Peace that surpasses understanding

It is so true that God rescues us to give us Life and a peace that surpasses understanding! Mmm, just read this from Nests Above the Abyss, by Isobel Kuhn.

Sharp Winds from a Bitter Height! There is the Wind of Merciless Heathendom. In 1938, just 30 or 40 miles to the south of us, a young heathen girl killed her husband and eloped with her lover. According to Chinese custom, she had been married (I suppose) against her own will, and when her true love came she eloped with him. They were caught and she was punished by being skinned alive. She was only 18 years old. Poor little wind-torn nest! What a horrible abyss that is! Contrast with that this other little nest, hit by the very same Wind.

Going out along Sunset Trail one evening, I met a fellow villager climbing up laboriously. She was carrying a babe tied in a sling in front of her bosom so that it could nurse easily. On the mother's back was a tall basket full of corn on the cob. The basket was so tall that it towered above her head. As she saw me descending, she rested her load against the hillside and her face lit up with a smile. "Ma-Ma," she said softly, calling me by my Lisu name. "S... !" I replied, greeting her by name. I was deeply moved and said, "How do you come to be carrying such a load? Don't you know that your body is not back to normal yet? This could give you life-long weakness. Where is your husband?"

"Oh, he's at home. But Ma-Ma, you know him. He never does any work -- just lives for the opium pipe. There was no food in the house and the little ones were hungry, so my mother gave me this load, but I have to carry it myself from Pine Mountain." (Pine Mountain is five miles away.)

I was very indignant, for her husband is a big, husky young fellow. "How did you ever come to marry such a man?" I asked.

"Why, Ma-Ma, it was arranged for me. You know our old heathen custom." She went on to tell me of the disappointment to find that the husband chosen for her was almost a devil. He was an opium-smoker, a thief, and would even sell their house furniture when she was absent in order to get money to buy opium. Yet in the telling of this her face was not bitter. There was a sweet peace upon it. As we parted she again thanked the Lord for meeting me and said, "Ma-Ma, take some corn out of my basket; they taste good roasted by the fire. I'd like to give some to you!" But I could no more accept that corn on the cob than David could drink of the water from the Well of Bethlehem. As I left her I thanked my Lord that He can bring an inward peace that passes understanding, that though the body is suffering, the spirit may dwell with Him in heaven. This little Nest had found the Cleft of the Rock hewn out for her, and when the Sharp Winds blowing upon her were too awful to bear, she could find peace in that Cleft.

The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing is chapter 2 of A. W. Tozer's Pursuit of God, which I have just begun to read. It is powerful and simple. I thought I would post an excerpt:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kindgom of heaven. - Matt. 5:3

Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him by creating a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply "things." They were made for man's uses, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him.

But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.

Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and "things" were allowed to enter. Within the human heart "things" have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.

This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble. There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets "things" with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns "my" and "mine" look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God's gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.

Our Lord referred to this tyranny of things when He said to His disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it."

Hebrews 13:5-6

I like this verse :)

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

'Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you.'

So we say with confidence,

'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?'"

Taste and See!

An interview:

Critics of string theory have called it unscientific because it is not falsifiable. How can we evaluate string theory?

Falsifiability for a theory is great, but a theory can still be respectable even if it is not falsifiable, as long as it is verifiable. There are aspects of a theory that you can go out and look for and confirm, and that’s another way to gain confidence in it. For instance, it’s really hard to falsify the statement that there is life on another planet, but you can verify it by finding one example. We’re hoping that certain features of string theory are confirmable.

Kolmogorov Complexity

"In that sense we cannot reject the possibility that the universe is the output of monkeys typing at a computer. However, we can reject the hypothesis that the universe is random (monkeys with no computer)."

