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Grace, Jesus in Life, Law of God, The Final Judgment, Uncategorized, Your Identity in Christ

Good works do not result in salvation

Our good works do not result in salvation, nor do bad works result in being lost.

If good works do not result in our salvation, are they important? Moreover, if our bad actions do not cause us to be lost, then are evil deeds a non-issue? The key phrase “result in” means that the outcome of our works, do not determine our status with the Lord. However, behaviour, good or bad, can indicate our sincerity or a distancing in our relationship with Him.

It is not about the importance of or the purpose of our good deeds. It is about the method of salvation of which our good deeds are not the cause. They are the result.

What causes us to experience the joy of salvation if not our good deeds? Romans 3:20 states: “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” Jesus alone saves us, and we are kept and accounted righteous by the faith expressed in our accepting Him and further abiding in a relationship with Him via the Holy Spirit. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). Our focal attention must not be on our goodness or our misdeeds.To seek for or experience salvation, we are to focus on Jesus. By beholding Him, we will become changed into His image and our joy shall be suffonsified.

Every time we look at ourselves or our agenda alone, we will be unsuccessful. It is easy to be discouraged when we see our sinfulness and give up, or be proud of our excellent works and become proud. It is a dead-end street, either way, these delusions work to our misery. Only look to Jesus and know that you are secure. The bad thief on the cross looked to Jesus and said “Lord remember me in your coming kingdom” recognising Jesus as the Messiah. How did Jesus reply? “Today I tell you—you will be with me in paradise!”

Paul was radical about the subject of salvation by faith in Christ alone. He was not against good works – after all, he was one of the best-behaved persons in town. Writing Philippians 3, he disabuses his readers with some balancing humour: “If anybody has reason to boast of good works, I have matched or exceeded his record!” Summing it up, he counted his past life as loss – in fact, he viewed his behavioural perfectionism as crap — when compared to the glorious, merciful, faultless righteousness of Christ. Judged by the letter of the law as a good man, with an exemplary moral outward life, he had abstained from recognisable sin. Paul, reviewing his life, now honest, saw himself as God saw him — a man trying hard to be justified by works. He came to his senses and confessed that his need alone was Christ.

Our salvation finds union and security in our acceptance of Jesus — of His sacrifice for us – and our ongoing relationship with Him. It is not dependent on behaviour — salvation is much more than behaviour. Good works are not bargaining chips for eternal life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life”. Actions alone do not determine one’s eternal destiny — whereas our open-hearted, unashamed and honest relationship with Jesus as your Saviour does.

Good deeds will show up in your life, but they will never cause your salvation. God does not judge by the outward actions, but by the heart from which flow all the issues of life (see 1 Samuel 16:7; Proverbs 4:23).

Backsliding, Holiness as Responsible Sanctification

Has man created himself in his own image?

“God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3.3-5 ESV)

Today it seems that man, created in the image of God, has culture by culture, demographic by demographic, man by man, turned the tables on God and made his culture or himself out to be a demigod, the creator of his preferred god — in his own image.

In this sense, man has become like God. He has forgotten how he was dependent on God his creator, the source of his origin, and how many have made her- or himself out to be his own creator and judge. It has become the collective consciousness of the general human race, culture by culture and alas Christendom, as more slip outside of the Narrow Gate, of the Way of Life.

What God had given man to be, man now desired to be through himself. But God’s gift is essentially God’s gift. It is the origin that constitutes this gift, as the image of God draws his life from the origin of God, but the man who has become like God draws his life from his own origin. 1 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ethics offer insight into how this has occurred, to the degree of how a man as god, did manifest into the self-created collective evil of the Hitler/Nazi regime which he stood against (eventually he was martyred). History proves that man certainly knows both good and evil.

