{"id":9735,"date":"2022-11-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=9735"},"modified":"2022-11-21T10:56:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T17:56:56","slug":"cause-and-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=9735","title":{"rendered":"Cause and Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday 23 November 2022<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Not Quite Roman Roads, but,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

no matter how great or small our efforts are,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

they are nothing compared to God\u2019s work<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalms 24:7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 1:1<\/strong>2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words of Grace For Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cause and Effect: people always want to be in control of the cause and the effect, especially of their own lives and things important to them,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like being accepted by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the one verse from John reflects (in the English more than Greek) that first 1) we believe in Jesus\u2019 name and receive him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then 2) God gives us the power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And 3) we use that power to become children of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is all backwards and dangerously so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we have that power, then we have the power in the end to tell others that they did not receive Jesus, and therefore they are not the children of God, and if not the children of God, then they are not our equals, and … well eventually that leads to us against them, and the killing starts, if not literally then figuratively at first and always in the end, literally. And that is hell. That is not what Jesus came to live on earth as one of us in order to make possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just ain\u2019t so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact taken with the verse before and after we see even in English some very different cause and effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 1:1<\/strong>1-13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Jesus comes to his own, and 2) they do not accept him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) others receive him and believe in Jesus\u2019 name,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) Jesus gives these others the power to become the children of God,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) but listen: that power is not worked out by us humans, because those children of God are born (not by blood or the will of humans) but by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cause and effect is clear: God acts, we receive the blessings. We get to accept the blessings or reject them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of how we respond, scripture shows again and again that God acts again and again, to move us to accept the blessings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Psalm can be misread as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could say we must life up the gates of our hearts, our world, our cities, in order that the King of glory may come in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we know God comes whether we act or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pray that God will bring us to lift up the gates, and give witness to the coming of the King of glory. That\u2019s the part we sinners get to play in God\u2019s effort to reach out to so many people who think they are in control<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the cause and effect<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in God\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s in control of all the causes and effects and we get to believe, cooperate, and participate, Or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s still in control of all the causes and effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank God, for when we think we are in control, that\u2019s when we build \u2018towers of Babel\u2019 and start wars to \u2018conquer or kill off the unfaithful\u2019 who are in our way for exerting our control in \u2018our world.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another day to pray we learn also again today to believe, cooperate, and participate in God\u2019s Will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 23 November 2022 Not Quite Roman Roads, but, no matter how great or small our efforts are, they are nothing compared to God\u2019s work for us. Psalms 24:7 Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in. John 1:12 But to all … Continue reading “Cause and Effect”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,57,21,98,47,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dark-and-light","category-daylight","category-holy","category-roadways","category-trees","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9735"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9739,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735\/revisions\/9739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}