Quickie post to alert you all to an awesome series of books. It's a fiction series based on the biblical angelic hosts of Heaven. I used to have the paperback collection (minus the last 2 books) but lost them in a fire. I will be trying to recollect them.
If you like the idea of great storytelling based on the Bible from the time of the angels in Heaven, through Lucifer's fall, through Jesus' act of love on the cross... this is the series. The author is D. Brian Shafer and I wish I could meet him long enough to thank him for his work on the series.
Like a lot of people, when I am down sick, I tend to binge-watch television shows. I am down at least 2 days a week so I love my niece for providing me with a Netflix subscription. A couple of weeks ago, I started watching (for the first time ever) Grey's Anatomy. It has been a decent distraction - which is going to be part of my point here in a moment. While I was watching the show a few days ago, I had two thoughts that stay with me. First, Ellen Pompeo who plays Meredith Grey is probably a really nice lady but she has a voice that drives me bonkers. It's got a whiny I'm-a-cute-wittle-gurl quality that grates on my last good nerve. Second, the show is addictive enough that I keep watching even when I wish someone would dub over Pompeo's voice.
Something else occurred to me (and not for the first time ever) is probably not news to anyone: TV shows and movies seem to be socially programming us. And before you stop reading because you think I am riding my theory horse named Conspiracy, let me try to explain what I mean.
social-programming Noun (uncountable) 1. The process by which the ideas, concepts and beliefs of the society in which we live are ingrained into our psyche. The process is usually by authoritative decree or by assimilation. 2. The ideas, concepts and beliefs of our social environment that become ingrained in our psyche.(from yourdictionary.com)
Usually, when I watch television shows, I'm not in thoughtful mode. I watch TV when I don't feel well or want to be distracted from serious thought. One evening though, I was paying attention to how a particular episode of Grey's Anatomy made me feel.
What I realized is that I was equating the actors' real selves with the characters they play. As if I just knew that the actor portraying the doctor with the great hair and nicely twinkling eyes must be as sweet and charming in his own real life. And the same with the other actors portraying the smart, on-the-ball surgeons. They must all be just as smart and on-the-ball in their real and everyday lives, right?
I realized that we are being lulled into blurring the lines between entertainment and reality. This is why we have people who are obsessed with being Instagram-famous. This is why so many people who have real and ordinary lives don't think that it's enough to have real and ordinary lives. There are people portraying themselves online as being more "attractive", wealthier, and more well-traveled than they actually are.
By the way, I found this video interesting and thought some comic book fans might want to see it
Entertainment focuses on the "X" or the mysterious "it" factor of certain people. TV shows and music - any visual media - will make us feel that we should want to be more like the people we are watching.
One thing that pulled me out of being hypnotized by Grey's Anatomy is that I noticed that as smart and accomplished as all the characters are, they have the same shortcomings as real people who try emulating them. Most of them are sexually confused or loose with their bodies. Some of them are - in spite of all their career success and material wealth - lonely and unhappy.
Why wouldn't the writers just show these people as a little more perfect? They could still have some good plotlines without exposing these kinds of flaws to the extent they do. I think that this is done on purpose. Maybe the writers leave in all the misery so that the viewers connect with the characters' flaws enough that they don't see the rest of how they are being programmed to want all the perfect stuff. I don't know if that made sense, but I'm sure that most of you can see what I am trying to say. If we were trying to be as perfect as the characters but were feeling the loneliness and pain in our own lives, we might realize that no one is meant to be like the characters.
I know some people who get so involved in fictional characters and storylines that they lose track of what's going on in their own lives. Entertainment, in general, is training us to base our real-life goals on fictional people. We are starting to get our ideas about intelligence, beauty, morals, and other things based on scripted situations.
We have people living their lives - or trying or pretending to - based on something they have seen onscreen. Entertainment is a powerful hypnotist. We take our cues about current fashion and trends from what we see celebrities doing - in real life or onscreen. Even our emotions are being hijacked and re-trained.
In TV shows and movies, there are all kinds of cinematic tricks to keep us focused on imaginary worlds and made-up lives. Camera movements and music - swelling or ominous or era-specific - to cue out tears or laughter or nostalgia. We can get so emotionally moved by these scripted stories while our real-life suffers.