This secret has been stolen from God by man in his desire to be an origin on his account. Instead of knowing only the God who is good to him and instead of knowing all things in Him, instead of accepting the choice and election of God…he has become like God, but against God. Herein lies the serpent’s deceit…he acquires this knowledge only at the price of estrangement from the origin, the good and evil that he knows are not the good and evil of God but good and evil against God….good and evil of man’s own choosing, in opposition to the eternal election of God. 2

In the garden story of Genesis, we find the metaphor of the acquisition of the knowledge of good, along with evil, signified the complete reversal of man’s ordained insight. Firstly he knew only good, without knowing anything of evil, which had previously only been the sole understanding of God who knew man was given free will, fully capable of potential evil.

We must conclude that this original knowledge of good included both good and its antithesis, evil, as only Yahweh-God’s sacred ground of governing knowingness. Evil is the opposite of “good,” when it disobeys God’s laws of Grace, based on his primary laws of Love.

The history revealed in the Word of God, recognises that God often uses man’s evil as a poignant force to discipline his own once-devout wavering children, with the intention of warning him from consequences of folly, to the degree the New Testament warns:

“And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.” (Heb 12:5)

This quote derives from the writings of Moses. (Deut 8:5) Those covenanted by agreement to His laws, in the old covenant were promised direct disciplinary intervention by Yahweh, though in some cases discipline, as with Moses, may take years to manifest. (Cf. Moses, Achan, Judah’s King Zedekiah, Nabal).

The Bible indicates to us that God is the first source of and the only One who knows both good and the opposing potential to choose evil by man’s free choice. The potentiation of actionable evil is existent in His created universe. Evil is the antagonist willing against good or God, by man’s abuse of any potential application of the principles of good.

God knows the potential of man to misuse creation, to think and act out evil – to not love, but rather to hate and destroy as love’s opposite. Jesus said, “the devil comes only to steal and to destroy”. The Satanic mind, originated in sentient beings once subject to God’s dominion, as his created beings, flirted with this potential to enact the opposite of God’s will as seen in the Eden temptation story.

All life is a progressive metaphor, to which mortal beings are a part thereof, a truth I see again and again as I read scripture. For, e.g., prophecy is often presented by God as a metaphor (such as the vision/dreams of Joseph, Daniel, and John). Metaphors of the Bread and Water of Life, or the covenant symbolised by communal wine, in the life of Christ, are supreme metaphors of a reconciling God offering His Son to die in our place.

Man in the flesh flirts with temptations, to tether out every potential tangent of evil we now see in the race. In this sense, St. Paul’s prince of the power of the air is the supreme metaphor at the pinnacle of the consciousness of man opposing the divine prerogatives of good, ideas seeking access via the discerning portal gate of our mind. Decisions, in lock-step by cause and effect, proceed consequentially to the physical actions of life, good or evil based on the embryonic acts of the will.

Only God, the creator of all atomic matter, should ever consider knowing the mechanics of managing men on earth either by protecting His loyal followers or warning them or by pitting man’s evil motives against the perpetrators. In many cases, the Bible reveals stories of how he uses evil against His disobedient straying ones when they flagrantly forget His Sovereignty as creator over man and His Grace offered to them to live by love alone. For example, Jeremiah when rebuked harshly by a false prophet of the king of Judah, immediately prophesized that the liar would be dead within the year:

“Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. “Therefore thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to die, because you have counselled rebellion against the LORD.’” (Jer 28:15-16)

Man can and has usurped God’s commanding dominion, and His prophetic voice heard in the Scripture via the Holy Spirit. Our discerning will and conscience must be submitted to God so that we can understand:

…the mystery of an eternal dichotomy which has its origin in the eternal One, the mystery of an eternal choice and election by Him in whom there is no darkness but only light. To know good and evil is to know oneself as the origin of good and evil, as the origin of an eternal choice and election. 4

God is the one and eternal origin of our lives, the overcoming master of all delusion of all the demigods who would choose to usurp his universal Creator-Mind. He is the mighty rearranger of those who use their mind and actions to perpetuate evil, causing disunion against his prescribed royal law to which Christians covenant in Christ, in the sanctifying new covenant of God.

