK8MaCYO7Kmj5fQ7TxO1zE_XBtagMpNZeAlWNfaxqMtDyKMq-XV_jrIVrokrcRRKAlSuKXPouO6XHrK5zFp98JlV-H74Wkf4OzSQ/s845/PBFaFdisplay.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="653" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0A4-Im-KeMFtc_yff-hJF30ARERY-LoloaLLTN35oD9cdTk4aYg0JWp52QQvX80IP44QmwpBfYNsZWaOc53X0LK8MaCYO7Kmj5fQ7TxO1zE_XBtagMpNZeAlWNfaxqMtDyKMq-XV_jrIVrokrcRRKAlSuKXPouO6XHrK5zFp98JlV-H74Wkf4OzSQ/s320/PBFaFdisplay.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><br /><div>(Before becoming a preacher, a nurse, an amateur artist, or a massage therapist, I was a poet. I still am. Getting my poetry published in more than homemade binders had been a dream for years. Health challenges and the rise of modern book-publishing technology merged to motivate me to make the effort. This and my other books are published through <a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B0768LP9P8?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader" target="_blank">Kindle Direct Publishing</a> in both <span face=""arial" , sans-serif">paperback and Kindle editions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I wanted to put </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">the introductory essays for each poetry collection </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">on my blog. If you want to know what makes me tick, my poems tell it better than a biography.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">This "Introduction" and the concluding poem are from my 6th book of poems. To read the posts from my others, click on these links:</span></div></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/11/poems-between-heaven-and-hell.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Heaven and Hell</a></i></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-darkness-and-light.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Darkness and Light</a></i>;</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-death-and-life.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Death and Life</a></i>;</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-birth-and-resurrection.html">Poems Between Birth and Resurrection</a></i>;</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "sans-serif""><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2016/09/poems-between-here-and-beyond.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Here and Beyond</a></i>;</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span face=""arial" , "sans-serif""><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2021/10/poems-between-beginning-and-end.html" target="_blank">Poems Between the Beginning and the End</a></i>.)</span></span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-style: normal;"><o:p style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Introduction” to</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>Poems
Between Fear and Faith</i></span></b><o:p style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When compared in general, fear paralyzes, while faith motivates. Fear erodes; faith edifies. Fear drains emotional energy; faith re-charges our batteries. Fear can lead to despair; faith can encourage hope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Such contrasts easily multiply, because the experience of these two different attitudes is part of the human condition. God created our potential of either fearful flight from or a faith-filled fight with various challenging situations. Both are familiar responses to encountering hostile circumstances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These two opposing states of minds may not always fit into <i>vice-or-virtue</i> categories. Just as pain alerts us to health issues needing attention, so <i>fear</i> can warn of real dangers to avoid. At the same time, <i>faith</i> in a deception can also be dangerous. Acting on a false belief can even be lethal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In other words, healthy fear can be good, and inaccurate faith can be bad, not based on how we react to something but on the reality behind the reaction. Faith and fear cannot turn whatever initiates them into authentic realities. But they can transform unreasonable worries and unfounded hopes into powerful, mind-controlling factors in the way we live life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When approaching a narrow trail on a steep cliff, a hiker is wise to cross it with caution. The object of concern is the real possibility of a deadly fall into the ravine below. But if, on coming to a calm, ankle-deep stream, that same hiker is frantic at the possibility of stumbling and drowning while wading across, we would call his fear <i>childish</i>. Objectively, the narrow ledge is a real danger, but the far-fetched threat of the shallow stream is totally subjective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Faith’s situations are similar but not as easily evaluated. Beliefs are not considered to be absolute knowledge. The hiker’s friend might have told him earlier to go right, when the trail divides. But if he finds a sign posted at the fork telling hikers to go left, he must make a critical decision. Will he believe his friend’s word or the authority of the sign? Both are appealing for his subjective trust, but one direction will be objectively right and