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MONKEY BUSINESS

Growing up in Georgia offered serendipitous surprises in childhood.

From time to time, my family visited a ramshackle restaurant, whose outside brick walls were painted forest green with a big red and white Coca Cola sign, and whose main menu was pork barbeque. Barbeque sandwiches, barbeque platters, barbeque ribs, both half and whole rack. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

But the thing I liked most about that eatery was just outside the building where they kept a wire cage that was home to a small monkey. I spent hours around that cage, gazing, poking my fingers through the wire, and wishing I could take that monkey home and keep it for my own personal pet. Needless to say, this notion did not sit well with the grown-ups. So, much to my eight-year-old chagrin, it never happened. Had it actually occurred, maybe I would enjoy monkeys more today.

Or, maybe not. more . . . www.thesis96.org

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It seems truly amazing to me how an obscure thought or simple effort by one obscure person tucked away somewhere in the corner of the earth, can find its way to have a world-wide impact for generations to come.  Such was the now great hymn, “How Great Thou Art.”  How many times has this kind of thing happened?  Countless!  

  This tells me to never be enamored with celebrity personalities.  Listen to the so-called “little people.”  You may find that they have shaken the earth. -- PDM  www.justusscrolls.com

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BREAD IN MY JAR

 Man does not live on bread alone. Bread is necessary, but in order to sustain true life, mankind must live on every word that comes from the mouth of God. – Jesus (Mt. 4:4)

 They sit at the bar

And put bread in my jar

And say, “Man what are you doing here?”

The lyrics occur in Billy Joel’s ballad about a man who plays the piano in a piano bar.  In this song, Joel sings of sadness, loneliness and broken dreams of being a star.  Apparently, the patrons think he should be.  Of course, we all know what happened.

The “jar” of which he sings, is a jar sitting on the piano, put there on purpose to collect tips.  The patrons who like the piano man’s music, drop bills, or “bread” in the jar. It is from this “bread,” and the small stipend the bar provides, that paid his bills.

The bread we eat is no metaphor.  In this life we couldn’t live if we didn’t eat.  I love cornbread, or even better “cracklin’ bread.”  If you don’t know what that is, you ain’t from the South.

 It is worthy of note that Jesus became hungry AFTER his resurrection.   He ate earthly food in the upper room just to prove he was real.  Then he prepared a fish breakfast for himself and the disciples.  In my research for “The Justus Scrolls,” I discovered that the dominant fish species in the Sea of Galilee is none other than Talapia!

 Not sure I could have handled that.  Ever had a fish breakfast?  Several years ago, a friend, my son and I went on a week-long canoeing trip on the Aubinadong river in the wilderness of Canada.  We caught 105 trout that week.  We had fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. Nothing in the world like fresh trout.

 But this hardly the point Jesus was making in his dialogue with Satan.  The bread in his jar concerned life here and now.  It concerned absolute life, life that cannot be diminished, life that will never end.  Not by broken dreams.  Not by hunger.  Not by anything.

 That kind of life comes only from the Word of God.  Note the capitalization.  The “Word of God,” is not only the Bible; in fact it is not even primarily the Bible.  The Word of God is Jesus, himself.  He, and he alone has shown us the Father.  He, and he alone, gives true life.

 Feast your heart on Jesus, and true life, absolute, irreducible, eternal life – is yours.

 Bread in your jar.

