A good encouragement about meditation from my friend Sandy over at Vine and Branch.
Link - vine & branch: Meditating in dryness
--------
POC Blog
The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th - who cares. Walk under a ladder, open the umbrella before going out into the rain, break a mirror, and make PETA proud and hug a black cat today..
Providentially yours...
...
--------
Arose Early this Morning...A Meditation on Silence and Solitude
I arose early this morning. This week that has been tough for me to do. I am spending a week on Eastern Time so rising at 6am here is 5am on my clock (which is still on Central Time). Yet, God gave discipline to go to be early and to awake refreshed. My plan was simple - go for a jog and prayer, come back for a time in the Scripture.
Overulled - thunderstorm booms outside the doors...what is a short fat guy to do. Well, I ran up and down the halls of the conference center (quietly I might add), did a bunch of push ups and sit ups...even some one legged squats on the stairs in the stair well.
Then I paused - thought about my life, my family, thanked God for my wife, and again my mind wandered back to decisions. Calling, direction - these have dominated my heart for many days. Yet, these days it has been a more peaceful meditation, though many days I just wished I had a perfect road map for my life rather than the lamp for my feet (Psalm 119:105). I confess this often as I know our good God gives, as Jim Elliot once said, enough for each day. So I am content this morning.
I have been wondering why Western culture flees from silence. We like to be alone...so much that we put on the headphones, place literal DVD cinemas in our homes, walk by ourselves, and many days go to sleep alone at night. Perhaps it is in the silence that we meet our fears. Our empty thoughts, the bigger questions of life which scream for answers. Perhaps we may have to face our demons, face our frackered and dare I say sinful nature. Perhaps there we would have to face our thoughts, empty thoughts without God. So we pump the tunes, keep on the televisions, go to more movies.
Psalm 10:4 - In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, "There is no God." Cast aside that thought... Psalm 13:2 - How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? Cast aside that thought...Turn then your thoughts towards God, receive his mercy, replace the fear, the anxiety, the anger with wonderful thoughts:
1O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:1-5
Run no more, turn and receive grace and mercy - fear not God's invasion of your inner life. Fear not, his thoughts. His love is expressed in a broken body and spilled blood. Infinite love to all who will call on him. Even now. Now is an acceptable time...now is always good.
...
--------
2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:1-5
A Meditation on Colossians 3:4
Colossians 3:4 (ESV) 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Oh how easy it is for me to say “I am my own life” – So quickly to think MY life is about ME. Yet God, your word calls and sings to the soul a different tune. Christ, is your life.- All that is good about me is Christ.
- All that satisfies and brings forth anything of value in me is Christ.
- All that I long for and desire is found in Christ
- All my incompletion finds completeness in Christ
- All my brokenness and sin finds redemption in Christ
- All my impatience finds rest in Christ
Windows Vista
Xenografting – Are We to be Your Uncle’s Monkey?
The following is an exerpt from a paper I wrote a few years back...
--------------------------------
--------
In a Christian ethic, the ends do not justify the means; the means must justify themselves. It is clear that there is a great need for organs for transplants patients, but they should not be acquired by any means necessary. Even if the medical science of xenografting were to achieve some success in the future, the question of whether it should be done must be evaluated. In considering xenografting there are three ethical question to be evaluated: 1) Is it ethical to kill animals to harvest their organs for human beings? 2) Is it ethical to place human parts, grown in animals, into humans? 3) Is it ethical to place animal parts in humans?
First, as noted earlier, the created world, including plant and animal life, are part of God’s creation available for people to use for their good. This would mean the practice of raising animals for human use, whether for food or medicinal purposes, is clearly acceptable from Scripture. Secondly, the issue of placing human organs grown in animals into human beings is a just slightly more complex issue than human organ transplants. If animals could be engineered to grow human organs in their bodies, if the immune responses of the person could be managed effectively, and if the process could be done without introducing dangerous non-human pathogens into the human population then the procedure would have little difference with human cadaver allotransplantation which is ethically acceptable.[7] Finally, and perhaps most exotic, is the consideration of transplantation of animal organs into human beings. Human beings and animals share a common make up and material; each is made from dust (Genesis 2:7), or in modern scientific terms, organized matter encoded with specified DNA. One thing that differentiates human beings from animals is that he has an immaterial mind/soul that plays out in his body; this combination of body and soul bears the image of God (Genesis
A few common objections might be made from a Christian perspective. Some of them are as follows: 1) God has clearly stated than man and beast are different and has even given man a certain type of body that is different from animals (1 Corinthians 15:39,40); 2) The body is to be regarded as holy – rejecting a Gnostic view of the flesh,[8] it should be honored as sacred and not “monkied” around with; 3) Human reduction to mere animals is usually associated with this research so it should be avoided.
