the suffering and worship onnection

Current key words are, suffering, worship, faith and healing. Suffering is one of the great stumbling blocks but I never found it so. Simplistic and incomplete definitions of what one means by the term God, is the problem evidenced in many churches. 
(See Jesus Talking after this date.)

the way we pray

Faith, the great divide. 

I strongly suspect the foremost major concentration of all prayer attempts are for healing. Prayers are offered up in assembly trying to talk God into healing them,  or someone else. In these prayers they spend an inordinate amount of time and emotional effort telling God what He already knows. Seldom mentioned are any promises or covenants God, who cannot change His mind, has already made. Their entire emphasis is on God, what He can do, so why doesn't He do it? 

Since there are so many accounts dealing with how Jesus related to healing, one would think there would be more concern about His methods of thought than there are. I also hear the word "just" jumping around, in and out. It sounds like they want to say only but I am not sure what is intended by so many "justs" . In any event, it sounds a little wimpy to me, and definitely does not seem destined to take heaven by force. 

The most often impression left with me after healing entreaties is that the great physician does it all. After all, He is in control. But a quick review reveals a little more to it than that. 
See Manna after this date.

opposite conclusions from identical information

There are two views of Jesus each purporting to prove opposite conclusions from the same witnesses. Some conclude that because there are several factual differences between the gospels, that this proves the story is a myth.

But differing witnesses are notorious for their differing views since, after all, their views come from different perspectives like separate planets each having a different view of the same star they each orbit. This then proves their stories are not made up because their views are not in synch.

Little Faith and Great Faith
In like manner, by changing the time frame for answered prayer one view concludes God did not answer and the other that He did not answer yet. The first says any claim of answered prayer is a lie and the second says persistence is the bedrock of faith.    

no copycats

We are alive such a short time compared to how long we are dead. From the moment we are conceived we are in a constant activity of change. We are well known, for the most part, to only a comparatively small number of people, many of whom will fade in and out of memory in a lifetime. It is hard to make a lasting impression beyond a local weather report. Many do of course, but not many compared to all those who could be known. Julius Caesar comes to many as a popular but remote second to Jesus of Nazareth. Both experienced a hastened death but only Jesus was reported to have returned to many witnesses. It is significant that no one before nor hence is remembered to have done the same. 

each day another life to be lived

a gentle sleep begat violent dawns

How do we predict the future when all we have to work with is the past? Follow the flow is apparently our only recourse. The sun will rise in the morning, but we cannot count on it being exactly the same as the day before. When it does not, then who is there that will speak about it tomorrow?

We swing though each day as a life to be lived until the sun goes down, and near death comes hidden in our sleep. Why do we do this? Is it a rehearsal showing us the future of our bodies? Someday perhaps our dreams which seem so real in sleep, that will upon waking, be more real.

who are we without our memories?

Top of the World, Thule AFB Greenland

As time slips further out, circling more distant orbits and everything in our memory frames recede, just like the images they throw off, they get smaller until they are,well I guess they are, disappearing into their tiny quantums like little lost black holes. It has to be vitally important to remain on our radar very long. How long can we manage it? Who are we without our memories?

thinking in the letter vs the spirit

Somewhat scary that the physical body can overtake the spirit so easily and bring one's concentration back into a fine point upon itself. To what end? To what end does pain drag the concentration so quickly back into the temporary body? Am I on the right track here?

Had lunch one particular time, lost in memory now, but upon leaving it suddenly thrust itself into my realization that he was talking the entire time in the letter and I was talking in the spirit. This is the way it worked out. I mentioned that C.S. Lewis had a crisis in faith when his wife died. Faith and the achieved strength of it is often my primary concentration. But I quoted Lewis as saying it was all a fine kettle of fish. 

Whereupon my companion exclaimed Oh Spence I doubt if he said that. My first reaction was, yes he said exactly that. Then it hit me. He was in the letter all the time while I'd been talking in the spirit. So what did Lewis say then? Was it a fine can of worms, which is the same thing? What did he say? I have no idea what he said letter-wise, but the spirit of the matter was that the entire situation was a fine kettle of fish which captured the spirit of the issue quite precisely. Probably pick this up eventually in Memorist.

this is where I came in

There will come a time eventually, if one is lucky enough, when they will realize they are arriving at a point where they came in. As Shaking Billy put it so concisely, once a man twice a child. Growing old is essentially weakening down and becoming feebilized. First the stamina becomes a problem you never dealt with before. Then that turns into a full blown question of strength. Then a certain unsteadiness creeps in, and forgetfulness slides up to you in full view of everyone else. Soon after a pain shows up unexpectedly, followed eventually by an outright orchestra of suffering. If this is not your experience, you might be one of the lucky ones. Eventually the wait alone will descend upon you with the alone in a sea of children asking you about a secret. This will be the time when the little known secrets, unknown secrets, and well known secrets will do a nice soft shoe for everybody. No one will have any idea what to make of it. Congratulations will patronizingly rain from the sky. You will not be able to consider any less.

greater works than Jesus

Jesus said that we would do greater works than He has done. Does ayone believe that? He said He would send a friend, the Holy Spirit, and we would do greater works than He Himself did. But, do you think anyone buys into that? This is another one of those silent subjects seldom, if ever, visited. Then there is that Holy Spirit thing again, like talking in tongues. There are those who are pressed to point out why we cannot do these things.....that is...today. Looking into this in Pulpit Rock.

many in the night

I knew so many people, and as they randomly come before me in the night's memories I wonder  now whether they are still alive, what they are doing, and whatever happened to them.
We remember different things. Some have no rationale. Many however were complete mysteries to me that with the passage of too many years begin to suddenly become clear. Insignificant things, like why did my fifth grade teacher's voice so mock a man while calling him a rugged individualist? I later would find out but how I would have loved to understood it at the time. Building in the...Memoirist

smoke signals in the sky

No matter how many gather around, each die alone. Alone, with nothing to communicate with but words as imperfect symbols, not much better  than smoke signals in the sky. 

hung in our hearts

How is it that certain things have been hung in our hearts? Somewhere in Psalms is mentioned that God hung heavenly bodies in the empty spaces. Why also do we have knowledge of right and wrong? How did these things happen? So now what do we do about it?

If we know right and wrong so how is it that we can rationalize around it to gain a certain advantage, even be blinded to murder? Individually we must deal with these questions, but the group can provide permission to do anything any consensus wants to achieve without any individual forced to take responsibility.