In real life, we forget to check in on people off-line. We give more emoti-hugs, emoti-smiles, and emoti-waves instead of the real thing. We make hash-tagged trends and share our social media "thoughts and prayers" instead of taking time to actually spare a real thought or prayer for the people in our real lives.
I guess the thing we have forgotten - or been brainwashed out of remembering - is the important rule of "everything in moderation". Media doesn't want us to remember that because entertainment is designed to addict us into a distraction from real lives and real people and real issues.
There has been this trend in my very own family that I despise. Most of my family is on Facebook. That's fine because that is a great platform to share photos. The problem I have is that Facebook has replaced that occasional hey-how-are-you kind of phone call. It's replaced the keepsake wedding invitations and birth announcements. It has even replaced those little printed obituaries that my mother used to keep in her Bible.
So my problem is not with Facebook - or any other social media platform. My problem is with the people who have let them replace parts of life. When you don't make the phone calls, how can you pick up clues in someone's voice that they might not be "fine"? Without those paper invitations and announcements, how do we sit around one day and start looking over those memories? And what do I fold up to keep in my Bible to remember the dead?
So, I guess I just want to ramble on here about how we have let things get out of control with media. We are losing ourselves and our daily reality. We are becoming programmed by the things we created to enjoy. With all the talk of developing advanced AI, maybe we ought not to be worried about AI or robots taking over because we've already given in to something else.
Before I go, while I was searching for images to post here, I found this article on this blog. The photo of addiction that the blogger posted is perfect.
Another rabbit hole you might want to go down has to do with something called "priming" as it relates to people as consumers. You can start here if you want.
I often grab onto a specific thing from reading or studying the Bible. That thing - a particular passage or a piece of a lesson - will stay on my mind for days. Something in one of my recent Bible study sessions left me reflecting on the spiritual realm that exists around us - the angels we may have unwittingly entertained and demons we have been protected from. This stayed on my mind for days and I would just have to stop whatever I was doing to reflect on it for a moment. Sometimes, whatever I am meditating on will touch upon something in my life.
I was posting a review on Being Free the other day and, as I've been doing lately, I attached an INXS "The Stairs" music video at the end. Though it's not a Christian song (and the band's artwork was anything but Christian), it has lyrics that are so true to our everyday lives so I will post it here because it prompted the thought I want to talk about here.
For those who don't know, Hutchence, the vocalist and main songwriter for the band, died at a young age (37) from what most people think was a suicide while others speculate that it was something sordid that I won't mention. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) a few years before and it apparently affected his mood and outlook on life. Suicide seems the more plausible cause of death, in my uneducated opinion. He was found deceased and alone in a hotel room in a busy Australian city. It looks as if he hanged himself. I remember hearing the news when it happened back in 1997 and thinking how sad it was.
As you can see from the video, the lyrics are haunting and a cause for reflection. On the video page, another viewer commented on how eerie it was that Hutchence's "Stairs" lyrics were similar to the way he died. I hadn't thought of that before but it's true.
(By the way, you are about to find out that I spent way too much time thinking about the celebrity crushes of my youth...)
Now, because this band was such a huge success back when I was in my thirties - Hutchence would now be about my age - and still keeping up with all things music, fashion, and celebrity, I knew a lot about his public life. For all his charm and politeness, Hutchence seemed to be a very actively sexual womanizer. Women loved him - I and all my friends sure thought he was the hottest thing since Tobasco and would have been thrilled to have five minutes of his attention. He must have been nice to the women in his life because, even after he dumped them, they apparently kept up friendships with him. I never read of any woman badmouthing him. He was still the best of friends with his first serious girlfriend - to the point that she was the last person he called before he died.
I know one more thing about INXS. They, at one early point in their group life, almost became a Christian band. I think that had to do more with someone's idea of potential marketing than with any of the guys' spiritual leanings. I can only speculate. Again, I am in no position to comment on anyone's religious life. So, this is the part where I get back to my meditations on my Bible studies.
As I said, I had been thinking a lot about the unseen spiritual realm - our protections and potential predators. And I thought about all the times, I desired something that was never granted - aka unanswered prayers. Prayers for things I should never have been praying for in the first place.