First of all, God did say that we have different bodies than animals, but the passage in 1 Corinthians just says that there is a difference between men and animals. It does not say their parts should not be interchanged; this is a conclusion that does not follow from this passage. Second, in response to us “monkeying” around with the body, Mark Foreman professor of Bioethics at
The problem here is how far do you want to pursue this. Doctors and researchers "monkey" around with the body all the time. That is how medical advances occur. Remember that every medical procedure and treatment at one time was experimental. At one time aspirin was new and considered "monkeying" around with the body. People have always been accusing doctors and researchers of playing God - but if they had not pursued experimental procedures, then medicine would never have advanced. The question is what is legitimate and ethical and what is "monkeying" around. This objection begs this question and doesn't address it.[9]
[1] Robert E. Michler, “Xenotransplantation: Risks, Clinical Potential, and Future Prospects” Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2, no 1 (January-March 1996), 67.
[2] Arthur Caplan, Am I My Brother's Keeper? The Ethical Frontiers of Miomedicine (Bloomington, Indian Univ Press, 1997) 101.
[3] Peter Singer, “Against X Engrafting” Transplantation Proceedings 24, Issue 2: 718-22.
[4] Walter Truett Anderson, Evolution isn’t what it used to be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World (New York: NY, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1996), 84.
[5] PPL THERAPEUTICS PLC Press Release PPL Produces World’s First Transgenic Cloned Pigs
[6] Robert Michler, Xenotransplantation: Risks, Clincal Potential, and Future Prospects" Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2, no 1 (January-March 1996) 65.
[7] Norman Geisler, Christian Ethics, Options and Issues (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1989) 184,185
[8] The Gnostic held to a radical form of body/spirit dualism in which all flesh was deemed to be evil and all that was good reflected the spiritual dimension of life.
[9] Personal Correspondence
[10] This is precisely Peter Singer’s objection to the procedure. A radical view of animal/human equality will object to the research and the practice of xenografting.
I Do Not Like Them Sam I Am - The Fluorescent Green Pig
This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy ate roast beef.
This littel piggy had none.
This little piggy got genetically
altered to glow in the dark.
Hmm...maybe finally I can eat that food from my favorite childhood Dr. Suees book. My Mom would put food coloring in the eggs, we never could quite get the Ham part to work.
Transgenic organisms have some potential for doing good things for human beings. Already, genetically altered plants and animals produce human (yes, human, not animal) proteins for medicinal purposes. Some day the idea is to produce human (yes, human, not animal) organs grown inside animals for transplantation purposes (See Xenotransplantation, also know as xenografting). This science could be rife with dangers, but the research has promise if cautiously pursued with the proper ethical considerations.
I'll post a post here soon about the ethics of xenografting...
Link - Taiwan breeds transgenic, fluorescent, green pig - Yahoo! News
...
...
--------
Hmm...maybe finally I can eat that food from my favorite childhood Dr. Suees book. My Mom would put food coloring in the eggs, we never could quite get the Ham part to work.
