Monday, January 21, 2019

Meditating on Miracles

Friday, January 18, 2019

I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever.  I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever.  Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!  No one can measure his greatness.  Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power.  I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles.  Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness.  Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness.   Psalm 145:1-7(NLT)

Every now and then I read something that pushes back against my long and closely-held beliefs.  It’s not a bad thing to touch base with why you believe something, and not something else.  That gives you the opportunity to have your heart reassured that the anchor is still there.  Or, it gives you ample reason to reexamine something you may be questioning.  Either way, it is not wrong to use reason to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (as Scripture[2] urges). 
This is very Wesleyan, part of the Quadrilateral’s methodology to determine how we shall interpret a Godly approach to life.  Scripture is our keystone, the bedrock authority, and it is supplemented with reason, experience, and tradition of the church.  By “supplement” we strongly mean just that.  Scripture is God’s Word; reason, experience, and tradition are human thought.  Considering the nature of God (who does not lie or make mistakes), and humans (who frequently lie, especially in any branch of government, and make huge, stupid mistakes), it is a good practice to have a bedrock belief that, when your thoughts contradict God’s Word, the default ought to place faith in what God has declared, rather than human imagination.
I love reading about the founding fathers of our nation, particularly the presidents.  I’m currently reading a huge volume on James Madison, who, as a young man, was instrumental in constructing the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  His was a brilliant mind, and although quiet by nature, had such a discipline and studious way about him, that he steered the Constitutional Convention and subsequent First Congress through the ratification process to successfully unite the states from 13 nearly separate countries into what we now enjoy as a strong and vital federally-governed, constitutional republic.
James Madison’s good friend and Revolutionary-era ally was Thomas Jefferson.  Their friendship included many brilliant discussions on freedom, government, and life in general.  Among the views they shared was a distinct unbelief when it came to the supernatural or miraculous.  It is a commonly held piece of history that Jefferson created his own “Bible” by cutting out favorite passages of the New Testament which depicted or explained the morals and exemplary character of Jesus and pasting them together in a notebook.  It is usually called The Jefferson Bible, and it has no trace of anything supernatural.
One author expressed it this way:
The most interesting, and disappointing, aspect of the Thomas Jefferson Bible is the fact that, as a naturalist, Thomas Jefferson did not believe in the supernatural. He therefore removed virtually all the miraculous events recorded in the Gospels. While some references to angels, heaven, hell, and a future eternal life remain, the accounts of Jesus’ miracles, allusions to the deity of Christ, and the story of Jesus’ resurrection are absent.[3]
The resurrection? Mr. Jefferson; Mr. Madison…REALLY?  From a purely theological basis, what part of Christianity makes any sense whatsoever without the resurrection of Christ?  Yet, Jefferson (and his close friend Madison) did not think supernatural events, being unexplained by natural science, were worthy of holding close.  But Christianity is entirely faith-based.  Scripture[4] declares that we walk (live in Christ) by faith, not by sight.  You do not need the brilliant mind of a Jefferson or Madison to have faith in Jesus from the virgin birth to the resurrection; just a little humble trust in God.
For You Today
With all due respects to our founding fathers, if all Jesus was is summed up in his morals and ethics, how is he the savior of our souls?  Have a little faith, Thomas!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com
[2] Philippians 2:12
[3] Darrell L. Bock, Rediscovering the Real Lost Gospel (quoted on GotQuestions.com)
[4] 2 Corinthians 5:7

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