King Nebucanneazer became instantly insane for seven years when he glorified himself as creating his kingdom when it was God who raised him up to discipline the Jews. When his sanity returned he praised the God of the Jews (see Dan 4:28-37). It is noteworthy that the discipline worked:

“When my sanity returned to me, so did my honour and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honour than before. “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honour the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.” (vs. 36-37)

In the scriptures, when looking at history, the choice of God to stop access to the tree of life now makes sense. (Gen 3:22, 24) Though it is recorded as occurring, it also is the metaphor of how man disobeyed and turned against God to accept knowing evil as the antithesis of good (as offered by Satan to Adam and Eve).

Boil it down, draw a line in the sand, we all know that evil remains essentially the opposite of obeying God’s direct commands made to us — even if it is the still small voice of the Spirit (1Kings 19:2). The human race was delivered over to the opposite of the good happiness of love and life, to the terrors of death, which is the end/outcome of dominant evil which is the destruction of the operative love in man’s mind as resident good. Bonhoeffer notes that “Man’s life from Eden was in disunion with God, with men, with things and with himself.” 5 Now inter-generational physical death has passed unto all men.

It is this disunion with God that Christ came to atone for, to redeem man from his fallen nature – from his constant flirting with evil — to reconcile him with his creator in the new creation of his mind:

“But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”. (Rom 5:8-11 NASB)

1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics, italics mine

2 Ibid

3 Glen Jackman’s paraphrase of Bonhoeffer with additional insights

4 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

Grace, Parenting, Uncategorized, Your Identity in Christ

Learning from the faith of children

“And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for them, saying, ‘Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.’” (Lk 18.15-17)1

The acceptance Jesus offers to children promotes their simple potential faith in Him. Recall a child hanging on its mother’s hand. Ask, “Do I turn to Jesus Christ and our heavenly Father like that?”

A child trusts its parents, knowing a calm nearness and unity of engagement. Unlike most adults, a child’s mind is fully at peace in the moment when a loving mother or father engages with their child.

There are no stresses and fears entering the mind of a child because most young children are not worrying about their future. Nor are their memories of past regrets or harboured bitterness in the mind of a child, as most are not culpable of racking up traumatic memories of harm to or by others. Children are not generally focusing on the past, again free to experience the moment of parental unity.

I am hoping to be more like a child when I come into the moment with our Lord, to experience His presence with His Father, both who desire to dwell with us ongoingly. I know that only when my mind is practising the presence of God can His Spirit’s love, compassion, and kindness flow through me to those I connect with.

They will see Christ in us, and together with Him, we will make a difference in the lives of others that can impact their lives for eternity.

All stresses and fears enter our mind when we are thinking about the future. All regrets and bitterness come into our mind when you are focusing on the past.2 Mindfulness is lost and our faith life while living in Christ in the moment is distracted and lost in time. (see Mat 6:34)

Take a moment and think about how beautiful it is to see a child walking by the side of a parent with a small hand stretched up as high as it can go so his or her fragile fingers can lock onto the hand of Mom or Dad. The child’s feet scurry to keep up with the parent’s gait. In that scene is a picture of you, a child of God.

We are to metaphorically place our hands in his and walk with him at our side, letting him direct our steps. The humility, trust, and dependence of a child teach us to seek the face of our heavenly Father and stay close to him as we walk with him.3

1 New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
2 Scott, Steven K. (2015-12-15). Jesus Speaks: 365 Days of Guidance and Encouragement, Straight from the Words of Christ (p. 1). The Crown Publishing Group.
3 Life Application New Testament Commentary, Luke, Darrel L. Bock
Uncategorized

Lord, I will teach by using your Word alone

“Make them holy by your truth; teach them your Word, which is truth” (John 17:17 NLT)

