Life tranferred ... without a word

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• "Wives (who have heard the word of Jesus, and now follow him) , in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives' conduct, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

(One of Jesus' Ambassadors for his new Kingdom, writing to some other followers of "The Way" in the First Century B.C.E. - 1 Pet 3:1‭-‬2  (bracketed italics added by me, to explain context))

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Well how on earth can meaning be transferred

from one being to others with no word?

This really is a silly question, but

once language has been learned, with some effort,

we tend to concentrate upon what we

just put our work into. Then we don't see

what's patently around on ev'ry side.

That seems to be the way that humans ride!

And if we stay within our culture group,

then ou-r language learned, will mainly scoop

the meaning from around us. We'll forget

the meaning passed without a word. And yet,

there wouldn't be a day goes by, without

much meaning, messages, passed all about,

around us, and within our very selves.

No body that's alive can live but else-

wise messaging about it's food and drink,

it's temperature, and pressure.. Can you think

of any plant, or animal, or bird,

a fish, or insect which will use the word

to so communicate, and yet they do

quite often with their species, and those who

would care to draw some meaning if they can.

And then within a body that's hu-man

We find it is the same. So how d'y'do?

And then recall someone who smiled at you.

Or kissed to welcome, or just shook your hand.

Or saw a need and helped. You'll understand.

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• "Actions speak, louder than words" (old English proverb)

• "Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?”... If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”  [Jesus, as recorded by one of his Ambassadors for his new and coming Kingdom, where he speaks of the Creator God as a loving Father: (but note the chief conduit he declares for transferring his message from this Father to these people around him, not his words, but his works.) Jn 10:32‭, ‬37‭-‬38 NRSV-CI]

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Paul's 1-page rendition of the Gospel-of-God for Greek-thinking Gentiles:

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I note that the Appostle Paul

• preludes with a clear connection to their present lives, and practices, and conceptual thinking.

• tells their past HiStorY (clear and to the point part of the big story of God and humans), 

• tells the NEW present day part of HiStorY, 

• links this to their own prophet insights, 

• gives them a present imperative, (here, & now)

• which involves changing their allegiance to this new King, and thus

• trusting this new King [who has been presently christened (but not yet appointed) by God on Earth] and learning to do his will.

Also I note that he addresses

• The Authority of the Author of everything.

• The oneness of humanity

• The way to view God that is pre-eminently as our Father, that has nearness, and hope of relationship implicit within it.

• The concept of "through-ness" or agency, vice regency (God ruling through this man)

• mercy or love shown in appointing a human (that we can see) as our ruler and judge, who will be fair, and impartial.

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PRELUDE:

Paul stood up in front of the city council and said, “I see that in every way you Athenians are very religious. For as I walked through your city and looked at the places where you worship, I found an altar on which is written, ‘To an Unknown God’. That which you worship, then, even though you do not know it, is what I now proclaim to you. Acts 17:22‭-‬23 GNBDK

"God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. Nor does he need anything that we can supply by working for him, since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone.  From one human being he created all races on earth and made them live throughout the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live. He did this so that they would look for him, and perhaps find him as they felt about for him. Yet God is actually not far from any one of us; as someone has said, ‘In him we live and move and exist.’ It is as some of your poets have said, ‘We too are his children.’ Since we are God's children, we should not suppose that his nature is anything like an image of gold or silver or stone, shaped by human art and skill. God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways. For he has fixed a day in which he will judge the whole world with justice by means of a man he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising that man from death!”  Acts 17:24-‬31 GNBDK

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"I'm representing here and now to you:

the God, who made the world and everything 

with-in it, is the Lord and Boss of who 

is in this holy place, each hoof and wing,

as well as rock and tree, and gas and space,

"the heavens and the earth", in short. So he

does not depend on us, the human race.

