I heard someone recently speaking of sensory overload. The name makes it clear he sees it as being bad. Maybe he implied it was evil. Facebook and twitter and cell phones certainly add to sensory overload. If you buy into it. And I do.
I know all about sensory overload, here I am writing this note, so I won't forget my thought, while driving, listening to music on the radio, and thinking about where I am going, trying to do all these things at the same time.
So at first I did not agree with this man. Lord knows I do not want to change. I am scared of being alone with myself. If I accept that he is right then I need to think about changing my ways. There are times that I do try to slow myself down, do one thing at a time and do it well. Doing more than one thing likely means nothing is getting done well and/or the things you are doing are trivial.
Some things you just have to do without distractions, like studying, listening to God, reading a good book. But often I then get sleepy. So I tend to do the things that I can do sort of mindlessly like Facebook games. Sigh.
I have always been afraid of being bored. So I load up with distractions. Many of us do. You may have different distractions than mine. But a lot of us do that. I know my predicament well so I feel like I'm the worst. Trying to sit through a sermon is hard. I am only doing one thing with my mind. There always has been a temptation to get sleepy. So I take notes as a sort of distraction. If you see me listening to a sermon and not taking notes and I am still wide awake you can suspect I am thinking about something else too. Sad but true.
DW mentioned a man who was thought to be in a coma and thus not conscious. But someone discovered than he is paralyzed, fully conscious just not able to respond. I have had nightmares about being like this in the past. I have asked God about this. I have come to a more faithful position on this. But it still puts a shiver up my spine. How horrible for this man! And how wonderful that they now know he is conscience and they are trying to help him.
That man had sensory deprivation. Ignored for years. But most of us have the opposite problem don't we? We need to find ways to slow down, enjoy the present fully.
I'm sure my wife would appreciate full attention sometimes when she talks. I find it almost impossible to do. I get drowsy. I start to zone out. So yes sensory overload is a problem. It is certainly for me. This man's comments make it clear it is a problem for a lot of people. It is an American problem.
John wrote this letter to encourage the saints to seek God.
I'm stealing from the commentator again: John urges them to get as much out of salvation as they can. And how do we do that? We do that by believing. John says that and he repeats what we do believe in several different ways. We believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
We do this by asking confidently in prayer (5:14-15). But in the context this is not about asking for ourselves. This is meant to mean we ask for more of God. We ask for more faith, more love, more understanding, more desire to please God. In doing this we will get more out of salvation.
What we seek is eternal. Eternal life. Eternal life is active. It is found in the seeking God, in the believing in Jesus and loving God and his son (5:1). We love God and we love the brethren and we look out for them (5:16). Now this does not say correct your brother or sister. It says pray for your brother and he will be delivered.
We should reject sin (5:18). We who are Christian, we are born or God. Believe it! We overcome the world with our belief (5:4).
John is saying by way of much repetition and negative parallels that we should continue to ask God for love and seek God for belief. We have it, we ask for more. God has given it to us already. We seek it.
John wants them and us to be encouraged. It's not a desperate thing we do. It is a confident thing we do. But in that confidence we should not flag. Because in seeking we maximize our salvation. We get as much out of it as we can. We are the saints. We are meant to take advantage of all its benefits. These include patience, joy, peace, love, loving-kindness. It also includes our physical needs too. But only as we seek God first.
Read the lectionary at the Episcopal church St. John the Divine: Daniel 7, Psalm 93, and Revelation 1:1-8.
The theme seems to be about God's majesty. It was an honor to read these passages. I really began to get teary reading Daniel. And it speaks of the coming king who will reign forever. Daniel speaks of it in the future. Revelation speaks of it as an accomplished fact.
As I watched,thrones were set in place,
and an Ancient One took his throne,
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames,
and its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued
and flowed out from his presence.
A thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.
The court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.
I watched then because of the noise of the arrogant words that the horn was speaking. And as I watched, the beast was put to death, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. As I watched in the night visions,
I saw one like a human being
coming with the clouds of heaven.
And he came to the Ancient One
and was presented before him.
To him was given dominion
and glory and kingship,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not pass away,
and his kingship is one
that shall never be destroyed. Daniel 7:9-14
We read this together.
Psalms 93:1-5 ESV The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. (2) Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting. (3) The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. 4) Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! (5) Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.
Revelation is good too. Anyway I enjoyed reading these for and with the small congregation assembled for church.
John in 1st John seems to be mostly concerned with false teaching. Earlier he implies that these false teachers were a part of the fellowship. They left or were asked to leave. John wanted the true believers separated from these false teachers. He wanted to make it clear they were teaching evil things. These teachers were not an alternative truth. The true Christian could not tolerate this teaching.
Here in chapter 4 John tells them to test the spirits. By this he means test the content of those who would teach you. We must do that today too. How do we test them? John gives us several litmus tests in this letter. Here in verse two is an important one. All faithful Christians believe Jesus Christ came in the flesh. So we can imagine that some were beginning to say and preach that God could never be born as a man. This is a stumbling block for Muslims as well as Jews.
The Greeks with their pantheon of gods, none of them would ever done such a thing because the flesh is bad, dirty, limiting. They might pretend to be men or women. That is what these deceived people, influenced by their Greek upbringing, were teaching. Many were teaching that God pretended to be a man. John rightly knew how dangerous this teaching was and he declared it to be equivalent to anti-Christ.
Christians teach that God made the world and he made it good. That means flesh is good. Our bodies were made perfect and God pronounced it good.
Also Jesus' sacrifice was only sufficient as he was truly God and truly man, who submitted himself to die in our place. No mere man would be enough. God did not require that Abraham sacrifice his son, that would be abomination. But God submitted himself a willing victim. And it was enough, praise God.
Reading first John and an old sermon, musing on what it means to follow God. What does it mean to be disobedient or obedient? I guess if you have to ask you are trying to get out of something, right? Well, you got me.
But I still will muse a bit. God set up the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a wide range of things they could do. They just had to stay away from one tree. It is like that for us? They is so much we can do that is lawful and good for us. But there are a few things that are sinful, unlawful, disobedient and we are constantly tempted to do those few things. Isn't it like that? I think it is.
It's not like this terribly difficult obstacle course where things jump out at us and try to trip us up. Satan would tell us it is like that to follow God. But no, if we face God, if we read the Bible, we can see the things we must avoid. There are so many things we can do that are good and fun and wonderful.
John speaks of loving your brother. If we love our brother we are with God. If we do not love our brother in Christ we are in sin, not in fellowship with God.
The old sermon I am looking at speaks of good and bad. The human condition is that God created the world very good and man rebelled. Then God worked out a plan to restore us to the original human condition that God created.
I just love this version of Ephesians. God greatly desired to do this for us. It involved Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:8-14 (MSG) “He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making."
God's plan worked. It was completed through Jesus. It is still being worked out in us. We are now in the new world and we are working out our salvation with reverence (fear and trembling).
True