Jesus is referred to as the express character of God, revealing His father’s love and His maxims expressed in His Word to mankind. He said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NIV) He came to reveal a new way of thinking about love, about grace, mercy, and forgiveness – a way of freedom from guilt and the eternal consequences of sin. Apostle John says that the Word of God is truth and is a standard to rely on. Jesus expressly prayed asking His Father to teach His apostles from the Scriptures alone: “…teach them your Word, which is truth” (John 17:17 NLT)

Holy Spirit, Sanctification: Living a Holy Life

The Pursuit of Overcoming sin

“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2 ESV)

There is much evidence in the word of God that we are to overcome sin and live holy lives.

We can only achieve this with the indwelling light of the Holy Spirit; with the Spirit permeating our lives united as a church; as the pure Bride of Christ. The sanctification of the Spirit is the key process that brings the church “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2) to meet Jesus Christ face to face at His Second Advent.

Let’s look at ten scriptures presenting John’s teaching of “overcoming” in first John and then his prophecies imparted by Jesus to him for the church today in Revelation:

  1. 1 John 5:4
    “…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith”
    1 John 5:3-5 (in Context) 1 John 5 (Whole Chapter)
  2. 1 John 5:5
    “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God”
    1 John 5:4-6 (in Context) 1 John 5 (Whole Chapter)
  3. Revelation 2:7
    “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God”
    Revelation 2:6-8 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
  4. Revelation 2:11
    “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death”
    Revelation 2:10-12 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
  5. Revelation 2:17
    “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it”
    Revelation 2:16-18 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
  6. Revelation 2:26
    “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations”
    Revelation 2:25-27 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
  7. Revelation 3:5
    “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels”
    Revelation 3:4-6 (in Context) Revelation 3 (Whole Chapter)
  8. Revelation 3:12
    “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name”
    Revelation 3:11-13 (in Context) Revelation 3 (Whole Chapter)
  9. Revelation 3:21
    “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne”
    Revelation 3:20-22 (in Context) Revelation 3 (Whole Chapter)
  10. Revelation 21:7
    “He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son”
    Revelation 21:6-8 (in Context) Revelation 21 (Whole Chapter)

To add insight to these “overcoming” scriptures symbolising holy living, let’s look at Pauls view in Romans chapter eight. He makes it clear that the church is made up of true believers engaged in this sanctification process who are freed from any condemnation through their faith in Christ, and the indwelling Holy Spirit is the guarantee of their salvation:

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

“the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”  (Romans 8:4)

“if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:13-14)

Only those who walk in the Spirit can possibly overcome sin and the world. They are the residents of the Holy City now called the New Jerusalem that John referred to in our scriptural list.

The metaphor of our prefacing verse indicates that the church is prepared as a Bride, prepared to meet and enter a long-term allegiance of loving transparent, honest oneness with Him. This is in contradistinction to the people walking in the flesh in the Old Jerusalem who turned their back on Him. In God’s plan, the old Jewish ways were going to be transformed anew into spiritual allegories depicting greater truths; an abiding relationship with Jesus (with His Father) in the Spirit (see the metaphor of  Abiding in the Vine, John 15)

Jesus reveals in Revelation that His angel is trying to inform us of this important message to allow His Spirit to indwell our hearts. Listen, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches” (Revelation 22:16).

Uncategorized

Poppa, God is Spirit, He wants to give us more Life

“His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15b-16

I was to meet my daughter for the Kitchener, Christmas parade. The parade began, and she had not arrived with the children (held up at the doctor’s office). I got a call “I’m here, in the parking garage”! As I helped the grandkids out of the van, I was informed: “Santa Clause just passed by.”

Instead of the parade, I enjoyed a visit with my grandchildren for about an hour plus, alone. She conversed freely with me. Flipping through a little Bible, she noted the word love in 1 Corinthians 13. “I know this word, love”. She began to tell me about the Spirit of God, His love and His desire that we have more Life.