A Meditation on Matthew 1:21
Matthew 1:21 (ESV) 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
She…one word…She. She…will bear a son. There was a woman long ago, favored by God and chosen by his providence to bring forth the Son of God. She was purposed before the ages began, her seed’s victory promised after the devilish deception of darkness which came upon Eden, and she had the good news realized in her womb in the fullness of time. She will bear a son. Through her womb, through a lineage, through a home, through the myriad upon myriads of lives and stories and deaths over time…the myriad of the line of Abraham would find fruit in her belly by the power of the very God who names the stars. Yes, she would be overshadowed – this story is not about her. The Almighty’s work in her was his own. And she rejoiced in it. To bring about in flesh, the Son sent from the Father's side, to the scorched earth, cracked with Sin below. And This Son would not be just anyone. He would not be a no name nomad wandering about building ancient furniture with his own calloused hands…though he he was and built many a chair or table. No, this Son would also have a name. Yet not a name unknown to the people of God. Yeshua, Joshua, The Lord Saves…a fitting name. Yes, there was a Joshua long ago who led great exploits…but only so the name might have greater weight when placed upon another. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Yes, there is something about that name. This name, which was commanded of an angel to Joseph, and placed upon the child by this earthly father of clay would be a name which would be spoken upon the lips of men, women and children for all times. Some of these lips would drip guile and spew venom, yes, even “Crucify!” Yet for others that name would be…Matthew 1:21 (ESV) 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” --------His people – who are they? O for the manifest wisdom and grace of God. That before he flung into being billions of galaxies he knew his people. This Jesus knew them, yes his people were foreknown and predestined, then called, then justified, then glorified…to be like God – his people, changed from dust to glory. His people…red, black, yellow, white - from every tribe tongue and language his people would be called forth. His People...that I am in such a number I know not why. Sick pride stay far from me, for salvation has nothing to do with your worth. But the one whom is named Jesus, his work, his worth, his passion, his grace, his friendship, his salvation is my only boast.
- the name above all names
- the name of sweetness
- the name of joy
- the name of comfort
- the name of hope
- the name of grace
- the name of forgiveness
- the name of propitiation and sacrifice
- the name of passion
- the name of peace
- the name of friendship with God
- Yes, Yes, the name of salvation…for he will save his people from their sins…
The Innkeeper
The Innkeeper
A great little poem available on Desiring God. Read and/or listen today - meditate on God's faithfulness in sending Christ...
--------
Transhumanism and Human Nature -- Radical Human Enhancement in the News
Al Mohler has some brief comments about radical human enhancement (making super-human humans through either biotechnology or computational technology embedded (sometimes called "wetware") in humans
Transhumanism and Human Nature -- Radical Human Enhancement in the News
If you really want to be bored out of your skull - check out a paper I wrote on the topic in 2001.
...
--------
Martin Lloyd Jones - High Tech Style
Logos Libronix Users and fans of Martin Lloyd Jones (yeah, I know the club is HUGE - at least I know a couple of folks) will be pleased to see the following pre-publication announcement.
If you can get past the pictures on the biographies (I think smiling was not allowed back then) I think you will be encouraged by the life of this 20th century preacher.
A quick quote that I found encouraging:
And it seems he took his own advice. Here is an exert from the final days of his life:Do not keep a record or an account of your work. Give up being book-keepers. In the Christian life we must desire nothing but His glory, nothing but to please Him. So do not keep your eye on the clock, but keep it on Him and His work. Do not keep on recording your work and labour, keep your eye on Him and His glory, on His love and His honour and the extension of His kingdom. . . . Have no concern as to how many hours you have given to the work, nor how much you have done. In effect leave the bookkeeping to Him and to His grace. . . . There is no need to waste time keeping the accounts, He is keeping them. And what wonderful accounts they are. May I say it with reverence, there is nothing I know of that is so romantic as God's method of accountancy. Be prepared for surprises in this Kingdom. . . .
Let me make a personal confession. This kind of thing has often happened to me in my ministry. Sometimes God has been gracious on a Sunday and I have been conscious of exceptional liberty, and I have been foolish enough to listen to the devil when he says, 'Now, then, you wait until next Sunday, it is going to be marvellous, there will be even larger congregations'. And I go into the pulpit the next Sunday and I see a smaller congregation. But then on another occasion I stand in the pulpit labouring, . . . preaching badly and utterly weak, and the devil has come and said: 'There will be nobody there at all next Sunday'. But, thank God, I have found on the following Sunday a larger congregation. . . . You never know. I enter the pulpit in weakness and I end with power. I enter with self-confidence and I am made to feel a fool. It is God's accountancy. . . . He is always giving us surprises. . . .