And can't be captured in a place that we

have made with our own hands. Nor does he need 

some thing we could supply by working for 

him, since it's he himself who gives and breathes

our lives and all things else to all, and more;

so from one human being he create-

-ed all the races on earth and made them 

to live throughout the whole earth. He has made

and fixed beforehand places, where & when

they'd get to live. He did this so that they 

would look for him, and so perhaps would find 

him as they felt about for him. They say

he's not that far from anyone. We find

that some have said, ‘In him we live and move 

and are - exist.’ It's as your poets said, 

‘We too are all his children.’ This would prove

that we should not suppose his nature dead,

or anything that's imaged here of gold

or silver, stone, or shaped by art and skill. 

So God has overlooked the times of old

when people did not know him, or his will.

But now he has commanded all of us

that's everywhere, to turn away from sole-

-ly selfish ways. He's made a pretty fuss

& fixed a day in which he'll judge the whole 

world justly by means of a chosen man. 

He's given proof of this, a way to test, 

by raising him from death - as just he can!

- not just to more of this life, but the next” 

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Acts 17:16‭-‬31 (Greek and various English translations)

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Follow him?

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Yeah, appreciate your prayers (and Jesus' too).

Wow, what an honour to be able to 

hang with him. God help me to follow through.

To grow up, as you planned, to be like you.

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Yeshua of  Nazareth, started walking this Earth in the skin & bones of a human body roughly  2,022 years ago. …For his followers 2,022 years later (of which I am one), there are special issues that need to be dealt with in the wake of his call, and then the advent of Christendom's re-interpretation of it to be just more of the same ol' story of humans trying to gain and show their ascendancy over the inanimate world, the biological world, and other humans. A simple story of conquest, and power-mongering, for the sake of "getting our own way", "getting what we want", "fulfilling our desires"; quite a different story to the multidimensional one he stars in, where he ends up praying, while sweating blood, the night before he is hanging on a Roman cross, "Please take this "cup" from me. But nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done."

It seems like we have to hear carefully what he said and meant by his words, and actions, and carefully distinguish these from our default understandings arrived at through Christendom's help in re-interpreting…  

• The disclosive & predictive words, parables, actions, & interpretations of the Hebrew Bible (& Greek translation of it) and the prophets of God who helped recall it, display &  disclose it, & interpret it to God's people. (e.g. Luke 24:44‭-‬47 GNTD, Hosea ( 1:6‭-‬10); as back-ground that Paul (Romans 9:24‭-‬26) & Peter call on to explain God's present actions, Isaiah that Phillip (to the Ethiopian official, Acts 8:29‭-‬36) & Paul (Romans 9:27-33) calls on to explain Messiah, and his people etc.

• The stories of the four (Greek language) gospels, each told to a different audience with honesty, pathos, intentionality, and skill. His (words and) actions of accepting (and facilitating) hospitality, bringing healing, fraternizing, story-telling, and basically wasting his life on ordinary (cursed) people, and standing against demonic influences, ,& standing against, hiding from, and keeping out of the reach of the human leaders; until his time came to let them show their hands, in torturing and killing him, (as with all the line of previous prophets) for their own purposes, while all the time demonstrating simple yet profound trust in the greater creater. (See the first 5 scrolls of the N.T. & Peter's & John's explanations (e.g. "..God will bless you for this, if you endure the pain of undeserved suffering because you are conscious of his will. It was to this that God called you, for Christ himself suffered for you and left you an example, so that you would follow in his steps. … when he suffered, he did not threaten, but placed his hopes in God, the righteous Judge."1 Peter 2:23, "..if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did." 1 John 2:6, & 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:16‭-18)

• "Come & see" which Jesus said to two of John's disciples who were already (physically) following him(, & which Phillip then said to Nathaniel too).

• "Follow me".  By which I take Jesus to mean "Start where you are at, I will come near. Then, physically join my travelling team, be provided for by me, and my ways of trusting God, and being open to his provision through many means. But more than that learn from me, my words, my understanding and meanings, my approach to life, my motivations, methods, and means. Make me your model."

• “Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor." Luke 12:33 GNTD & Peter's interpretation of what Jesus was calling his followers to:

"Since Christ suffered physically, you too must strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking that he had; because whoever suffers physically is no longer involved with sin. From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires." 1 Peter 4:1‭-‬2 GNTD

Take on "suffering" rather than comfort, knowing that all your real needs will be provided for.