Next, she headed for my Bible with many inquiries. Flipping it open she said, “did you do this?” as she perused my underlining in the Word. “Why?” was the next question. I pondered, wow, Jesus must be akin to the Grandfather with His own grandchildren. I praised Him over my grandgirl silently, considering what Jesus said, “Except my Father invites, no one can come unto me” (John 6:65 my version) And we talked, further.

Uncategorized

Christians are commanded to be happy

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil 4:4 ESV)

Media can overwhelm if we believe that we must follow every rabbit down its hole. Most of us have packed schedules. We may worry about deadlines, find it hard to sleep or get enough exercise. Moreover, we may not be happy, and thus incapable of rejoicing in the Lord at all times.

Augustine wrote in the fifth century, “Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy.” Blaise Pascal, a Christian, French philosopher, and mathematician wrote, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception”. Theologian, J. C. Ryle said, “All men naturally hunger and thirst after happiness.”

We don’t have a choice. Scripture commands us, not just invites us to rejoice. The need and the desire for happiness, designed by God, is built into the GPS of our mind, but many have lost a sensitive ear to hear God calling into our heart. We are tempted to follow many drummers down every path.

Daily we are bombarded with facts, pseudo-facts, fake news, and if you watch TV you’ve just added a myriad of talking heads! Daniel Levitin, the author of The Organized Mind, noted:

According to a 2011 study, on a typical day, we take in the equivalent of about 174 newspapers’ worth of information, five times as much as we did in 1986. As the world’s 21,274 television stations produce some 85,000 hours of original programming every day (by 2003 figures), we watch an average of five hours of television per day.

Are we making it increasingly difficult to hear God’s call to be happy, to rejoice, to praise Him for what he has done and for what he gives us? Many Christians are highly disciplined. They exercise regularly, take time for relationships they value, cultivate kindness and reach out to help others, some exercise their talents and get into the flow of playing an instrument, playing golf, skiing or teaching.

For many Christians, “being happy yields an uneasy guilt. Being holy is something we can do in God’s presence one day a week, but being happy is something we’re more comfortable doing behind his back (which isn’t possible)” 1  Yet Scripture teaches us to be happy before the LORD: “You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters”. (Deuteronomy 12: 12). “May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you!” (Psalm 40: 16, NET)

The Bible is full of guidance to bring us to the realization that we may have lost our joy in our relationship with the Lord. In fact over 2,700 verses in the Bible contain words such as joy, happiness, gladness, merriment, pleasure, cheer, laughter, delight, jubilation, feasting, exultation, and celebration. “God makes it clear that seeking happiness through sin is wrong and fruitless. But seeking happiness in him is good and right” 2

In the Old Testament, we find “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD!” (Deuteronomy 33: 29) In the New Covenant Jesus said: “Be happy and excited! You will have a great reward in heaven” (Matthew 5: 12, CEV)

Further, Jesus taught why happiness makes total sense: “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10: 20). We need to consider that we may be disobeying this simple command to be happy, thinking that we do not deserve any joy. Faith in the Lord, as well as the happiness it brings comes from hearing the Word, not scanning Facebook, watching TV, or allowing our minds to switch to the sources of information that destroy our peace.

If you are not experiencing happiness in the Lord, you may be missing the abundant life Jesus came to give. Jesus made it very clear that there are other powers at work in the world that work to steal your joy: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”. (John 10:10)

I believe our happiness, when radiated is a great witness for the Lord. I agree with Randy Acorn: “Consistently seeking our happiness in Jesus shouts to everyone that God is present and working in the world and that he’ll one day reign over a new universe.” 3  “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24)

1 Alcorn, Randy. God’s Promise of Happiness (pp. 2-3). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

2 ibid

3 Ibid

Discernment and Thinking, Uncategorized, Your Identity in Christ

The divine maxim of fathers and sons

“…that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him”. (John 5:23)

shutterstock_59336677

God had impressed me to write about his Sovereign design of the father/son, about inter-relating in loving unity, which I had seen so clearly in the Gospel with the divine Father and Son. It was a very emotional subject because my son had just spent a week visiting from British Columbia. I often think about being closer to my son, through joint business for example.