the other objectively wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Based on a modern denial of absolutes, there is no right or wrong. <i>Progressive thinking</i>’s popular motto is: “<i>The way you choose for yourself is the right one</i>.” Maintaining a loyal confidence in his friend’s mistaken directions might feel like the right choice, but that feeling will last only until the sun begins to set on him and his unattained destination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As in these illustrations, subjective experiences of faith and fear can misguide us. Fears spawned from nonexistent dangers or groundless worries may be emotionally felt but are falsely trusted. Likewise, faith in fictitious information or unsound instruction may be deeply sincere but can steer us far off course, sometimes into disaster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">God offers a divine solution to our debilitating fears and disappointing faiths by divinely wedding fear and faith into a life-affirming union. These two opposites can join in a happy marriage, if we learn how “to have and to hold” both godly fear and holy faith, while avoiding their false counterparts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Did you know that we use the muscle of faith, when we cry out against the perplexing pains and recurrent griefs in the human condition? Suffering arouses our inner being to look up to God and say, “<i>This ought not to be so!</i>” That’s a good first step in proper faith, as long as we await His reply. Anticipating our Creator’s answer is the second step, and an essential one for our faith’s ongoing growth and health.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In nature’s beauties, God’s voice whispers only hints. When His Spirit anointed on the lips of prophets, He gave directions in signs and metaphors. But when He assumed our very nature and became one of us, His love shouted to us in perfect clarity, “<i>Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls.</i>” (<b>Mat 11:28-29</b>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By heeding those first two voices, a faith rooted in the soul’s authentic longings, will choose to walk in the light of that last invitation from God’s incarnate Son. It would be not only foolish to reject His offer but a real spiritual danger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is why Lady Wisdom in <b>Prov 9:10</b> says, “<i>the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.</i>” Without godly fear, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The human condition offers abundant clues that something has definitely gone wrong. To disregard God’s personal involvement in resolving what went wrong is to ask for even more trouble.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those who believe that only this material world exists imagine that death will end all troublesome human concerns. But their chosen faith is based on ignorance of humanity’s real nature and future. Suddenly, one day, they’ll be shocked to find that they have survived death. If they lived their lives without a morally wholesome “<i>fear of the LORD</i>,” dying will leave them in a truly dangerous predicament.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fortunately, life offers instruction about moral choices. Most grow up learning that both action and inaction can have painful consequences. People shirking moral responsibility often find their evil choices catching up with them in their lifetime. Death, instead of alleviating this possibility, insures that this <i>catching up</i> will be absolutely unavoidable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The inevitability of death calls for a serious and sober response to God, yet many are prisoners of unconcern. Their false faith inspires false courage. But the afterlife will correct their unbelief. They will experience the same dread known by their deceiving captors, the demons who “<i>also believe, and tremble</i>,” (<b>James 2:19</b>). The only hope for unbelievers is a present one. During this earthly life, they must embrace a reverential <i>fear</i> and turn in <i>faith</i> to God with <i>repentance</i> [<i>metanoia</i>, a Greek word meaning “a change of mind”].</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although godly fear grows into an ever-deepening love for God, worldly dangers may nag believers with worry. As depicted by my optical-illusion painting on the front cover, such fear looks dark, when it invades the light of God’s promised care. Conversely, when surrounded by threatening darkness, true faith glows brighter. Some day, in Heaven, dark danger will flee away and <i>faith</i> will become <i>sight</i>. Obviously, we’re not there yet. But, while we await our eternal home, faith can live life fearlessly, if we maintain our awareness that the Lord of Heaven indwells our hearts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As with my other poem books, some poems here have nothing to do with the title or this introduction. While I’m still on this whirling globe, worldly fears continue to vie for control over my heart and mind. Some of these poems were written to encourage myself and fellow-believers to keep a faithful, steady pace in our journey with Jesus. A few others were merely for comic relief along the way. You’ll find experiments with haiku and brevity, on both light and deep subjects. Walking life’s narrow path <i>between fear and faith</i> is serious business, but not morose. Faith can be lighthearted, especially when enjoying a good laugh at a silly fear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My hope and prayer in sending forth these poems is that some of them will reach those still wavering in their faith, whether non-christians or straying believers, and help them make that wise decision to respond to Christ’s invitation, “<i>Come unto me</i> . . .”