• "Announce my evangel to all creation", & testify to what you really do know and have seen of God's work in, and through Jesus, and in annointing Jesus, & out of Jesus's spirit's motivation of love, persuade them to join you in a response of changing their life-direction to do the will of God (rather than to just fulfill their own desires), and trust his leadership, that offers forgiveness and hope for a real future (Mark 13:10, Mark 16:10, Mark 16:15‭, ‬20; Luke 24:47, Acts 1:4‭-‬5‭, ‬8), & "appropriately and in a timely fashion throw out demonic influences that array (against, or for, it)." (Jesus to apostles Mark 3:14‭-‬15; Mark 6:7‭, ‬12‭-‬13; & Paul with demonized fortune teller lady).

• “..I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18‭-‬20, which I understand to mean: "Make disciples of all the nations, by going, teaching them to obey my commands, and the symbolizing of their death to that old way of living (for our desires) and being raised up to the life of God's new creation, filled with the personality, or spirit, or personal presence of Jesus.

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Godliness (for us?) - implying what methodology?

 

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Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. NIVUK 1 Tim. 3:16 (Greek original, & other translations)

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For certain sure, beyond all questionings,

the mystery of godliness is great.

The secret which is now made plain, and sings,

as bird in early morning can elate...

but mostly those awake to hear its sounds.

As sunrise keeps its tryst with few of us,

yet openly its secrets can be found,

so godliness is known by what it does:

appearing, being vindicated, seen,

then heralded, believed on, taken up….

within/ among; the flesh and spirit's keen,

then angels, nations, world, glory, erupt.

This doesn't smell of  overpow-er-ing,

compulsion, forcing, or machinery!

It's only "certain-sure" as love would fling

itself down low to be with, and to see.

Identifying with, and paying for -

one loved, recalled with positive regard.

It wants the best, it pays the price, and more,

it works to do, not show that it tries hard.

If after it appeared, it had to be

vindicated, so to prove it right,

there must have been at least "uncertainty",

and seen by angels, or with them's a sight

for eyes more sore, than sure, the stories tell.

So maybe "show 'n' tell" has got it right,

our lives and words show people, help them smell,

so as to tell what's true, and love; not fight.

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a ppalling life: families and callings .. ("Come home. Dinner time!")

a ppalling life: families and callings .. ("Come home. Dinner time!"): Both apostolic & prophetic kinds of callings still require full living from a grateful cle/ar spirit - one which finds itself enamoured ...

The Way one lives as an heir in God's world...

The Way One reigns/ rules/ leads/ exercises authority...

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The big picture of REAL authority on God's Earth..

..Is that of loving adult parents raising a child from the one-cell stage (where nothing at all is yet known by the individual human cell, nothing of all human endeavours, knowledge, language, loves, pleasures, & appreciations), till the child is a healthy individual adult woman or man, who might be termed a "friend".

There are no guarantees. Only the possibilities of creative love, which might in fact be boundless. "Guarantees" may be the only things which hold them back.

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Perceptions:

• God's kind-a authority comes from the creative love, and the loving creativity that is expressed in God's authorship, as the creator of all that exists coming ultimately from no "thing" but (in Einstein's words) ultimately coming from "the mind of God". Not only responsible for  authoring the existence of the material Universe, this God is also the author of life.

• When I willingly come under God's kind-a authority, I can come to know it, in my bones ...( and then, as Abraham and Sarah found...

• I am given (not in a contract, removed from me through the use of a distancing "third-object" like money, but, in a covenantal agreement, calling for "truth", " honour" & "reality", that is close up and personal, as with  marriage) God's kind-a authority to lead/ rule/ reign, and bless others God connects me with, or "sends" me to… (all the rest of the world of humans)

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Some Corollaries:

• Proposition One: Authentic author-ity comes from authentic author-ship.

• Proposition Two: Authentic (good quality, work that has integrity and consistency, & has not been plaguarized) authorship (& there is bad … authorship), is motivated by creative love, or loving creativity.

• Proposition Three: Authorship & authority can be authentically delegated or shared.