INXS worked extremely hard and from young ages for their eventual success. It was often reported that Hutchence had from the beginning told his bandmates and family that he had his heart set on "world domination" as a performer. He loved fame and its trappings. ('Trappings'. What a curiously appropriate word in this context, right?) He loved all things sensual - women, food, wine - and he loved being a rockstar. He seemed to have gotten all that he wanted. Answered prayers.
I think about all the things my young and foolish heart prayed for. If I had been given everything my physical self used to want so badly, I don't know what condition my soul would be in now.
I am not making any judgments about Hutchence or anyone else. I don't know what his final moments were like or what last prayers he offered up. I don't know about anyone's soul but my own. I do pray that Hutchence, in his pain and heartache, managed to breathe out some kind of plea to God.
What I am musing on is how thankful I might should be that so many of my foolish prayers were not answered. There have been times when I tried to force the answer I wanted for my life or situation. That has never turned out well. Whenever I have tried to live my life on my strictly human and finite terms, whatever happiness I gain only lasts until it doesn't. And it never lasts forever.
So I know that sometimes when I don't understand why my way to something seems so blocked, there is a reason. I know that God watches over and protects my foolish human self from some of my own desires because He loves me.
If I'd had my way, I would have ended up in a relationship with at least 3 of the worst people I could be with. I actually did end up with the fourth one of those people. Even now, there are times when I don't like the right choice about things and I am tempted to try to find another way - my way. I have mostly learned though that my way usually leads me in the wrong direction. I am learning to pray and listen.
It's been said and sung about before, but the unanswered prayer is often the biggest blessing we can get.
This is a post that I was originally only going to publish on Free and Faith. I decided that it's one of those books that could be of interest to everyone - whether Christian or not.
By the way, I am always astonished at people who will devote a lot of time studying secular subjects such as philosophy but never think to look seriously at the Bible. It might surprise even Christians to know how much of human history and secular history is corroborative. I have one acquaintance who, like myself, loves the Matrix movies. He can discuss the philosophies and mythologies of that series until the cows come home. When I once mentioned to him how the Bible runs deeper and is more complex than that work of fiction, he basically snorted at me. It was a friendly snort and done with love but, in his view, the Bible is a simple book of fables. If he only spent a little time exploring the book, it's languages, and its complexities, his mind would be truly blown. He's a very intelligent man and so curious about all things - except the Bible. And that is kind of ignorant.
I have been doing a lot of Bible study for the past couple of years. I have read the Bible many times but I have only recently been going deeper into the study of it. I have some trouble sorting and keeping information straight but I don't mind repeating lessons.
The study I started a while back is one by Chuck Missler - Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, which can be found in video format on a YouTube playlist and on Amazon Prime Video. It can also be found in audiobook form through Audible and via local library media streaming services like Overdrive and Hoopla Digital. I think the last time I mentioned it was when I was posting about my news-fatigue. I kept getting as far as Hour 9 and having to go back to the beginning. I have now ordered the book so that I can make notes as I go through the video lessons.
The Chuck Missler book I wanted to mention to everyone today is called Hidden Treasures: In the Biblical Text. And if you wonder why I study so many lessons by the same teacher, that's because I am very careful who I study under. Not every teacher is godly or has good intentions.
Anyway, this current book is one that I want to recommend to my friend the next time I see him. I have listened to his detailed thoughts on various philosophers and teachings so I want to challenge him to think about things from where I sit. Another Missler book on angels would probably be extremely interesting to students of physics. I was no genius in school but Angels Volume 1: Cosmic Warfare introduced me to quantum physics in an exciting way that I could relate to. Trust me when I tell you that while I had heard of Max Planck, I had no clue before why he won a Nobel. I am forever fascinated now! And my friend will be interested in learning that Missler shows why he believes we live in a digital universe. Wha-??? How Matrix-like is that?
I will do a post on the Angels series another time. Back to Hidden Treasures...
One of the most interesting lessons in this little book gives the reader an assignment to design a genealogy with 14 very specific criteria. Once you attempt to do this and realize how difficult (if at all possible), you are presented with how it was completed in the Person of Christ.
The first of 14 criteria
Another thing I am enjoying about this study is that I get to delve more into the Greek and Aramaic languages and history. I have been able to study some common world history right alongside that shown in the Bible. It's fascinating stuff.