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">— <i>David L. Hatton</i></span><o:p style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px;"></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>* * * * * * *</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b> LETHAL GUESTS</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As hungry, burrowing worms gnaw through,<br />destroying the plants on which they grew . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As rust reduces to soft red earth<br />the mighty iron that gave it birth . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As moths lay larvae in woolen wear<br />to ravage the threads that feed them there . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As ashes fall in a fiery flame<br />from the fueling wood from which it came . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So pride’s long reach for its haughty goal<br />consumes the life of its host, the soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> — David L. Hatton, 2/20/2019</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> (<i>Poems Between Fear and Faith</i>, © 2019)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For more single poems from this volume, visit my website's “<a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/poetry.html" target="_blank">Poetry Page</a>.”</span></div></div></div>David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-92162759057962609902019-12-25T08:26:00.002-08:002019-12-25T08:26:15.174-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #20 - “Christmas Presence”This last poem for this blog posting series—written only 2 days after “Peace and Good Will” (see <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-19-peace-and.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #19</a>)—offers solutions to the relational difficulties that some may face at social or family gatherings during this season, even on Christmas Day itself...<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>CHRISTMAS PRESENCE</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Don’t fail to give the gift<br />
that no one else can bring.<br />
If there’s a former rift,<br />
Let love remove its sting:<br />
All grudges find release<br />
when bygones rest in peace.<br />
Your joining in can lift<br />
a broken tune to sing.<br />
<br />
You may cause ice to melt,<br />
if you are truly there.<br />
No matter what life’s dealt,<br />
Stay present with your care.<br />
Meet eye-to-eye, as planned— <br />
no smart-phone in your hand.<br />
Your self’s uniquely felt,<br />
when you remain aware.<br />
<br />
As get-togethers mount<br />
at Christmastime each year,<br />
your heart can be a fount<br />
to draw the thirsty near.<br />
The smiles and hugs you give<br />
must flow while people live.<br />
So, make connections count<br />
before they disappear.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 12/09/2018</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i>Poems Between Fear and Faith</i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-17056879792754329942019-12-24T08:27:00.000-08:002019-12-24T08:27:25.818-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #19 - “Peace and Goodwill”This very short poem, written during Advent of the same year as “From Crèche to Cross” (see <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-18-from-creche-to.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #18</a>), is a brief expansion on the implications of the message announced by angels to the shepherds....<br />
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<br />
<b>PEACE AND GOODWILL</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Since Adam ate from off that tree,<br />
Earth spins without tranquility.<br />
No golden age of ancient Greece<br />
Nor Pax Romana gave us peace.<br />
The Son of God and Mary brought<br />
The hope that midnight angels taught.<br />
<br />
If you’d find peace from Heaven’s King,<br />
Then join the song the angels sing:<br />
“To God the highest glory be!”<br />
That’s goodwill’s faithful melody!<br />
All sinners, willing to believe,<br />
Alone that Prince of Peace receive.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 12/7/2018</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i>Poems Between Fear and Faith</i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)<br />
<br />David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-28952664984546036402019-12-23T11:39:00.001-08:002019-12-23T11:39:27.109-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #18 - “From Crèche to Cross”Next in chronological order, after “Ever-Circling Years” (see <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-17-ever-circling.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #17</a>), is a Christmas poem I wrote during the Lenten season, mixing themes from both Advent and Calvary....<br />