We should not only recognize that it is all of grace, but rejoice in the fact that it is so. . . . The secret of the happy Christian life is to realize that it is all of grace and to rejoice in that fact. . . . Was not this [Jesus'] own way? . . . He did not look at Himself, He did not consider Himself and His own interests only; He made Himself of no reputation, He laid aside the insignia of His eternal glory. . . . He humbled Himself, He forgot Himself, and He went through and endured and did all He did, looking only to the glory of God. Nothing else mattered to Him but that the Father should be glorified and that men and women should come to the Father. That is the secret. Not watching the clock, not assessing the amount of work, not keeping a record in a book, but forgetting everything except the glory of God, the privilege of being called to work for Him at all, the privilege of being a Christian, remembering only the grace that has ever looked upon us and removed us from darkness to light.
It is grace at the beginning, grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our deathbeds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us at the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, and it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace, wondrous grace.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, (Eerdmans, 1965) p. 130-32.
Towards the end of February 1981, with great peace and assured hope, he believed that his earthly work was done. To his immediate family he said: 'Don't pray for healing, don't try to hold me back from the glory.' On March 1st, St. David's Day and the Lord's Day - he passed on to the glory on which he had so often preached to meet the Saviour he had so faithfully proclaimed. The MLJ Recordings Trust Web Site - http://www.mlj.org.uk/biog.htm accessed January 10, 2006. Emphasis added.I think we all need heros of some sort - those we look to to see an example worthy of following. Primarily we see this in Jesus, he is our only pattern. And then there are women and men throughout history, both those we know and those we know at a distance, of whom we rightly can obey the injuction to the Hebrews:
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.Martin Lloyd-Jones - keen intellect, medical doctor whom God coverted to faith in Jesus Christ, called by God to wear the banner of "preacher," one who has gone before us worthy of our consideration. Now, should I spend the 150.00 bucks to have some of his works on my hard drive...ahhhh! Not a decision for tonight ... --------Hebrews 13:7
The Science of the Soul
Pray for John Piper
Yesterday a letter went out from John Piper explaining that he has been diagnosed with protate cancer.
The letter itself is an encouragment to me in how to face life's trials. Add the Piper family to any prayer list you may keep and remember them in this time.
Link Pray for Piper
...
--------
Church - an Old Vision
Long ago, someone described a Christian church....
And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration. Justin Martyr The First Apology, chapter LXVIIReading of Scripture, verbal instruction and exhortation in the same, prayer, communion, an offering taken to use for widows, orphans, the sick, the slave, the poor and the stranger among them. Not a bad vision for today's conusmeristic churches. Not a bad vision at all. --------
Theology, Black No Sugar
A good short little article on reading the heavy stuff of the Faith...
...
--------
A Wonderful Providence - A Rare Convergence
With the holiday season of downtime converging with the cranking out a bunch of e-mails while watching the Fiesta Bowl tonight - the Lord God has wrought something wonderful in my life which I think has maybe happened but one time before.
It may be difficult to see, but the above image is a wonder of grace in my life. It is a screen shot of an Inbox. Yes, an Inbox...an empty one at that.
I have returned all my e-mail as of 7:30 pm CST on this 2nd day of January in the year of our Lord two thousand and six. I realize this may never happen again as long as I live.
God be praised!
Yea, but the e-flood cometh!
...
Wordliness is now cool...someone must be pleased
"The first thing is to delay as long as possible the moment at which he realises this [worldliness] as a temptation. Since the Enemy's servants have been preaching about 'the World' as one of the great standard temptations for two thousand years, this might seem difficult to do. But fortunately they have said very little about it for the last few decades. In modern Christian writings, though I see much (indeed more than I like) about Mammon, I see few of the old warnings about Worldly Vanities, the Choice of Friends, and the Value of Time. All that, your patient would probably classify as 'Purtanism' -- and may I remark in passing that the value we have given to that word is one of the really solid triumphs of the last hundred years? By it we rescue annually thousands of humans from temperance, chastity, and sobriety of life.
-- C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters"
--------
Teenagers Mix Churches for Faith That Fits - New York Times
There is a name for this in my parts - "Multichurching" - not a good scene...we are American consumers in all things - inlcuding church and religious stuff.