Like I said, I wanted to post this here because I wanted people who may not be Christian to know about the book. I want to challenge some of you to not just sit back and snort at the idea of a belief in Scripture but to at least know what you are scoffing at. Like any serious thing, the Bible is not something to be glossed over. In order for us Christians to confidently believe in the Gospel, we have to know it. The same goes for those people who may want to deny it. How can you deny what you don't know?
Anyway, I hope that this post encourages more people to study the Bible and the history it comes out of. It won't hurt that you will learn something about world history in the process. I was stunned by how much of the history I learned in school has to do with the history of the faith I profess.
By the way, that challenge to design a genealogy? You will get to study for yourself how all the criteria were met in the genealogy of Christ in the first 11 verses of the (Greek language) Gospel of Matthew.
Peace
--Free
And, instead of music today, I thought this was more appropriate
I once heard it said that it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian. There is a book waiting on my Kindle reading list calledI Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Athiest. I've seen books that were written featuring that thought. Atheism though doesn't puzzle me as much as agnosticism. At least the atheist doesn't sit on the fence about their beliefs. And most atheists can state reasons for their stance. If someone has reasons, they can be reasoned with. If the agnostic hasn't cared to discover the reasons for his ambivalence, would he care to go on that journey?
There are also some Christians I think of as agnostically Christian. There are no roots to their 'belief'. Maybe they just believe because they don't know that there is a choice to be made. Maybe they, like I once did, believe only out of familial tradition.
I first came to truly believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through searching my own heart and mind. I had already heard the Gospel and had even been baptized as a youth. My belief was solidified by a few different things but I think it was mostly from using a process of elimination.
Reasons
There are questions that we all have at some point about our origin and purpose. Trying to find answers to those questions is what helped me find my way to faith and belief. I say 'helped' because there were other things that happened in my life but some people would write them off as being based on feeling instead of logic. So, for this post, I will stick with the logical.
I think that just as there are some people who have a shaky claim on faith - via tradition and culture - there are also people who hang their disbelief on those things. What I wonder is if any of those folk ever devote time to seriously considering their positions? Do they ever occasionally re-evaluate their stance, if they give it any thought at all? Or do these people just fall into the melody of whatever their belief is and never stop to pay attention to the lyrics? Let me explain by using a story about a very popular song from the 1970s.
The group Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) was really popular worldwide in the 70s, 80s, and 90s and they still perform today. In the black community, EWF was super popular. One of their 'love' ballads, Reasons, was so popular that it was sometimes played at weddings.
A very moving and beautiful song, right? But this is what the EWF's lead singer Philip Bailey said about the song (even he couldn't believe couples played it at weddings):
"It's not talking about real love," Philip says. "It's talking about a one-night stand." (source)**
The full lyrics are at the bottom of this post. Here are some of them:
Now, I'm craving your body, is this real
Temperatures rising, I don't want to feel
I'm in the wrong place to be real
Woah and I'm longing to love you, just for a night
What a love song, right? He wants her - not for his wife - but just for a night... I wouldn't want those lyrics as part of a holy ceremony any more than I would want to play The Jacksons Shake Your Body Down to the Ground in the middle of the church.
To be honest, I am the worst person for listening (or not) to lyrics and I listened to that song on repeat when I was young, angsty, and hormonal. I was one of those people who thought of Reasons as a love song until I first heard about the Philip Bailey quote in a book by G. Craige Lewis. He is a pastor who exposed a lot of interesting information about the hidden spiritual manipulation in Hip Hop music. In the past, Lewis was a bit controversial - not so much for his message but for his manner of delivery. By the ways, I think that every believer who enjoys secular music should read or listen to Lewis' message of "The Truth Behind Hip Hop". Just Google it.
But do you see the point? People listened to how beautiful that song sounded and how it made them feel without giving proper thought to the lyrics. I think this is sometimes the way we handle the serious business of faith. This is why the so-called Prosperity message is popular in some churches. This is why some people choose a church based on how good the choir is instead of what message is being taught. This is why people get involved with cults and the occult. We have to be careful to focus on the words (lyrics) of a message.
Faith Maintained
I said that I sought out (and continue to do so) answers to questions as I came to Christ. I answered the major questions by studying the Bible and secular history. I maintain my belief by prayer and faith. It's not like I came to the Lord, received salvation and then life got wonderful. Life is still very difficult. In some ways, it's more difficult because I can't numb it or distract from the way I did when I was a willful sinner.