-- PDM

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A Place for Experience in Biblical Truth Perhaps it is my imagination, but there seems to be a growing need among followers of Christ to draw sharp distinction between what the Bible teaches and human experience. This is demonstrated conclusively in the LGBTQ community. We are speaking here of divergence from what for millennia has been understood as abnormal and unnatural – not to speak of evil. To be sure, homosexuality has been with us as long as humans have existed -- after the human race separated itself from the Creator God. Unlike the LGBTQ issue, human experience does not have to contradict what the Bible teaches. Wherever there is a contradiction, then for a Christ follower, the Scripture must take precedence. Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield is quoted as saying, "When the Scripture speaks, God speaks." 1 Even if one does not take that at face value, it is insane to suggest that the Scriptures do not reveal the Word of the Living God. If we think that, throw your “Christianity” away. It is meaningless. That said, experience can be as real as Biblical Truth is real. In fact, experience often precedes doctrine. What we make of it, however, is another elephant. Experience is malleable. It can take whatever shape we want. So experience has a crack through which the water held back by the dam, leaks. Yet, when Jesus died on the Cross, that was an experience. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, that was an experience. When God divided the Red Sea, that was an experience. Gravity is something we experience. If you accept Warfield's notion that the Bible speaks for God, then the events of which the Bible speaks, actually happened in human experience. But experience must be vetted. It has the potential to lead one in the wrong direction. I've known people who say, "God spoke to me and told me ______!" If God told you something that contradicts what he has already said, then you can be advised: whoever, or whatever spoke to you, it was not God. The tool, therefore, by which one confirms the integrity of experience is none other than the Scripture itself. -- PDM __________ 1 Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was professor of theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. He served as the last principal of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1886 to 1902.

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None of us are the result of accident, creatures of random sperm journeys colliding with random egg. There is as much rationale to human life as there is equilibrium to the universe, as much rationale to individual human life, as there was to the life and purpose of Jesus himself . . . continues athttp://thesis96.org

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Paul Morris

35 mins

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A CHRISTMAS TALE

He ran with all his might. Snow had turned to slush and footing was treacherous. Several times his feet skewed wildly, sending him crashing. Soft light from streetlight globes, yellow with age, illuminate the misty winter night. Mrs. Liebenstein barely missed being turned upside down by this seven-year-old, legs churning furiously.

"Watch wher' yer' goin'!" she raged.

She wasn't heard. Cold soaked through wet soles numbing toes. His body thudded once again into the slush. He blinked his eyes to two big black rubber boots standing inches from his nose. . . (click on URL for more)

http://christiantherapist.com/Morris/Drifter/drifter001.htm

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Question:  The Bible says, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?”  (Amos 3:3). If this is true, how can you walk with God?

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The Scripture you refer to is actually a question.  The answer is a qualified, "No."  If you can't agree on anything, then it is going to be difficult if not impossible to walk together.

As to walking with God, there are several areas of agreement.  First, you are created in his image.  You have that in common.  Second, his love for you is off the charts.  Even so, you have a far more important commonality:  Jesus Christ, his only Son, whom the Father has offered for you. When Jesus died on the cross, he had you in mind.  He did that to take on himself the penalty for your sins.  We’re talking that kind of love.  In return, he wants for you to believe in him.  Is that so hard?  Do that, and you have taken the first step in walking with God.

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To Touch the Face of God

 To “Touch the Face of God,” is poetic language and comes from a poem written by John Magee, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot who died in an accidental collision with another aircraft in WW II. President Reagan used the phrase to eulogize the seven astronauts lost in the space shuttle, “Challenger” explosion.

 While this was a sad moment in American history, one does not have to suffer the pain of death, unless it is death to self-serving ambition, to touch the face of God.  In our pursuit of knowledge, we are concerned with productive and satisfying living, but not for itself.  We are concerned with living a life that has meaning and purpose.  We wish our lives to count for something.  We wish the world to be a better place for our having lived here.

 Therefore, the “first brick” to be laid in building this structure is, in reality, its cornerstone.  That first intention, the moment the shovel breaks the ground, the first stone that is laid, is to “touch the face of God.”  This speaks forcibly to living a life aware of his presence, sensitive to his presence, struck with the awe of his presence, and acknowledging the reality that these joys in life are impossible without engaging his presence.  -- PDM

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WOULD YOU WRITE A REVIEW?

If you have taken the time and effort to read "The Justus Scrolls," I wish to say, Thank you!"  I earnestly hope you found it fun to read and spiritually nourishing.

I have a request, if you have read this book and enjoyed it, I would deeply welcome your opinion of it.  Did it serve to stimulate your engagement with God? Entertaining?  Held your attention?  What did YOU think?

I would love to know, and others to know your thoughts.  Please go to https://amzn.to/2Azn3Lq and click on the "Write a Review" button.

Thanks to all,

Paul D. Morris