The suppression of the conscience - Tolstoy

A quote from Leo Tolstoy's The Lion and the Honeycomb

"People smoke and drink not out of boredom or in order to cheer themselves up, not simply because they like it, but in order to suppress their conscience. If that is true, then the consequences must be awful indeed. Imagine a building constructed by people who, instead of using a rule and a square to get the walls perpendicular and the corners rectangular, used a soft rule which adapted to the irregularities in the wall and a square which bent to fit any angle, acute or obtuse!
But this is just what happens in life when we intoxicate ourselves. Life does not accord with our conscience, so we bend our conscience to fit life."

And I would hazard to guess that we also 'intoxicate' ourselves thusly with entertainment, wealth, anger, sexual dis/misorientation, etc. I'll let Tolstoy continue:

"Everyone will find that at each period of his life he was confronted by several moral dilemmas, and that his well-being depended on the correct resolution of these dilemmas. The resolution of such dilemmas requires a degree of attention which constitutes true labour. In any labour, especially at the beginning, there comes a time when the work seems painfully difficult, and our human weakness prompts us to abandon it. Physical labour seems painful at the beginning; intellectual labour all the more so. As Lessing says, people have a tendency to stop thinking when it first becomes difficult; and it is at that point, I would add, that thinking becomes fruitful. A man [or woman] senses that the resolution of the questions before him demands labour - often painful labour - and he wants to evade this. If he had no means of stupefying himself, he would be unable to drive the questions out of his concsiousness, and he would be forced, against his will, to resolve them. Instead of this , however, he has found means to drive the questions away as soon as they arise. As soon as the questions demanding resolution begin to torment him, he resorts to these means and so avoids the anxiety they evoke. ... And yet it is the resolution of moral questions that constitutes the movement of life."

What think you?

A Lack of Heaven

A while ago, I was privileged to take part in a National Ministry Gathering for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship wherein all the IVCF staff workers from across Canada gather to encourage one another and gain perspective on the purpose of the organization from a national viewpoint. At one such gathering, my conception of heaven was greatly challenged by an insightful and motivating biblical scholar. Because of these thoughts I have come to discard my taught interpretation of heaven (as in, that ethereal 'somewhere' where we end up floating in the clouds playing harps wearing long white robes).

Instead of this evangelical insubstantial interpretation, I have come to believe that I don't really know the place where we will be gathered as God's children. But honestly, I'm far more inclined to believe that we will live, much as we are, in body and in relation to one another but without any fear or shame or selfish ambition, on the earth in its renewed state.

The arguments that intercepted my former belief were this, that the majority of heavenly afterlife visions, and including the coversations of Jesus, speak not of us going 'up' to a 'heavenly' place, but rather, Christ and all God's host returning to earth. The only visions we have of a heaven apart from earth are given in the book of Revelation in John's attempts with his own eyes to describe the indescribable. But what is this place? We cannot know. At the end of the Book of Revelation, there is a description of a 'new heaven and a new earth' (Rev. 21:1) that is described as a gigantic city that is exactly the shape of a cube! A cube?? What an impossible shape for a city. Not only that it was an impossible 1,500 miles in each direction! And it is described as beautiful, with streets of gold and all that, but it's dimensions are a little mind boggling and I can't imagine living in such a place. But what was fascinating was this, that the distance measured for the city was approximately the size of the known world at the time. John was perhaps describing the earth itself ... but more than that. What other place is described in the Bible as a perfect cube? The answer was: the Holiest of Holies. That place within the temple, as laid out by the Lord Himself, where He alone dwelt and could be visited by His people. The living place of God! God's dwelling place. But now we are God's dwelling place by His Holy Spirit. We are His Holiest of Holies. And yet this city descends down to us and becomes for us the living place of all God's loved ones. Could this not be a vision of God coming to us and renewing for us this earth he created, even as we are renewed into His likeness, and then forever living with Him without fear or sin!

God has always ever come to us. I find nowhere in scripture, or in my own life experience, where we have first gone to Jesus. He has always been the instigater of salvation and relationship renewed with his creation. These thoughts just seem to make so much more sense. Not that God needs to make sense, but there is far more to life after death than just sitting around and playing harps, for sure.

To have a body

A thought I had this Christmas season ...

It is a glorious time of year to celebrate and reflect upon the greatness of our Lord to have come and become Jesus Christ for us - the infinite God unbound and unlimited in every aspect of character, metamorphed into the form of one of his own creations. A human being with muscles that cramp, a bladder that fills, a bowel system that moves, eyes that see, ears that listen, a voice that speaks in the physical realm of our world.