• Proposition Four: Authentically  delegated or shared authority will involve authentic authorship that is respectful and honouring of its delegated or shared status.

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Journeyman's notes:

• The way previous generations in Christendom used the term "the kingdom of God", has often led people to a static, concrete, place centred view of the text within the greek writings of the early followers of Yeshua Bar Joseph, who record this term (or its equivalent, with it's Aramaic and Hebrew roots) as extensively used in the mouth of Jesus: "βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ" transliterated as 'basileia tou theou'.

• ⸂Καὶ μετὰ⸃ τὸ παραδοθῆναι τὸν Ἰωάννην ἦλθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν κηρύσσων τὸ ⸀εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ λέγων ὅτι Πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρὸς καὶ ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ· μετανοεῖτε καὶ πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ.  ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΡΚΟΝ 1:14‭-‬15 SBLG …   The Common English Bible translates this as: "After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”" Mark 1:14‭-‬15 CEB

• From the Encyclopaedia Britannica:“Though the phrase itself rarely occurs in pre-Christian Jewish literature, the idea of God as king was fundamental to Judaism, and Jewish ideas on the subject undoubtedly underlie, and to some extent determine, the New Testament usage. Behind the Greek word for kingdom (basileia) lies the Aramaic term malkut, which Jesus may have used. Malkut refers primarily not to a geographical area or realm nor to the people inhabiting the realm but, rather, to the activity of the king himself, his exercise of sovereign power. The idea might better be conveyed in English by an expression such as kingship, rule, or sovereignty.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kingdom-of-God (accessed 13.08.2021@6pmAEST)

• Notes from N.T. Wright on the Kingdom of God.

•  Jesus’ world was filled with horrible Kings & their rules. https://youtu.be/rLiy-WlS9mA?t=2938 

• He is reclaiming the biblical notion of Kingdom from the psalms… 

• Often Truth is grasped more by the imagination (love, healings) than by arguments.

• If God’s kingdom has been inaugurated, why are things not getting better? https://youtu.be/rLiy-WlS9mA?t=3124 

• There wasn’t any sort of public health care, or public education in the ancient world… 

• it was their lives that won over people to be Jesus’ followers.

• Jesus often offers an interpretive phrase with his parables: "The 'basileia tou theou' is like…". This can now be understood, not as describing the realm of heaven, or even any specific "realm", so much as the type, or kind of "rule, or reign, or leadership of God", the "way that God rules or exercises his authority. ie. "God's authority over humans is like this…."  a pearl merchant, a crop of wheat, a mustard seed, a lump of dough  etc… This is an act of interpreting the announcement of the gospel that Mark gives us so pithily twice in chapter one.

• Jesus (as recorded by Mark in ch10) makes a big deal about the way authority is used within his group, as distinct from the way it is used, or the kind of authority wielded by "the kings of this Earth")...

• This, after two scuffles for prominence and leadership from his disciples.

• This has the same function as the parables… their life together IS an enacted drama/parable.

• In the NT writings, people are expected to have delved and seen this distinction for themselves. They are expected to have understood "another kingdom", another way of wielding and using authority, the way of Jesus, and the writers are often speaking, not of the powerful miracles and acts of Jesus, not even memorizing &  quoting his wise words all the time, but noting the actual coming of, and now this new and living Way of being God's regent or the ambassador or model of this new and living  way of wielding humanity's rightful authority on Earth. So we get exhortations like this: 

• "I, Paul, make a personal request to you with the gentleness and kindness of Christ… 2 Corinthians 10:1 CEB (the gentleness & kindness of Christ, is something they pulled out of the story that enfleshes what we call the gospel)

• Paul speaking of "the most excellent Way" that makes all human power, knowledge, and insight, useless without it. (See 1 Cor 12:31 -14:26, 1 Cor 12:31-14:26;16:13-16)

• When groups of Jesus followers around the Roman Empire started (like Jesus' early disciples before them, the apostles) vying for prominence, power and influence, putting others down, or puffing themselves up, the apostle Paul does not command with any force of compulsion, just the power of a life of love known for what it is.

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