Ethics is a non-levitical guide to modal excellence
Natural endowment refers to the seven faculties or powers given to humans, as described in 2 Peter 1:5-7, to help rule and have dominion over the earth. These include the faculties of sight and prophetic insight, touch and deaconic excellence, hearing and didactic genius, speech and parakalyctic intelligence, organization and metadidomic oversight, leadership and proistemic precedence, and empathy and eleemosynary compassion. Each faculty is governed by a principle like virtue, knowledge, self-control, and others. These endowments are meant to be used for good and to benefit all of mankind.
Week 3: Fractals from the Past
SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY This November brings two special surprises. First, those who seemed to be outside God's kingdom will unexpectedly embrace faith. Their resistance will crumble as quickly as an avalanche, leading to a sudden, spectacular burst of faith.
They will open their eyes to new, immersive experiences, revealing the secrets of being born into and living in God's presence. These supernatural encounters will provide guidance without being prescriptive. What God reveals today may not always be immediately appreciated or understood.
Second, those within the flock who seemed to oppose God's will, will prove to be more aligned with it than ever. The traditional thinker will gain clarity on the next steps to take.
With God's will, they will begin to move away from self-sufficiency and independence, understanding that life is more than the trophies you win and the body is more than the clothes you wear (Matthew 6:25).
The Gutenberg printing press took 500 years to reach the known world. Television democratized the human experience in one generation. Today, the electronic church has reached us rapidly.
Oral Roberts once said, "When you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible."
BEST IS YET TO COME
When Jesus said, Take no thought for the morrow he is demanding of his family to trust in him completely. Be not anxious, period. The word used here is “marimna”, (μεριμνήα) which occurs 6 times (v 26, 27, 28, 31, 34 twice) in what has been called the magna charta of the experience of being human. (1.) We should not be anxious since life (ψυχῇ) is more than eating and drinking (v 25). Every soul is ordained for greatness and every community can bless God and flourish. (2.) We need to edit out all anxiety, fear and stress in our lives once and for all. Worry has absolutely no place in our lives. Apart from heaven, we cannot add an hour to our life on this planet or a cubit to our stature, physical or otherwise (v 27). (3.) We ought not worry about tomorrow since God clothes the lilies of the field and likewise has written into our DNA the plans He has for us, plans to give us a future and a hope, plans to prosper and not to harm us (v 28). (4.) You build his pantry so He keeps yours well stocked up. You take care of the shirtless and he makes sure your children never go naked. You build His house and he will build yours. You can’t out-give God and whatever a person sows that shall we also reap (v 31).
(5.) Tomorrow is yoked to God’s purposes today. Tomorrow learns from today. Tomorrow turns for good what the rogue elements mean for evil. Tomorrow is on our side and because of that, you are more in the will of God today than ever before. “We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers waiting to be explored, our brightest discoveries are not yet known, our most thrilling stories are not yet told, our grandest journeys are not yet made” (DJT). TOMORROW IS ON YOUR SIDE All my life, I have been a fighter at war with and in danger of, tomorrow. On many fronts my sworn enemy has taken advantage of and withdrawn my God-given right to be content. In times past, I have sought in vain the promise of a bright future, a treasure beyond description that always seems to be just beyond my reach. I have sought to extend my hand in peace, but always I have heard the approaching drum beat of war. But something today has changed. I hear a different sound. Today has declared something new that was not there before. It has only been a recent shift, not many days since I have felt a change of heart - first, an assurance that
things are just as they ought to be, and a deep and inner peace that tomorrow will be even better. An unfolding of a promise given and now received, that He who feeds the sparrow will feed even me. I pause in the sacredness of the morning with a grateful heart. With grateful outstretched hands I worship my Creator. And when, hours later, what is left of today gives way to evening, I pause again with a grateful heart. The morrow is no longer sinister and waiting in the wings to stand in opposition to me. Today I hear a whistling of a new song, barely audible, I can just make it out: “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper not to harm, to give you a future and a hope” This is truly remarkable for, He maketh wars within to cease and no longer do I look upon tomorrow as an unforgiving wall but now an unlocked door to a fresh season. Tomorrow is no longer against me, but for me. What the devil meant for evil, tomorrow turns it around. God works all things for good and does it through my tomorrows. Weeping endures for a night but joy cometh on the cusp of the morning. No wonder Jesus proclaims a cessation of this civil war between the me I see today and the future me that only He can see. He says and I can hear it now: “take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow will take thought of itself. μὴ οὖν μεριμνήσητε εἰς τὴν αὔριον, ἡ γὰρ αὔριον μεριμνήσει ἑαυτῆς... ”