I have a chronic illness and I suffer from severe depression. I can't do drugs or excessive alcohol. I'm sometimes very lonely for male companionship but I can't have random "hookups". I have two failed marriages, some broken friendships, and a lot of regrets that haunt me hour by hour. I am very careful about who I let into my life. My soul is free but I'm still paying human consequences for things done in my past. Every day that I wake up still sane and able to thank God for my salvation is a miracle.
Some people don't want to believe in a God that doesn't give them their heaven here on earth and in this mortal life. I always ponder Judas Iscariot and his betrayal. He walked, talked, and ate meals with Jesus. He saw the power of God with his own eyes and in the end, he turned away. We haven't been in the Lord's physical presence but some of us find faith and then turn away like Judas. They turn away - not because they don't believe Jesus is the Messiah but because he's not the Messiah they want him to be. Perhaps the faith they had wasn't based on truth.
I think that some people are atheistic because of anger or heartbreak or grief. They rail against a God they don't believe in because they feel let down or cheated by some tragedy in their lives.
There are some notable (and atheist) comedians who, in their jokes about God and religion, display a lot of anger and contempt. (By the way, I have noticed that many of them focus their rants only on the Christian God.) Some of them say that they think religion and faith are silly and useless or a crutch for the weak. Some of them just find Christian belief unbelievable. I pray for them, of course, and I always wonder what it feels like to hurt without hope. What must it be like to face the sorrow and pain of life without the sustenance of inner joy? When the comedian Robin Williams was alive, I thought that for someone so frenetically humorous, he had the saddest eyes I'd ever seen. When he died, I prayed that he had found peace with God at last. When some people die, I wonder if they truly are 'resting in peace'. We do like to sling around the RIPs, don't we. Anytime someone dies - no matter what they believed or not in life - we can't wait to hashtag our wishes of peaceful rest. What peace or rest is there for one who believes that their life was only a temporary thing and that death is an eternity of nothingness?
I still grow in my faith and I still struggle with my sin but I am solid in my belief. What I want to do here is post some questions for people to think about. Whether you are Christian, atheist, or agnostic, I think you should spend at least some time thinking about why you believe what you believe.
Origins, Being & Purpose
If this life is all there is, and there is nothing afterward, why bother with rules and decorum and love and joy. Why not just go on a full-on hedonistic joy ride through life?
Regarding the "big bang" (that created everything from nothing): what banged? (And, yes, people ask the same thing about God.and I agree with this answer)
What would convince you that there is no God?
What would convince you that God is?
Where did language come from?
Where did love, honor, laughter, sorrow, regret, pride, anger, compassion, deceit, etc come from?
Regarding evolution: why aren't we all one type of animal? Or one gender? And why don't we keep evolving without the help of the laboratory?
If God is a myth, where did the myth or the need of it originate?
What is good? What is evil? Where did the concepts come from?
Regarding whatever you believe: What is the point? Is there a point? Do you want there to be a point?
Can you prove that Jesus did not exist?
Regarding the Bible prophecies: can you explain the accuracy? Can you disprove the accuracy?
Regarding your faith: Why do you believe what you believe?
When I was younger, if my mother saw me making poor decisions or having a bad attitude about anything, she would say something to me that I still hear in my head: "You need to examine yourself." My dad was more countrified and would simply tell me that I needed to "study on that" - 'that' being my sassy mouth or negative behavior.
My parents' advice is as good now as then. In order to truly think about something - to come to a decision, it's important to put aside pride and stubbornness. If you are making a decision about what to believe or not to believe, you need to have answers as honest and clear as can be. I hope no matter where you stand now in belief, unbelief, unconcern, that you are willing to die for and with it. Another thing my mother used to point out is that our next breath is not promised to us.
Sometimes, I forget that I have this blog. I think I have about 8 blogs in total but Being Free is my first and main one. I posted there the other day about a couple of movies I watched. Probably would have been nice to share those here. Better late than never.
One of the best Christian movies I've seen in a very long time is called Divination. I found it on Amazon in the Prime Video section which means that, for some of us, the viewing is free. What I liked so much about the movie - though I struggled with some of the theology - was the superb special effects. The actors did a really good job and, let's face it, acting talent can be a hit or miss thing with low-production movies.