Nathan and I did a lot of travel together. He slugged my cameras as I explored ruins doing art photography. He also directed my itinerary. During this time of travel Nathan was moving out of his youth into manhood. I also wanted him to experience history, art, and culture.

We traveled to the many ancient ruins of Italy and France once a quarter for one or more weeks, to photograph ruins and primary historical sites. I also found myself studying the photographic potential of the abstractions of modern architecture and oddities in urban and city settings. Old ruins in ancient settings interested me the most.

There is a theological connection with ruins. As a biblical teacher/writer I am very keen about naming the Old Covenant as a period of ruined hope, now focusing on the beauty of the distinctiveness of the New Covenant as taught by Jesus Christ.

In my traveling heyday, I was a much more complicated man. Now I de-access materialism, craving more time with my children and grandchildren. My daughter Christin has commented lovingly and frequently in our best moments, “Dad, you’ve changed” during which time I proudly see my little girl all grown up.

God was working in several ways to lead me. I was simultaneously led by the Spirit in another parallel project. Going over 40 years of photography, I thought “What could a ruin represent as a shadow-type of my life?” Perhaps, metaphoric milestones, representations of a progression or regression of my spiritual life-view over time could give me distinctive wisdom.

Now 62, looking over subjects I photographed. I reassessed my values, the scope of my personal growth, noting blind spots, revelations, foolish hindrances to vision, deafness to God’s voice, avoiding mindfulness in any present reality, and the glorious truths, as well as the dark side of my life’s journey.

Unearthing our distant past is hard work Similar to the ruins of Rome or Pompeii or Greece, my photographic images, in my mind’s eye, could never model a ruin to testify to my past terrifying ruin — the dissolution of familial love in my childhood family as the eldest of five siblings. My mother called on me as a boy, saying fraught with fear, I can hear her now: “you are now the man of the family.”

This would present to me a very serious loss to my psyche, my father, whom mother distanced us from.

Ruins depict the unknowableness of place and time. In a photo, it hides a different and disconnected past as hidden as my own (psychologists call this repression). It is looking back, a seeking for something, perhaps a reconstruction of a time that once was real. Freud wrote of ruins:

Imagine that an explorer arrives in a little-known region where his interest is aroused by an expanse of ruins…when they have been deciphered and translated, yield undreamed-of information about the events of the remote past, to commemorate which the monuments were built.

Ruins persist in the disorder of time, now to return as a metaphor for my very own past. My childhood family fell into ruination. Like the photographed ruins of Mars Hill during my trip to Athens, Greece, a time and place which resisted repression, thanks to the Apostle Paul’s preaching of the Gospel, ruins helped reactivate the repressed foes of my psyche with the help of the Holy Spirit leading.

Two writing projects coincided. It became clear to me that while dealing with my metaphoric journey, the present truth about Father and Son became powerfully activated. Nathan had recently told his friend in my presence about our last Italian dinner together after traveling to Rome, then Florence, and finally in Venice together. I listened. My mind was now very present in the conversation, and this past recalled the moment, though it was God working with my quest to understand more about my soul. Love, via the Spirit of God, flowed into my heart as I looked at Nathan before me, now twice the age of that evening’s memorable meal together. It was a kind of the last supper with him as our trip came to a close.

The reality of that unity with my son brought me resounding echoes of joy. Jesus prayed for His disciples before the cross. “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:11)

The assessment of my photography of ruins coincided with recalling my son’s visit, bringing me to a revelation of the divine nature of father/son unity: “one as we are one.” I began to understand the relationship that Jesus would have me enjoy with the heavenly Father, unity, and the oneness that time with Nathan echoed.