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<br />
<b>FROM CRÈCHE TO CROSS</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Amid the mishaps, plight and pain,<br />
Or when grief’s prayer gets few replies,<br />
Some doubt there lives a God above;<br />
Some hearts despair of Heaven’s love,<br />
As swollen eyes search silent skies<br />
And stress besets their brow and brain.<br />
<br />
Yet in this wayward world of woes,<br />
From Virgin seed and Spirit breath<br />
Was born a New Humanity,<br />
To rescue us from vanity<br />
And from the grasp of endless death:<br />
The worst of dreaded human foes.<br />
<br />
Before His Advent’s humble birth,<br />
He caused the starry host to shine<br />
And spread abroad the galaxies.<br />
But then—His Father’s will to please—<br />
The Son forsook His place divine<br />
To don our flesh and dwell on Earth.<br />
<br />
While on His trek from crèche to grave,<br />
Christ showed our race the way to live.<br />
Commending by compassion’s work<br />
The labors some might loathe and shirk,<br />
He shamed all hands too tight to give<br />
By how He cared and what He gave.<br />
<br />
He came to bless, not to condemn,<br />
But was condemned for how He blessed.<br />
Enduring ridicule and scorn<br />
To win a world in sin forlorn,<br />
He bids our weary souls to rest,<br />
By choosing life filled up with Him.<br />
<br />
Made blind from sin, misled to roam<br />
Like faithless flocks, we wandered off<br />
From Shepherd’s fold to danger’s loss.<br />
It’s by His Incarnation’s Cross—<br />
At which so many skeptics scoff—<br />
That Jesus brings His lost sheep home.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 2/10/2018</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in Poems Between Fear and Faith —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-71787901250817626622019-12-22T08:18:00.000-08:002019-12-22T08:18:07.220-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #17 - “Ever-Circling Years”For 5 years after “Gifts of the Magi” (see <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-16.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #16</a>), I wrote no Christmas poems. But in the 6th year, after news of several deaths crowded our holiday season, this sonnet came to me....<br />
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<br />
<b>EVER-CIRCLING YEARS</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Our noisy table brood has slipped away,<br />
This roof, its rules and rituals outgrown. . . .<br />
Yet we still light the wreath that waits the Day,<br />
Content to celebrate as two alone.<br />
<br />
As Advent marks the end of every year,<br />
So lately it has brought a final word<br />
About dear friends who’ve quit their journey here,<br />
Whose “Merry Christmas!” won’t again be heard.<br />
<br />
Despair makes hope and peace seem overdue<br />
Within this weary world, so worry-worn.<br />
But Advent shines its starlight ever new<br />
And welcomes love divine to be reborn.<br />
<br />
Grace greets our griefs with Advent’s sacred call.<br />
The wreath’s four candles? We’ll ignite them all!<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 12/11/2015</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2016/09/poems-between-here-and-beyond.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Here and Beyond</a></i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-89501018081654623002019-12-21T10:17:00.001-08:002019-12-21T18:35:31.855-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #16 - “Gifts of the Magi”Not all are ready for a “Christmas Eve Communion” (see <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-15.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #15</a>), until they respond in faith as the Magi did, which is the prayerful goal of my chronologically next Christmas poem....<br />
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<b>GIFTS OF THE MAGI</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Three Spirit-drawn astrologers,<br />
Sincere and sage philosophers,<br />
Brought precious tokens from afar<br />
To Him they found beneath the star:<br />
Their frankincense, as to a Priest,<br />
As to a King, gold from the East,<br />
And myrrh to bless a Prophet’s tomb,<br />
They gave this Son of Mary’s womb.<br />
<br />
Such gifts as these might likely show<br />
The path a common child might go<br />
Through twists of time or whims of chance<br />
Or Heaven-guided circumstance.<br />
But just before they turned to part,<br />
These Magi bowed, with head and heart,<br />
To worship Him on bended knee,<br />
As though this Son was Deity.<br />
<br />
Today we know the claims He made<br />
That matched the gifts the Magi laid<br />
Before this Prophet, Priest and King.<br />
But can you do that final thing?<br />
Will you bow down before this One<br />
And worship Him as God’s own Son?<br />
These wise men did. They somehow knew.<br />