Link over at The New York Times
...
--------
Puritan Luv - Chapter 2 – Why We Need the Puritans
In the fourth section of this chapter Packer removes any fog about his purposes in this book. He writes “This present chapter is, I confess, advocacy, barefaced and unashamed. In modern parlance this chapter is Packer’s “shameless plug” for the Puritan view of life.
Packer begins the chapter by discussing the mud which has been made of the name “Puritan” throughout the ages. He realizes that he may be climbing a wall of resistance in his readers who just might think that we have nothing to learn from the Puritans. Recounting the recent scholarship in Puritan life and thought, Packer makes his case that the opinion of these people as backward, repressed, darkened hangovers from medieval times has been removed in the area of the scholarship opening new doors to understanding a truly Puritan culture. Packer then contends that the main thing we have to learn from this people, who suffered and labored under extreme difficulty, is maturity. Maturity - a solid, weighty Christianity as compared to the light weight faith of contemporary North American evangelicalism; this is the gift of the Puritans to us today.
The middle of the chapter covers the several areas we can learn from these people who have gone before us. Packer expounds six themes: 1) An integration of their daily lives – seeing all of life as united in one purpose, the honoring of God with all that we are and do. 2) The quality of their spiritual experience – both theological and affective, head and heart, their joy was in God, and their mortification was at their sin. 3) Their passion for effective action – they felt it a Christian duty to reject idleness and laziness for a zeal for reform. 4) Their program of family stability – O for the devotion of the Puritan for “family order, courtesy and family worship” (Packer, 25) such are lost in our day of family entertainment, distraction, busyness in the name of activities. Packer’s cautious critique of the prayerlessness of evangelicalism was kind and gentle – the Puritans would be harder on us. Woe to us a prayerless people before the throne of God. 5) Their sense of human worth – each individual in the image of God – each individual racked and ruined by sin in great need of redemption. Though their view of human depravity is often reviled as pessimistic, their value of the human soul is great in contrast to today’s world saturated by Darwinian assumptions that declare us of little to no value beyond our so called social utility. And finally 6) An ideal for church renewal – and this flowing from reformed pastors, renewed to the calling of gospel ministry and prayerfully working for the good of his people.
The final section of the chapter focused on how the Puritan view of life is fine medicine for the ails of our day. Packer lists three groups as candidate for reform under the pious pen’s of the Puritan pastors. The first he calls restless experientialists, those who “…have fallen victim to a form of worldliness, a man-centered, anti-rational individualism, which turns Christian life into a thrill-seeking ego-trip.” (Packer, 31). For such the Puritans offer God-centeredness, the primacy of the mind, a demand for steadfastness and humility, a recognition that feelings go up and down and that God tries us in times when we are emotionally downtrodden, worship as the primary purpose of all of life, the need for regular self-examination, and the great purposes of suffering to help his children grow in the faith (Packer, 31). Strong medicine for needy souls. The second group mentioned are entrenched intellectuals, those whose need for absolute intellectual perfection in all matters of doctrine cause them to be a bit like a cadaver at the wedding feast of the Lamb…or in the midst of the wine filled party with Jesus at Cana. To these the calling of the Puritans to holy affections, practical theological application, and to a zealous love affair with the living God are a potent elixir. The final group mentioned are the disaffected deviationists, here I could not help but thing “Emergent.” These are those who began as evangelicals but due to a plethora of reasons, have left hurt and/or angry. They are the haters and self proclaimed victims of the evangelical subculture. They see evangelism as intellectually infantile, trite, and even deceptive in its offer of the “good life” as defined by the pop prophets of evangelical blessing theology. To these the salve of the Puritans is a lofty and large, and yes mysterious God. To these is offered a God of redemptive love, which “converts, sanctifies, and ultimately glorifies sinners” (Packer 33). To these is offered the salvation of God, the truth of suffering, spiritual conflict and sorrow, and the protection of God amidst the dangers, toils and snares. Overall, this chapter was effective as a shameless plug. No shame in offering a counterview to all sorts of our goofiness today. My experiential focus, my entrenched intellectualism, and my self-righteous disaffectedness can all use some salve. I look forward to the read.
--------