Now I know, tomorrow will never lead me where His grace will not provide. Now I know that the thing that irritates me today is a clue to my assignment. Now I know that if the ball is at my feet, I should pick it up and run. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, ἀρκετὸν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἡ κακία αὐτῆς. Matt 6:34” Of all the modalities, the defaults and presets surrounding the archetype of the prophetiea is the one consumed by tomorrow and its impact on today. The prophetiea connects the dots for you and what those dots have to say may just change the way you see your future. CHANGE, ADAPT, OVERCOME When the angry waters come to rest, and winds finally die down, when we see the devastation with our own eyes, when dreams are swept away, when the hopes of entire communities are dashed and the future of the helpless child seem bleak or non-existent? What is God saying to us then? When we calculate the damage as a result of homelessness, in terms of lives lost, in terms of potential trashed or opportunity loss, we hear the familiar words of Jesus: ‘come to Me, ... take my yoke upon you ... learn of Me ...’ Here is the challenge to survivors in the aftermath, to those who have had endured and have not given up to behold the beauty in the receding of the waters. So it’s back to the drawing board. To redo our sums, to check and recheck our work. Time and again, humanity must pick up the pieces if there are any left when the angry waters recede, when the crash investigation is over, when the post-mortem is complete. And pick up the pieces, if God permits, we shall. Here is the real challenge in terms of your faith. When He returns will He find a faith that is beautiful beyond description? Really? in the face of all that has happened, in the smouldering of the wick, in the near extinguishing of the flame of hope? How does mankind rise up in a time of devastation and loss of life and destruction? Can we still say that we are in God’s school of discipline when we see the result of government inaction, or the helplessness of local populations to cope with the situation. Lord, have mercy! Gutenberg and the printing press took 500 years to conquer the known world. Television took one generation to democratise the human experience. Today, it is the electronic church that has reached us in less than two shakes of a cow’s tail.
THE MATH IN THE AFTERMATH When the angry waters come to rest, and winds finally die down, when we see the devastation with our own eyes, when dreams are swept away - how do we account for the tragedy, not just in terms of damage to property, loss of life and limb, tragedy of those we knew and those we must now mourn - the death of a dream, when the hopes of entire communities are dashed and the future of the helpless child seem bleak or non-existent? What is God saying to us then? When we calculate the damage as a result of homelessness, in terms of lives lost, in terms of potential trashed or opportunity loss, we hear the familiar words of Jesus: ‘come to Me, ... take my yoke upon you ... learn of Me ...’ Here is the challenge to survivors in the aftermath, to those who have had endured until the receding of the flood and have not given up. This is the true challenge in the aftermath of human tragedy and suffering. The will and intention is clear - God wants to give us rest. He paid the price for it and now calls you: “come to Me... take my yoke upon you ... learn of Me ...’ There has not been a war, an earthquake or devastating hurricane in living memory when good men have not been challenged to do the math of the aftermath.
Gutenberg and the printing press took 500 years to conquer the known world. Television took one generation to democratise the human experience. Today, it is the electronic church that has reached us in less than two shakes of a cow’s tail. INTENTION AND OUTCOME Music, like math, is ordered according to strict rules that define the smooth articulation or staccato-like hiccups that we experience in the formulation of what makes life worth living. For those discerning the finer things in life both metaphors, of music and math, can be seen in the decoding of the pause and acceleration as our faith is tested in the fire, purified and made ready for the furnace. Like red-hot swords that are plunged into ice cold mountain streams to temper and strengthen them, so too is the lost art of discipleship recovered in the masterclass of the eleventh chapter of Matthew, verses 28 to 30. The information used by the Conductor to communicate to individual voices, say in the violin section, what the maestro has in mind help all the players in the pit to walk with what the composer originally intended in blending together the various talents and resources available for a desired outcome. This is what the orchestra