Will their example speak to you?<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 4-30-2009</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-birth-and-resurrection.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Birth and Resurrection</a></i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-81421622018944029522019-12-18T11:38:00.004-08:002019-12-21T18:54:21.068-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #15 - “Christmas Eve Communion”The therapeutic value of my previous poem “Wait for Christmas” (see <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-14.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #14</a>) points to the relationship where the believer’s individual need is met—uniquely manifested at a very special Meal, which I observed the night before writing this poem....<br />
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<b>CHRISTMAS EVE COMMUNION</b><br />
(Gospel of John 6:54-56)<br />
<br />
Last night I fed on Christmas in the broken bread and wine.<br />
I tasted sacred nourishment that brought God’s life to mine.<br />
With thoughts of Mary’s holy Child, by candlelight and songs,<br />
I worshiped at the Table where all Adam’s race belongs.<br />
<br />
I pondered how the sweetness of our Lord’s nativity<br />
Should never be seen separate from His death upon the tree;<br />
How God, wrapped up in human flesh, sojourned with human need,<br />
How hands that sculpted human form could feel our pain and bleed;<br />
How incarnation taught Him through life’s weariness and sweat;<br />
How only after learning these, He chose to pay our debt.<br />
<br />
Last night I fed on Christmas, and the strength I gained was real.<br />
Our present peace and future hope draw meaning from that Meal.<br />
Our banishment is ended; our empty lostness gone.<br />
The Babe and Lamb of Bethlehem is Whom I feasted on.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 12/25/2006</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-birth-and-resurrection.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Birth and Resurrection</a></i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-72210885174750455012019-12-17T09:45:00.000-08:002019-12-21T18:53:28.379-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #14 - “Wait for Christmas”This next poem, written after “Advent” (see <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-13.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #13</a>), addresses the therapeutic value of anticipating the hope brought by Christ’s 1st Advent....<br />
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<br />
<b>WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS</b><br />
<b></b><br />
If you would bless yourself and us<br />
By calming down a nagging dread,<br />
Or breaking up a needless fuss,<br />
Or drying up a tearful bed,<br />
Whatever be the threat or doubt,<br />
Speak forth an early Christmas gift:<br />
“Leave this with God, and sit it out<br />
Until December twenty-fifth.”<br />
<br />
If you have slipped or messed things up,<br />
Assist your worried soul to cope:<br />
Forget the spilled and empty cup,<br />
And bathe your spoiled plans in hope.<br />
For all concerns you’ve ever owned<br />
Are lightened by this little lift:<br />
“Just pray, and let it be postponed<br />
Until December twenty-fifth.”<br />
<br />
When loved ones leave, not to return,<br />
No heart is doomed to drown in grief,<br />
Nor must we fret, despair, or burn,<br />
When friends act cold beyond belief.<br />
In time God heals all wounds, and more. . .<br />
His presence spans the broadest rift:<br />
You’ll know the grace He had in store,<br />
When it’s December twenty-fifth.<br />
<br />
If difficulties try your strength,<br />
Or worries plague your search for peace,<br />
Remember: trials end at length,<br />
And daylight causes night to cease.<br />
The Advent of God’s Son brings near<br />
Our godly goals and dreams that drift.<br />
Procrastinate your anxious fear:<br />
Await December twenty-fifth.<br />
<br />
So, if you tread in trouble’s tide,<br />
Or feel that you might lose your mind,<br />
Or toy with thoughts of suicide,<br />
Or need some space just to unwind,<br />
Mark down December twenty-five<br />
And count your blessings, as you wait<br />
To see what burdens still survive,<br />
When Christmas Day you celebrate.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 3/15/2003</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-birth-and-resurrection.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Birth and Resurrection</a></i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-24504343731513751492019-12-16T08:24:00.000-08:002019-12-21T18:52:38.912-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #13 - “Advent”If my last poem, “It Happened One Night” (see <a href="http://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-12.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #12</a>), attempts a realistic depiction of the shepherds, this one tries to depict the realism of our present situation....<br />
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<br />
<b>ADVENT</b><br />
<b></b><br />
The night was dark,<br />
The world was cold:<br />
His natal star began to shine.<br />
The sin was stark,<br />
Rebellion bold:<br />
The night was yours and mine.<br />
<br />
Our darkness spread . . .<br />
Its wages? Death.<br />
Our human length and breadth were bound.<br />
No wise man’s head,<br />
No prophet’s breath<br />
Could make the lost the found.<br />
<br />
God’s holy plan?<br />
The source of good?<br />
Run, find creation’s starting place:<br />
Both God and Man<br />
In crèche of wood<br />
To bathe the world in grace.<br />
