Today in my study of the word salvation in the New Testament, we’ll look at Luke 2:30-32. This is the proclamation of Simeon over the infant Jesus as he was brought into the temple for circumcision: “”For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: a light, for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your … Continue reading Salvation 2
This pobably isn’t the best way to re-start my long dorment blog, but I have a need of doing a word study on the word salvation in the New Testament and I figured that I would do it via a series of blog posts as a way to give it some structure. Sooooo. . . here goes.
We find our first uses of the word salvation in Luke 1:67-80 in the middle of John the Baptist’s father Zechariah’s prophesy over the infant Jesus:
Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,because he has come to help and has redeemed his people. For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us.
He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant – the oath that he swore to our ancestor, Abraham.
This oath grants that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him for as long as we live.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s tender mercy the dawn will break upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
And the child kept growing and becoming strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he was revealed to Israel.
OK, first we need to start with some context. At the time of Jesus’ birth, Israel was under the control of the Roman Empire. Historically, those times when Israel was living under the control of other powers, it was understood to be a judgement on Israel for its sin and faithlessness. Therefor, the political condition of Israel and it’s spiritual need for redemption and forgiveness was seen as entertwined. In the past, God had worked through righteous Israeli leaders to bring about the release of Israel from foreign rule. These times were also a time for Israel to be redeemed from their sin and return to following God’s laws. Again, the political and the spiritual are woven together. Continue reading “Salvation 1”
“When you visualized a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity — that was a quality God’s image carried with it. When you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination.” ~ “The Power and The Glory” by Graham Greene
I have often observed how hard it can be for people – and often particularly God’s people – to get past the sin and ugliness and abrasiveness of people to see the image bearing man or woman God created them to be. I think that “a failure of imagination” is probably just the right accounting of the problem. When I was growing up my mom used to look at someone who had fallen on the way of life and say, “there but for the grace of God go I.” Continue reading ““Hate was just a failure of imagination””
Two days ago, I wrote about how being gifted results in an experience of life and existing which is usually markedly different in intensity and complexity than what normal people experience. Today I’m going to talk about why so many highly intelligent people fail to see themselves as gifted and and why gifted people need to understand their giftedness and teach their children to do the same.
The first point which needs to be made is that contrary to the perception that unusually smart people are arrogant and think that they are better than everyone else, many, many highly intelligent people are in denial about their giftedness. People who belong to Mensa report that one of the most common things they hear from other members are jokes that someone must have messed up their test because they aren’t actually smart enough to be there. People who counsel and work with highly intelligent people find that many of them suffer from “imposter syndrome“. Imposter syndrome is a situation where a person feels that they are simply faking their way through life, that anything they have accomplished is due to luck and that their real abilities fall short of what others are capable of. I’m not aware of any actual research into the self perception of people with unusually high intelligence. However, based on reports from people with high intelligence and those who deal with them, it is probably safe to say that a large percentage of highly intelligent people do not see themselves as such. Contrary to the stereotype, many gifted people are not arrogant to the point of being unable to hold an accurate view of their own abilities. Continue reading “Who me, gifted?”
OMG. I had an awful bad mom moment this morning. I signed my 13 year old up for a two day camp where he will learn to canoe. For whatever reason, I had it all set in my head that it was an overnight trip. So we packed PJs and a sleeping bag and headed out this morning to drop the boy off. On the … Continue reading My terrible mom moment of the day
Over the last couple of years I have spent time off and on doing research into giftedness and living with unusually high intelligence. It has been far more interesting and enlightening than I expected. So I figured I would share some of what I have learned with y’all. Today I will focus on some of the differences which tend to be characteristic of those with unusually high intelligence. Tomorrow, I’ll get into why so many gifted people have a hard time recognizing themselves as gifted and why it is so important for them to understand their giftedness and teach their children to do the same.
First, the differences. I always figured that high intelligence was just about how a person learns new information and skills. What I have found out, however, is that high intelligence entails not just being able to learn new things quickly and easily, but affects a person’s entire experience of life. People with unusually high intelligence take in and acquire information differently, process that information differently. They frequently experience emotions and physical stimuli more intensely than others. They have motivations and drives which others often find odd or bizarre. In short, being unusually intelligent tends to create a whole life experience which is markedly more complicated and intense than what most people experience.
Psychologists who deal with highly intelligent people label these areas of high instensity and complexity “Overexcitabilities” or OEs. Continue reading “How being gifted means being different”
My 9 year old spent last week at a nearby nature center for summer camp. It ran from 8-4 with an overnight camp-out Thursday night. It was really the first time he’s spent that much time in that short a period away from his family. He had an absolute blast, got along very well with the other kids and only had one serious discipline problem … Continue reading Summer Camp and Peer Socialization
God works. That’s all I can say. You may have heard the howling and gnashing of teeth on both sides over University of Minnesota at Morris professor P.Z. Meyer’s quest to desecrate a eucharist. He finally got his hands on one (I didn’t read closely enough to see if it was a consecrated host or not, which to Catholics would be enormously important of course). … Continue reading I am amazed
Alright, alright, enough of the hiatus! Let’s get back to this here thing.
I recently ran across a story which mentioned a variety of studies that have found that imposing financial fines for poor behavior can actually increase that behavior. For example, studies at day care centers have found that when schools impose fines for parents who pick their children up late, they actually see an increase in the frequency of late pick-ups. It turns out that parents were more lax about picking their children up on time when they saw their obligation as financial rather than social. The social obligation to respect the time of the child care workers who would be inconvenienced by a tardy pick-up was a far more powerful motivator to good behavior than economic consequences.
Social scientists have observed this dynamic at work in a variety of settings and places around the world. Yet, over the last few years we have been trained to assume that economic issues are at the root of everything from social problems to the behavior of corporations to foreign policy affairs. Which to a certain extent makes sense. After all, economic concerns obviously have real effects on people’s behaviors and choices. For example, there was a sharp drop in the birth rate during the great depression as having a large family became more difficult economically. And we have all benefited from the increased prosperity which has resulted from our free market system where the only objective is to increase economic gain (without breaking the law, hopefully).
However, the simple truth is that humans have been social creatures much longer than we have been economic creatures. It really is difficult to overstate the power that social norms and expectations can have on people. Continue reading “The power of culture or the power of economics?”
We’ve probably all seen a pastor stand up with a bible and declare, “this is God’s instruction manual for life.” Or seen those bumper stickers which say, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” The idea is that we can just flip open the bible and find instructions, directions and formulas for living our lives. Which if your only encounter with scripture comes … Continue reading Is the bible an instruction book?
The Upside Down World 