MORRIE SCHWATRZ & HIS DYING WISDOM

Morrie Schwartz and some Dying Wisdom for Me

I have no idea who gave us this book some years ago but I picked it up again to read portions. Today I have climbed back aboard my hobby horse of feeling sorry for myself. I live each day with pain in my arthritic hands but tonight it seemed to attack my right hand, my painting hand. I cannot grip a pen or a brush. This keyboard doesn’t require a grip so here goes, because Morrie helped me with perspective again.

THE STATE OF THEOLOGY

While it is a USA survey, the findings may parallel conditions in Canada and for that reason I place this info here. It comes from the respected Ligonier Ministries.

What do people believe about God, Jesus Christ, sin, and eternity? Ligonier’s State of Theology survey helps uncover the answers. Every two years, we take the theological temperature of the United States to help Christians better understand today’s culture and equip the church with better insights for discipleship.

As in 2014 and 2016, we commissioned a survey of three thousand Americans in partnership with LifeWay Research. Today, we are pleased to release the results from our 2018 survey.

WHO DO YOU TRUST? The Judge or the Professor? The Male or the Female?

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court nominee, never thought that news of a drunken sexually motivated escapade at the age of seventeen would resurface to jeopardize his reputation, his family and his career, or he would never have agreed to the nomination. He vehemently denies the event. What option does he have in the wake of '#MeToo?' Does that sound like I believe his adamant denial is untrue? Hmmmmm! Understand my approach here. Before '#MeToo' it could be assumed that the majority of now prominent males had trifled with a girl's virginity as well as their own. In their adult lives this became a forgotten dalliance. Before '#MeToo' Kavanaugh when confronted with the memory, could have answered an allegation with, "Yes, I acted stupidly when I was a teenager but I grew up and so did my values and morality, and I regret my behaviour then." Today an aspirant for Supreme Court cannot make that admission without losing everything. So could Judge Kavanaugh be telling the truth?

RECIPE FOR RESTORATION

  PSALM 51  ABBY FREE, JULY 8, 2001        'RECIPE FOR RESTORATION'

When a novel begins with the agonizing cry, "O God, have mercy on me," you know that the character is in trouble. This person is so lost or so sick or so worried or so afraid or so guilty, that he or she can't go on without relief. Life has been interrupted by the deepest anguish. And when you read further and learn that this person is wealthy and healthy you really become curious. What could have happened here? - That's how Psalm 51 begins.

A psalm is a song, and there are 150 songs gathered together into one book or scroll called the Book of the Psalms. Psalm songs were sung or recited by Jews and also in the early church and in some present day churches. Ps 51 has been dubbed the Psalm of Psalms. We are about to find out why. This not a poetic composition but a desperate cry. There is a story behind this psalm.  Psalms often have back-stories behind them and Ps.51 may have the largest back-story of all the psalms. In fact, if this were on TV, it might begin with a content warning.

WHAT SHOULD YOU SAY ON THE DAY HE DIES?

WHAT IS APPROPRIATE TO SAY ABOUT A FELLOW CHRISTIAN ON THE DAY HE DIES?  Some people think it is suitable to denigrate his memory on the day he dies. On the day he dies is my point.  We're not speaking about a madman or a money launderer or a serial rapist. It would be entirely apt to recite his transgressions one minute after he bites it. I'm talking about an upright man whose entire life was devoted to God. What would be appropriate to say about him on the day he died? Be clear, this is not an hypothetical personality. I refer to someone whose 99 years of earth life were spent talking to God, and to people who loved God and to people who did not know God but would. What 's fitting to say about him on the day he died? If the person making the post mortem comment hates God, then anything goes. Say what you want about the deceased. But if the commenter is a child of God and a good brother has died, would the right time to point out all of the brother's alleged bad stuff be on the day he died? Why am I asking this question here?  

Saviour of The World - Da Vinci’s Painting - SOLD

Today, Nov 15/17, just hours ago in New York, Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi,' (Saviour of the World), the artist's portrait of Jesus Christ painted in 1505; was sold for $450.3 million at Christie's, the world record amount for art sold at auction; to an undisclosed buyer. Salvator himself remains freely available.

A Word to the World - A Tiny Compendium

A Word to the World: Nothing is more deleterious to human relations than humans themselves. Nothing damages human spirits more than does human heartlessness. Nothing ruins relationships more than does frivolous human speech. Nothing imperils human survival more than humanity's own cold-hearted egocentricity. Nothing has killed more humans than humans themselves.

A Word to the World: We global humans are exquisitely intelligent and diverse creatures but appallingly we have such ingenuous parochial worldviews that we cannot grasp that we are ONE remarkable, intelligent human genus of biped being, each of whom deserves identical respect and compassion.