<br />
Behold, the light<br />
Of daybreak’s ray,<br />
As angels’ voices blend in praise!<br />
From Heaven’s height<br />
Descends the Way<br />
Of Life, the dead to raise!<br />
<br />
The night was cold,<br />
The world was dark,<br />
As glory then began to shine.<br />
To break sin’s hold<br />
Love left His mark:<br />
The gift is yours and mine.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 12/29/2001</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-birth-and-resurrection.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Birth and Resurrection</a></i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-48288558357997126662019-12-15T08:08:00.001-08:002022-12-20T23:20:30.126-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #12 - “It Happened One Night”This next poem after “Mary at the Cross” (see <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-11.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #11</a>) is an attempt at a realistic focus on the lowly shepherds who first heard and first spread the news of the newborn King....<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br />IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT</b><br />
<b></b><br />
It was the fourth watch, and we were alone,<br />
Minding our business and chilled to the bone,<br />
Doing our duty of guarding the sheep,<br />
Each taking turns for a smidgeon of sleep.<br />
<br />
Suddenly, there in the dark of the night,<br />
We were engulfed in a radiant light!<br />
Right in those fields of our common routine,<br />
We were caught up in a glorious scene.<br />
<br />
Our knees were knocking! All heaven broke out!<br />
Then came an angel who started to shout:<br />
“Don’t be afraid! I have Good News to tell,<br />
Not just for you, but the whole world as well.<br />
<br />
“Go to the City of David—not far.<br />
Search in a stable beneath the bright star,<br />
Look in a feeding trough, humble and cold,<br />
There you will find what the prophets foretold:<br />
<br />
“Yahweh’s Messiah! The Savior at last<br />
Comes to the Earth! Be no longer downcast!”<br />
Then with the angel an army on high<br />
Sang as they swarmed overhead in the sky,<br />
<br />
“Glory to God! To the Lord, highest praise!<br />
Peace in God’s will for the rest of your days!”<br />
Quickly they’d come, and as quickly they fled.<br />
We ran in search of the crude manger-bed.<br />
<br />
What a surprise! Amid dung and wet straw,<br />
Animals crowded around what we saw:<br />
Just a small baby, wrapped up in a rag—<br />
Parents asleep on a worn saddlebag. . . .<br />
<br />
This was the Savior? Then this was the news!<br />
So we all scattered, this tale to diffuse.<br />
Folks were astounded that such was revealed<br />
To simple, poor shepherds out in the field.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 12/16/2000</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-darkness-and-light.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Darkness and Light</a></i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-84156247701220570212019-12-14T11:54:00.000-08:002019-12-21T18:50:53.545-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #11 - “Mary at the Cross”This next poem after “Christmas Longing” (see <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-10.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #10</a>) depicts Mary grieving through scenes at the Cross interwoven with flashbacks of the Nativity story, beginning and ending with her hope-filled Magnificat....<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>MARY AT THE CROSS</b><br />
<b></b><br />
Time suspended, time that stops<br />
In between the crimson drops:<br />
As they tumble to the ground<br />
Somehow she can stare around<br />
Seeing scenes of yesterday,<br />
Hearing angel’s words that say,<br />
“Highly favored, have no fear!<br />
From your virgin womb this year<br />
By the Spirit’s power alone<br />
Comes the King for David’s throne,<br />
Sinner’s Savior, Holy One,<br />
God Almighty’s only Son.”<br />
<br />
Then, the words her cousin told<br />
(As it trickles red and cold,<br />
His life-blood before the tomb),<br />
“Blest, the fruit that fills your womb!<br />
Blest are you of womankind,<br />
Mother of our Lord Divine!”<br />
And her song sung in reply,<br />
“My soul praises God on high!<br />
In my Savior I rejoice!<br />
Making me His humble choice,<br />
Causing all to call me ‘blest,’<br />
God has done for me the best!<br />
Mighty is His holy name,<br />
Ageless grace, and endless fame!”<br />
<br />
As she stands before His cross,<br />
Feeling pain, heart-rending loss,<br />
She remembers public shame,<br />
Pregnant with no man to blame.<br />
She recalls dear Joseph’s care:<br />
Taught by dreams her task to share,<br />
How he guarded her from scorn<br />
Till the baby boy was born . . .<br />
Worried when her pains began<br />
As they came to Bethlehem,<br />
He implored each house and hall<br />
Just to find a stable stall.<br />
In its filth the baby came<br />
’Neath an oily torch’s flame.<br />
Wakened by a holy light,<br />
Shepherds visited that night.<br />
Angels beckoned them to run<br />
To the town to find the One<br />
Called the Christ whose wondrous birth<br />
Brought down Heaven’s peace to earth.<br />
<br />
On the hill called Calvary<br />