The other movie is called Let There Be Light and while it was a tiny bit sappy-sweet in spots, overall it was a good film. The acting was good and the cast included most of Kevin Sorbo's family. Here's the thing though: I have issues with the rabid support for Trump in the evangelical community. Of course, we all have our own opinions and you might disagree with me. In this movie, Sean Hannity made an appearance and it just reminded me of the whole Trump-can-do-no-wrong deal. I literally fast-forwarded through every time I saw his face. That's petty of me but... My testimony is still in progress.
When I found those movies on Amazon, I thought it was funny that I kind of had to stumble across them. Once I did, I searched out some other shows by looking at the recommended titles under those two movies. There are quite a few interesting documentaries and other shows that Christians might want to see. It's shocking how many titles I ran across. Of course, I can't vouch for shows I haven't seen but here are some that I have added to my own Watchlist:
There are so many more that it would take me days to list them all. If you want to explore for more Christian offerings in the Amazon Prime (or for rent) section, there a few ways to go about it. The description page of the videos will list Genre, Director, and Starring. You can click on any of those to pull up other videos or suggestions. If you scroll down a description page, other possibly similar or related videos will be listed. That's how I found most of the ones I listed here.
What I love is that there are not just movies for entertainment, but many teaching videos. I have watched a couple about certain books of the Bible.
Now, I will suggest that you are always careful and prayerful about anything. When I watch movies or shows labeled as "Christian", I pay close attention to theology. Let the Bible be your guide so that you aren't ingesting bad information or ideas.
Speaking of Christian movies, there is one that I used to have a DVD of. It was beautifully filmed and had lovely background music. It basically tells the first several chapters of the Bible through a quiet narration against a Middle Eastern backdrop. This is how IMDb summarizes the film:
A sage (Omero Antonutti) recounts biblical stories to his wide-eyed grandson and nomads around a desert campfire.
I love that it's not like the films that don't show any ethnic realism in the casting. Again, I just can't say enough about the music. I lost my copy during one of my many moves and have not been able to find another. It was titled Genesis: The Creation and the Flood.Amazon will occasionally get a copy but they sell out fast and become unavailable.
**Well, guess what? I just checked Amazon to get a link for this post and there was ONE copy of the movie up for sale. I'm so broke right now that I rattle when I walk, but I grabbed that copy.**
Sadly, another discovery I made while looking up info is that the writer and director of The Creation and the Flood passed away just last year. I will update this post as I can. Maybe I will input the links for all the movies on my Watchlist one day. In the meantime...
Here are some suggested resources for anyone interested in Bible study and apologetics. I am not personally endorsing sites in particular; I provide these links as springboards to information focused on the Christian faith. I've worked on this off an on for a while and will be updating it as often as I can. Please, share and enjoy.
You can also search out podcasts that deal with Christian issues. I have the iTunes app on my computer but use the Podcast Addict app on my phone. Most of the above-listed resources have phone apps. Just search the Android or iPhone apps stores.
I have provided these links for you to peruse but you're responsible for what you do with them. I will warn you to scan everything before downloading files and programs.
Peace
--Free
** Jewish and Orthodox Jewish Bibles (OJB) are called "Messianic" Bibles and sometimes labeled as Hebrew Names Versions (HNV).
NOTE that I can not personally endorse all information provided in these links. It's best to check sources to see if they fit your own statement of faith. As always, be prayerful and Spirit-led when ingesting ideas and information from any source.)
This is a post from my other blog, but it definitely belongs here.
Okay, folks, I'm going to "go religious" on you but, hang with me because there's something in here that even atheists might like.
How do you picture Jesus? I'm sure people of all faiths (or none) would be interested in knowing what he actually looked like. I have started reading other versions of the Bible in my personal studies. This weekend, I read passages from some of the Messianic Bible versions.
Years ago, my mother regularly watched a show called Zola Levitt Presents. Every now and then, I would sit and watch with her. That was the first time I ever thought seriously about the fact that Jesus was Jewish. As silly as it sounds, up until then (and I had to be at least 22 or 23) in my mind's eye, Jesus looked like this:
That's not Jesus.