But what gets me lately is this: Jesus Christ still has a body! And many of you might say, yeah, so? SO! I have never before considered the ramifications of this aspect of our Lord's sacrifice. I have so often viewed Christ's life here as a gloriously humble life of a little over 30 years, death, a remarkable victory over death and sin and his life returned to him by God our Father with the body he was killed in, then taken from us to sit next to God in heaven. And then we focus on the Spirit coming to help us here, still bound and fettered by our fleshly vehicles until we too might ... might what? Become unfettered? With what did our Lord return to God in if not his body he was raised? Does not Jesus Christ still have his body on? And will he not now have this body wrapped around him for eternity?? Though not directly stated, it seems well implied that when Christ gave of his life, it was not only to gain the ability to die and return from death, but to forever live as we live, forever encased in flesh (a body that now lives forever without disease or death) and so forever upholding our case and need for life and compassion before our awesome God. "Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because jesus lives forever, he has a permanent preisthood. Therefore he is able to save those completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to interecede for them." Hebrews 7:23 - 25 "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. ... And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." 1 Corinthians 15:42 - 44, 49. "Dear friends, now we are children of god, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:2

These are some thoughts and it may be that I am in great error. And I will definitely plead a near inexhaustable amount of ignorance on this subject. But it seems to me that, though I do not consider Jesus to be any less limitlessly powerful or limited because of his eternal existance with a body, he made this part of the sacrifice for our salvation: to live forever as we are and will be and were intended to be.

Dust

I have lately been privileged to own a number of short teaching video's done by a young pastor by the name of Rob Bell. They have short misleading names like Flame or Noise or Bullhorn. They are all no longer than 15 minutes or so and focus on a simple theme or concept that Rob explores. They are quite insightful.

One particular video, Dust, is excellent. Through it I have gained a greater understanding of the relationship that Jesus Christ had with his disciples. The video gives some clear description of life in first century Palestine - (Spoiler warning - I am going to describe the video Dust here in detail). If you've never seen the video, I encourage you to do so. Rob begins by sharing what religious education was like for a young jew: first, around the age of 6 or so, young jews were expected to memorize the Torah (the first 5 books of the old testament) by the age of 10. Then at the age of ten they entered the next phase of religious education (each has it's name that I can neither pronounce or spell) wherein they are expected to memorize the REST of the old testament: all 30 some odd books - most of the bible. So then, at the age of around 15 or 16 or so, if they've done well and have shown great aptitude in this oral memorization, they would greatly desire to be apprenticed by any one of a number of Rabbi - religious teachers. The idea being that this young teenager, if they showed promise, would dedicate their life to becoming like their Rabbi! They would then begin to follow this Rabbi around everywhere, living with, eathing with, debating with, learning from this teacher. But only if the Rabbi first thought this young person had what it took to be like him. To become like the Rabbi. To carry his 'yoke', as they called it. If they young person was not shown to have promise to be like the Rabbi, didn't have what it took to become like the Rabbi, they would be encouraged to go home and take up the family trade or business.


Well, when Jesus approached Peter as he was fishing, he said, 'follow me'. That was what a Rabbi would say to a new apprentice who had just been accepted! The reality is, though, that Peter, fishing in the family trade with his father, was one of those who didn't make the cut ... he didn't have what it took to become an apprentice of a Rabbi. He was probably no older than 20 years old! And Jesus, a Rabbi, comes to him, and essentially says - 'I believe you can become like me - follow me'. No WONDER Peter just drops his nets and follows! This is the most coveted and honoured profession of his time and some respected and esteemed Rabbi comes to him and says these words. God is saying to him - I believe you can be like me!

Death

Why is it that when someone dies, those that go to honour that persons death tend to, it seems to me, over-exaggerate their life's good attributes. It's almost as though the deceased was always 'a friend to everyone!' and 'loved by all!'. They could never have done any wrong, it seems, while they were alive. When, as we all know, there is no perfect human being on this earth. I have no problem with respecting life and honouring people and what they've done for others. But why do we remember all these great things - or ...

Perhaps our perspective changes when someone dies, for a few brief moments, or for maybe close to a day or two. While we remember a beloved lost to us, maybe, just maybe, God has made it so that for a brief moment we have a glimpse into the true value of every human being - of that human being that we loved so dearly. And the only way we can seem to describe this new perspective is to hyperbolize their character and relationship to others.

Just a thought.