Witnessing his agony,<br />
Aching with a dreadful sob,<br />
Hearing laughter from the mob,<br />
She, with other women’s tears,<br />
Weeps and dreams back through the years<br />
To the visit of the Three:<br />
Magi from the East to see<br />
Little Jesus on her lap<br />
Swaddled in a woolen wrap.<br />
Frankincense and myrrh and gold,<br />
“Royal presents,” they were told.<br />
One day he would reign as King. . .<br />
How could they have said this thing,<br />
When with torment now he cries<br />
Up to cold and silent skies?<br />
<br />
Darkness gathers, shadows fall,<br />
Thunder echoes with his call. . .<br />
Mournful cry: “My God! My God!”<br />
She falls prostrate on the sod.<br />
Then she somehow overhears<br />
Whispered words that ease her fears,<br />
Words that re-ignite the dream<br />
Shattered by her son’s last scream.<br />
“It is finished!” he had cried.<br />
Now the guard that pierced his side<br />
Whispers when the deed is done,<br />
“Surely He was God’s own Son!”<br />
<br />
Mary keeps that faithful word<br />
In her thoughts until she’s heard<br />
Peter tell her, “He arose,”<br />
Smiles, and nods as if she knows. . .<br />
How could it be otherwise?<br />
And again her heart replies,<br />
Filled with overwhelming love,<br />
“My soul praises God above!<br />
In my Savior I rejoice!<br />
Making me His humble choice,<br />
Causing all to call me ‘blest,’<br />
God has done for me the best!<br />
Mighty is His holy name,<br />
Ageless grace, and endless fame!”<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 2/8/1992</i><br />
<i></i><br />
(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-between-darkness-and-light.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Darkness and Light</a></i> —<br />
for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-52274365524209106252019-12-13T11:13:00.001-08:002019-12-21T18:50:06.166-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #10 - “Christmas Longing”Keeping my posting in chronological order . . . after “CHRISTMAS COLORS” (see <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-9.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #9</a>), I wrote a post-Christmas Day poem on Epiphany (Jan. 6), which is actually after the “12 days of Christmastide.” It’s both a psychological and spiritual reflection....<br />
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<b>CHRISTMAS LONGING</b><br />
<b></b><br />
What is it, yuletide lad and lass,<br />
That thirsts beyond the bottomed glass,<br />
That whispers under wrap and band<br />
But disappears with gift in hand?<br />
What child is this within the soul<br />
That craves surprise, as if a goal,<br />
Yet once desire is quenched in time<br />
Seeks on for wonders more sublime?<br />
<br />
With drying boughs and dying scents<br />
The tree that shadowed presents hints<br />
Persistent longings we perceive<br />
As time ticks by toward New Year’s Eve.<br />
Bright ribbon dreams unleashed with glee<br />
Postponed the real expectancy—<br />
It lingers, yearning deep inside:<br />
“What have I missed at Christmastide?”<br />
<br />
We knew it in the token care<br />
Both cards and presents meant to bear,<br />
A Love Divine the season brings<br />
Just whispered in the gifts and things.<br />
These kind thoughts stay on shelf and wall,<br />
Or line a drawer or deck a hall,<br />
But are not quite the heart’s delight<br />
As wrapped to strains of “Silent Night.”<br />
<br />
Eternity with Endless Love<br />
Is what our hopes were thinking of—<br />
A heaven-wish for where God dwells<br />
Reverberates in Christmas bells.<br />
God’s Gift of Love in human wrap,<br />
Who laid in Mary’s gentle lap,<br />
Completes the dream within our hearts:<br />
The longing ends, fulfillment starts.<br />
<br />
<i>— David L. Hatton, 1/6/1991</i><br />
<i></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/11/poems-between-heaven-and-hell.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Heaven and Hell</a></i> —</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)</span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4002477094440121289.post-4511106015425586522019-12-11T15:14:00.000-08:002019-12-21T18:49:19.629-08:00MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #9 - “Christmas Colors”<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A full 9 years after “CHRISTMAS MESSAGE” (see <a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-poems-of-christmas-8.html" target="_blank">MY POEMS OF CHRISTMAS #8</a>), I wrote one of my favorites, which I printed out <i>in color</i> (<a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/poem-christmascolors.pdf" target="_blank">link to printable PDF file</a>) and recorded my own reading of it <a href="https://youtu.be/J8CYQwYGzg4" target="_blank">on YouTube</a>....</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">(this is in <i><a href="https://pastordavidrn.blogspot.com/2014/11/poems-between-heaven-and-hell.html" target="_blank">Poems Between Heaven and Hell</a></i> —</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">for purchasing it, go to <a href="http://www.pastordavidrn.com/files/booksale.html" target="_blank">My Books 4 Sale</a>)</span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />David L. Hattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328716551685859425noreply@blogger.com0