Tag: christianity

Upon receiving a nude photo from Mark Twain on Facebook

On By Charis PsalloIn Just folks, Photography10 Comments

Mark_Twain_2

This is a public domain photo of Mark Twain with his shirt back on.

Apparently reports of Mr. Twain’s death have been greatly exaggerated for just last week I received a nude photo of him on Facebook.  I put him down as one of my “likes” but it would seem I did not define the nature of the relationship adequately, for there he was in all his understated glory staring expectantly at me (from the waist up, of course. Decorum, please, madame.) I tried to let him down gently, but….

I have enjoyed Facebook. It has expanded my circle of friends from those who I really intended to phone, to those to whom I really intended to send Christmas cards, to those with witty online personalities, to friends of friends with interesting online personalities to a couple of people I can’t for the life of me remember, but I don’t want to admit the possibility of early senility, so there they are.

But lately I realize that I need to dislike some things. Hey guys, when I said I liked your book, or film or cause I didn’t mean we should move in together. I don’t need updates on your latest whereabouts and definitely not on your reactions to spicy food.

And Twitter? Thus far I have avoided Twitter (because I know I would probably add another addiction and lose even more time on there.) I know everybody with influence tweets and I realize the benefits of learning to write succinctly, and I think there’s a verse in the Bible somewhere that says something like, “Where many words are spoken transgression is unavoidable,” but I think there ought to be one somewhere there that says, “When quoting oneself out of context beware of cynics, heresy hunters and fans.”

Fans may be the most dangerous. For a brief time, long, long ago, I had a taste of knowing what it was like to live in a world where more people knew me than I knew back. Big fish in little pond stuff mostly, but enough to realize that anything one does or one does not do can and will be reported by people who specialize in knocking the stuffin’s out of one and replacing it with straw.

I have read articles about myself that prompted me to say, “This sounds like someone completely different from anyone I have ever known. I would like to meet this person.” (Never, never  read your own P.R.) I’ve also read articles that credited me with statements I swear never passed my lips.

What upset me about my few fans is that they assumed they knew me, and oddly enough, that I knew them. They knew a few stage personas and thought that spending time reading about me was as good as spending time with me.

The preacher in a church I visited today pointed out that the difference between being a follower of someone on social media and knowing them personally was like the difference between reading about Jesus Christ and getting to know him by actually spending one-on-one time with him.

If Jesus tweeted, “Fed fish burgers to 5000 guys today” he’d get a thousand “way-to-go-dudes,” but how many would sit down with him after the crowds had gone and ask, “So what did you mean when you told us to feed those guys ourselves? How on earth are we supposed to do that? You can really baffle me sometimes. I’m tempted to go back to my day job, but I mean, wow, I just saw it happen my  with my own eyes –in my own basket. Who are you?”

Sometimes on Facebook, because we are reminded of people’s activities and comment on their statuses, and they on ours, we think we know them. We don’t. We know their grandchildren are perfect and they baked 12 dozen buns, 6 dozen muffins and changed the oil in the Mazda before starting their 7 a.m. shift, or that politician’s names flame out of their keyboards like cuss words, or that the trunk full of cases of beer is intended, not for a party of 36, but a party of four guys and a labradoodle, but we don’t really know them.

I was reminded recently that I can miss it by a mile. I congratulated a couple on the birth of a child only to discover, when the photos came out, that the mother was not the wife my friend had last time I saw him. In fact she looks about 20 years younger. Awkward.

Nothing substitutes for real relationship. So read the Book, read books about the Book, talk to friends of Jesus, but don’t think that anything but real relationship is real.

Matthew 7:21 “It is not everyone who keeps saying to me ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the man who actually does my Heavenly Father’s will.

22-23 “In ‘that day’ many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we preach in your name, didn’t we cast out devils in your name, and do many great things in your name?’ Then I shall tell them plainly, ‘I have never known you. Go away from me, you have worked on the side of evil!’”

Enter

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Trees and forestsLeave a comment

(Click on photo for larger version)

On your feet now—applaud God!
    Bring a gift of laughter,
    sing yourselves into his presence.

 Know this: GOD [YHWH] is God, and God, GOD.
    He made us; we didn’t make him.
    We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.

 Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
    Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
    Thank him. Worship him.

 For God is sheer beauty,
    all-generous in love,
    loyal always and ever.

(Psalm 100 The Message paraphrase)

Mountain Top

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Photography6 Comments

 

Why is it important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It’s important because it’s the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you “my beloved daughter,” “my beloved son,” my beloved child.” To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.

–Henri Nouwen

In spiritandtruth

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Mountains, Sky8 Comments

The truth dawns

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” -Jesus

(John 4:23-24  The Message)

I used to think that this passage, often translated “worship Him in spirit and in truth,” was about balancing left brain and right brain approaches to life, that is, the intuitive feely stuff versus solid doctrinal fact-filled logical study. My interpretation was an attempt to find balance between my flag-waving, dancing-in-the-aisles, go-with-the-flow friends and my chapter-and-verse, decently-and-in-order friends. Then I started thinking, since when is worshiping God in spirit not worshiping in truth, and since when does worship in truth not involve the spirit? I checked with a Koine Greek scholar and he said those two words are not separated in the Greek. It does not say “worship Him in spirit but also worship Him in truth”. It says “worship Him in spiritandtruth.”

The discussion Jesus was having with the Samaritan woman was about where proper worship should take place. He answered her place question by saying the time is coming -oh, wait a second, it’s here now- that you will worship Him in the reality of the spiritual.

Paul wrote in Colossians 1:27: For I am a minister of the Church by divine commission, a commission granted to me for your benefit and for a special purpose: that I might fully declare God’s word—that sacred mystery which up to now has been hidden in every age and every generation, but which is now as clear as daylight to those who love God. They are those to whom God has planned to give a vision of the full wonder and splendour of his secret plan for the sons of men. Yes, and the secret is simply this: Christ in you! Christ in you bringing with him the hope of all glorious things to come. (Phillips)

Christ in me?

Wow.

Assurance

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Sky, Uncategorized, Water4 Comments

Photo: Early morning thunder storm

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blessed assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

(from It is Well With My Soul)

I’ll fly away

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized4 Comments

In flight

Some glad morning when this life is o’er,
I’ll fly away;
To a home on God’s celestial shore,
I’ll fly away.

I’ll fly away, Oh Glory
I’ll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

When the shadows of this life have gone,
I’ll fly away;
Like a bird from prison bars has flown,
I’ll fly away

Just a few more weary days and then,
I’ll fly away;
To a land where joy shall never end,
I’ll fly away

I’ll fly away, Oh Glory
I’ll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

We said goodbye to two special men in the past couple of weeks.

They lived in different cities and I don’t think they ever met. One was a family member and the other a good friend.

Interestingly they both had the same surname, a Scots name meaning rock. They were both employed by the Canadian post office for nearly their entire working lives. They both succumbed to similar illnesses. They were both kind, gentle men who cared deeply about their families and were humble servants who quietly did what needed to be done, never looking for attention or reward.

The thing about people who have the spiritual gift of service (or “helps”), is that you never notice how they were always there, always willing to make everyone’s lives go more smoothly, until suddenly they are not there. The empty space left is enormous. That’s when you realize how much was accomplished because of them.

They never had the applause they so rightly deserved. But I think that is probably the way they wanted it.

Godspeed, Alec and Cam. We shall meet again.

Thy Kingdom come

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, SkyLeave a comment

Photo: Toward the Gap

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
    and all your saints shall bless you!
 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
    and tell of your power,
 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,
    and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
    and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

(psalm 145:10-13)

Bigger Barns

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography6 Comments

Barn

Then he [Jesus] gave them a parable in these words, “Once upon a time a rich man’s farmland produced heavy crops. So he said to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have no room to store this harvest of mine?’ Then he said, ‘I know what I’ll do. I’ll pull down my barns and build bigger ones where I can store all my grain and my goods and I can say to my soul, Soul, you have plenty of good things stored up there for years to come. Relax! Eat, drink and have a good time!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this very night you will be asked for your soul! Then, who is going to possess all that you have prepared?’ That is what happens to the man who hoards things for himself and is not rich where God is concerned.”

(Luke 12:16-21)