That's Robert Powell
The actor Robert Powell isn't a savior but he played one in Jesus of Nazareth. Such a beautifully done movie with an amazing cast. Before that movie came along, I had imagined Jesus looking like the classic painting that was hung somewhere in the homes of most black families. You might remember the ensemble of paintings your grandma gave pride of wall space to - Jesus, MLK, and JFK.
However, my mind's eye (and the movie and paintings and so many church fans) got it wrong. Jesus was a Jewish man so he most likely did not have those brilliantly blue eyes and I'm pretty sure he didn't have the whole rock star look. Looking back on that movie now all I can think is that the late Michael Hutchence would've wished to be that fine. I'm not being flip. Just look at that photo again.
According to the Bible “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” (Isaiah 53:2 NIV) It's been opined that based on his racial makeup and manual labor occupation as a carpenter, he was probably of a darker complexion and had some sun damage to his skin. Along with the Bible identifying him as being not very handsome (whatever that means), he may have looked more like this:
Listen, I am not pointing fingers at anyone else's ignorance here but my own. Not only did I have the wrong idea about Jesus's appearance, but I just about had heart failure when I heard the Lord's Prayer spoken in the languages Jesus used.
Uh, why doesn't he sound British!?!?!? I'm just kidding. Some filmmakers aren't kidding.
Now, it had at some point in my much younger life occurred to me that we Westerners had the wrong impressions of Jesus. And some people were just completely stupid on the subject. I can remember some kind of anti-semitic rally or demonstration taking place near wherever my family was living back in the mid-'70s. My mother and her friends stood in support of the Jewish people. What was so silly is that there were only about 6 Jewish people in that community. Maybe the racist idiots just wanted something to rally about. Who knows? But I remember my mother shaking her head in disgust at the people carrying crosses while they chanted about "dirty Jews". Much like the Klan and other so-called 'Christians' who hate just to hate or judge in hate, these people forgot, I guess, that their Savior was Jewish. (And, by the way, the saying is not "Judge not" with a period at the end. It is "Judge not lest you be judged." People always forget that last part. So, you can judge others if you're free of sin. Anybody? Go ahead. I'll wait. I'll just be over here taking this plank out of my eye.)
My whole point is, I have never fully appreciated everything about the Lord I serve. Like most people (I'm assuming), I tend to think only in flavors I know of. Now that I have it in the forefront of my mind that Jesus talked, walked, ate, prayed, and lived Jewish, I get it. I can see a little deeper into my study of what he said and did while on Earth.
Just like I did in seeing Jesus in my shallow and one-dimensional way, I do the same thing in other areas of my life. I have got to work on that. I need to start viewing people as they are and not how I want or imagine them to be. Same goes for life and situations in general.
One of the sayings I remember from my childhood in Texas was "Can't see for looking." It was your response when you saw something shocking and someone asked if you "saw that". I apply it to my life in other ways. Sometimes, when I make an immediate judgment about a person or situation based only on shallow information, I later realize I missed the bigger picture. Can't see for looking and sometimes, can't hear for listening.
I'm not the only one with this weakness. This is the reason that a lot of us have shallow and ever-changing standards of beauty. It's why we assume intelligence based on slick looks or words. It's why we so often don't see the full worth of people and life. We're too busy looking at the cover to read the book. Because that takes time, doesn't it?
At any rate, I'm really enjoying my Bible studies now more than ever. By the way, for those of you who may not own a Bible - or a lot of Bible study resources - you might want to check out eSword or My Sword Both have a variety of Bible versions, concordances, commentaries, and other help. Both are free (with expanded options for purchase). I've been using eSword and I'm amazed at the number of tools available in both the app and pc versions. Usually, when studying my Bible, I have to sit by my computer with 20 browser tabs open to all the different resources. A single app or program is more productive. Actually, the modules for the two 'sword' products are somewhat interchangeable and updates are being made all the time. Check out both no matter which operating system you use. I'm currently using eSword on both my Windows pc and Android phone. Here are the links:
By the way, there are huge selections of language options in both programs. There's a slight learning curve but, hey, I managed to figure it all out so...
That's it for now. I hope that at least some of this information is useful to you guys out there. Even if you're not "religious", information is always good to have.
Peace
--Free
Sharing a few of the songs I've been listening to this evening
