Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

     I read a devotional recently that basically said that things are getting worse in the world so the kingdom of God is coming soon.  What a terrible bit of theology.  And I have heard it many times before.  I think it is mistaken.  And I think it affects how we go about our lives.  Running from the world as if we would be tainted by it. Focusing on the bad things in the world. Look at history.  It just isn't true that things are getting worse.  Think of our lives now compared to lives in ancient times, or in the middle ages.  Isn't life immeasurably better now?  We are free, most of us, from the shackles of desperation that characterized peoples short, violent lives.  Lives are better, and longer and more fulfilling with every generation that passes.  Even better than our parents and grandparents.  And let's take a look at the theology.      What if there is another way to interpret the end times scriptures?  In revelation, the picture of the end times is the kingdom

     What shall I compare the spirit of God to?  It is like a thick fog blanketing the land for as far as you can see.  Settling over the fields and valleys peacefully.  Shot through with unexpected sunlight. It has come to me over and over when I am sitting in the living room soaking to music, wrapped up in a warm blanket, watching my prayer candle flicker.  I am simply not myself without a regular experience of the Spirit. It beckons me to come out of my shell.  To interact with the people I meet as I go through my day with love.  It invites me into the mystery of the Trinity.  Beholds Jesus.      When I see Jesus, he is always smiling at me warmly.  No scars from the wip and cross.  He is whole, and he encourages me to be whole. Wholly myself.  At peace with all the parts inside.  He invites me to feel my emotions and then let them go.  I imagine them coming into a black empty space in my head, and then drifting up and out.  This brings me peace when experiencing anger or fear,

     The baby, lying meek and mild in a manager.  Is this all there is to the Christmas story?  Amidst the rush and bustle of the holiday season, there is another reality, lying behind it.  It is the reality of the Christmas story told in Revelation 12. "A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a

Scratchin' at the dirt I've been a better man But one foot in front I hold my heavy head high. Suffering shows me The soul is a deep well Dulled between heart and brain But the passions burn still My heavy arms I raise them to the sky On my knees every night I pray for the sun. Shine on me now. I can't see through the fog In the long day But I know you're there. The affinity my soul has For the deep raspy grunts Of the tortured soul on my radio Gives me strength this minute. Smoke one more cigarette. Take a deep breath. Put one foot in front And make me a better man today.

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