"May you gain your crown"
thought one: of professors and patience
Professors are the best, really. They get some pretty robust knuckleheads sometimes, and it's really beautiful to see how they handle them.
Say we're talking about the French Revolution, and some kid starts discoursing about this book he read where Robespierre yadayadayada and he totally contradicts the prof.
Now, I have to privilage to study under some pretty brilliant academicians, and their humor is pretty fined tuned... they can totally and completely blow this kid out of the water and make him cry himself to sleep in his dorm tonight...
But time and time again, I have seen them nod their head, add a sincere "Ahh?" or "Is that so?", add something either tying the child's wacked comment into the lesson or otherwise legitimizing it in some unwarranted way. No barbed sarcasm, no condescension... just respecting imago dei. It's such an expression of excellence.
May I learn it.
thought two:
"True, we may regularly struggle with doubt when it comes to historical faith-claims that we cannot verify. But faith in Christ is not faith in a fact, it’s faith in a person.
His presence inexplicably speaks from heart to heart. It elicits an intense desire to be near him, and an outpouring of love, trust, allegiance, and gratitude.
The person who has experienced this presence can continue having faith in the beloved Christ, even when doubts about facts dance and mock. The fact-faith of other believers, the immense Body of Christ that transcends time, helps the individual ride out the storm "
-Thank you, ma'am. (Frederica... you've gotta met her...excerpt taken from her article on the faith of the thief on the cross)
thought three:
"I can live for two months on a good compliment"-Mark Twain
maybe it's just my personality, but i am fiercely motivated by sincere compliments. if i'm just sitting there making a list of my faults, nothing happens in the way of self-improvement. i just get exponentially glummer as the list grows longer. but if somebody gives me a compliment, i can't shake it. hounds me for days and i absolutely MUST live up to it or beat myself trying. (i also assign that person my undying loyalty and affection, being funnily subjective about that sort of thing.)
"Life and death are in the power of the tongue."
Go use it well.
thought four:
i like definitions. "glory" needs (at least) one.
there's a poster up here at my school that says at the top: "IT'S NOT FOR" and then lists a whole poster-full of words like "love" "money" "ministry" "souls" "friendship" "success" "the Kingdom of God" "goodness" etc etc and then at the bottom you read, ".... but for the glory of His name."
so. what's glory, if it's so all-fired important?
dictionary.com lists: Honor, praise, distinction Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving offered in worship. Majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence A height of achievement, enjoyment, or prosperity
Uy! that exhausts me! "glory, honour, glorious, abundance," Strong's contributes, "excellence."
[I wanted to really work this post, but I started it a long time back and I'm not quite getting into the flow... more as more comes.]
Professors are the best, really. They get some pretty robust knuckleheads sometimes, and it's really beautiful to see how they handle them.
Say we're talking about the French Revolution, and some kid starts discoursing about this book he read where Robespierre yadayadayada and he totally contradicts the prof.
Now, I have to privilage to study under some pretty brilliant academicians, and their humor is pretty fined tuned... they can totally and completely blow this kid out of the water and make him cry himself to sleep in his dorm tonight...
But time and time again, I have seen them nod their head, add a sincere "Ahh?" or "Is that so?", add something either tying the child's wacked comment into the lesson or otherwise legitimizing it in some unwarranted way. No barbed sarcasm, no condescension... just respecting imago dei. It's such an expression of excellence.
May I learn it.
thought two:
"True, we may regularly struggle with doubt when it comes to historical faith-claims that we cannot verify. But faith in Christ is not faith in a fact, it’s faith in a person.
His presence inexplicably speaks from heart to heart. It elicits an intense desire to be near him, and an outpouring of love, trust, allegiance, and gratitude.
The person who has experienced this presence can continue having faith in the beloved Christ, even when doubts about facts dance and mock. The fact-faith of other believers, the immense Body of Christ that transcends time, helps the individual ride out the storm "
-Thank you, ma'am. (Frederica... you've gotta met her...excerpt taken from her article on the faith of the thief on the cross)
thought three:
"I can live for two months on a good compliment"-Mark Twain
maybe it's just my personality, but i am fiercely motivated by sincere compliments. if i'm just sitting there making a list of my faults, nothing happens in the way of self-improvement. i just get exponentially glummer as the list grows longer. but if somebody gives me a compliment, i can't shake it. hounds me for days and i absolutely MUST live up to it or beat myself trying. (i also assign that person my undying loyalty and affection, being funnily subjective about that sort of thing.)
"Life and death are in the power of the tongue."
Go use it well.
thought four:
i like definitions. "glory" needs (at least) one.
there's a poster up here at my school that says at the top: "IT'S NOT FOR" and then lists a whole poster-full of words like "love" "money" "ministry" "souls" "friendship" "success" "the Kingdom of God" "goodness" etc etc and then at the bottom you read, ".... but for the glory of His name."
so. what's glory, if it's so all-fired important?
dictionary.com lists: Honor, praise, distinction Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving offered in worship. Majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence A height of achievement, enjoyment, or prosperity
Uy! that exhausts me! "glory, honour, glorious, abundance," Strong's contributes, "excellence."
[I wanted to really work this post, but I started it a long time back and I'm not quite getting into the flow... more as more comes.]
posted by berekkah at 9/07/2006 08:42:00 p.m.
2 Comments:
I can share with you what the Lord showed me when I asked Him about 10 years ago and it has only grown since. His Word is what gave me this practical, where the rubber meets the road, to live by definition. Glory is God's attributes and character ... remember Moses asking God to show him His glory. So if I choose to live for the glory of God (and what pleases and satifies Him more than His own character) - then I will by His Spirit and grace allow Him to live His life through me - being that living epistle known and read by all men. He wants to make a Name for Himself. His Name is His character, His glory - it is all connected. He has given Himself that we be conformed to His image - His character and nature and that brings Him glory. I am sure there are other explanations but it has been a joy as I go through His Word learning His character. It brings Him glory as I worship Him for who, how, what He is and it brings Him glory when I allow Him to flow His life through me. Ephesians 1 - "that we should be to the praise of His glory." That God should love us while we were yet dead in our trespasses and sin - what character! That by abiding in Him and He is us we can show forth His unselfish, suffers long, is kind, lays down its life, loves its enemies, love and show forth His patience, peace, joy, meekness, et.al of His character - be living monuments of His goodness, power, -- trophies of His magnificent, all sufficient grace that not only saves the living dead but enables them to be dead to self and alive to God showing forth His gracious character and power not just to the lost but in fervent love for one another in His body! I know I'm tired so may be rambling but this is a subjecd I get really excited over!
thank you so much for your comments... you've given me some very good things to think about, and i appreciate the depth from which they came.
~"Glory is God's attributes and character"
~"allow Him to live His life through me"
~"living epistle"
~"conformed to His image"
~"flow His life through me"
~"abiding in Him and He is us"
~"show forth"
~"monuments of His goodness"
~"trophies"
~"God showing forth"
hm-hm-hm-hm-hm... i just might get a bit excited myself...
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