- Elements of Information Theory 2nd Ed., pg. 482

In times of uncertainty

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." - Hebrews 6:19

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

A Wind in the Door

I read "A Wind in the Door" by Madeleine L'Engle last Saturday that was really good :) Mmm, I'm mostly going to post a bunch of excerpts as a summary to myself, so it's going to be pretty incoherent to anyone reading it, but feel free to skim and imagine if you would like :)

Again, came the rumble that bubbled up into a laugh. "My dears, you must not take yourselves so seriously. Why should school be easy for Charles Wallace?" pg. 60

"Well, then, what do we do now?"

"Go home to bed."

"But school --"

"You will all go to school as usual in the morning."

It was total anticlimax. "But your school --" Meg cried in disappointment. She had hoped that Charles Wallace would never have to enter the old red school building again, that Blajeny would take over, make everything all right...

"My children," Blajeny said gravely, "my school building is the entire cosmos." pg. 63

"Progo! You said we were Namers. I still don't know: what is a Namer?"

"I've told you. A Namer has to know who people are, and who they are meant to be." p. 97

"Meg, when people don't know who they are, they are open either to being Xed, or Named." p. 98

At last Mr. Jenkins sat, crouching uncomfortably on the rock. "With what can I understand, then? I don't have very much intuition."

"You must understand with your hearts. With the whole of yourselves, not just a fragment." p. 127

"It is the nature of love to create. It is the nature of hate to destroy." p. 128

"But why would they bother with a child?"

"It is not always on the great or the important that the balance of the universe depends." p. 138

Proginoskes thought noisily at her, "Time isn't any more important than size. All that is required of you is to be in the Now, in this moment which has been given us."

"I don't feel like myself. I'm not myself! I'm part of Charles Wallace."

"Meg. You are Named forever." p. 147

"Do the inhabitants of Yadah seem more limited than human beings because once they have taken root they can't move from their Deepening Place? But human beings need Deepening Places, too. And far too many never have any." p. 152

"The little farandolae -- the ones who saved me -- are they all right?"

There was silence.

"Are they all right, the little farandolae who startled the Echthros and saved me?"

"No." The kything came reluctantly from both Calvin and Proginoskes.

"What happened to them?"

"To surprise an Echthros is not a safe thing to do."

"The Echthros Xed them?"

"No, Meg. They Xed themselves. That's a very different matter."

"What will happen to them now?"

Proginoskes kythed slowly, "I've never seen it happen before. I've heard about it, but I've never seen it. Now I understand more than I used to. The farandolae are known by name just as the stars are. That's all I need to know." p. 158

She felt his mind balking at the idea of communication where distance was no barrier. "Mice talk by squeaking, and shrimp by -- I don't know much marine biology but they must make some sound. But trees!" he expostulated. "Mice who put down roots and turn into trees -- you did say trees?"

...

"Trees cannot talk with each other."

"Farae can. And as for trees -- don't they?"

"Nonsense."

"Mr. Jenkins, when you walk through the woods at home, and the wind moves in the trees, don't you ever have the feeling that if you knew how, you'd be able to understand what they were saying?"

...

Through his discouragement she became aware of Calvin. "Hey, Meg! Communication implies sound. Communion doesn't." He sent her a brief image of walking silently through the woods, the two of them alone together, their feet almost noiseless on the rusty carpet of pine needles. They walked without speaking, without touching, and yet they were as close as it is possible for two human beings to be. pg. 165

"When Sporos Deepens," Proginoskes told Mr. Jenkins, "it means that he comes of age. It means that he grows up. The temptation for farandola or for man or for star is to stay an immature pleasure-seeker. When we seek our own pleasure as the ultimate good we place ourselves as the center of the universe. A fara or a man or a star has his place in the universe, but nothing created is the center." p. 172

But after a moment of breathlessness, Meg was able to open herself to the song of the farae, these strange creatures who were Deepened, rooted, yet never separated from each other, no matter how great the distance.

We are the song of the universe. We sing with the angelic host. We are the musicians. The farae and the stars are the singers. Our song orders the rhythm of creation.

Calvin asked, "How can you sing with the stars?"

There was surprise at the question: it is the song. We sing it together. That is our joy. And our Being.

"But how do you know about stars -- in here -- inside --"

How could farae not know about stars when farae and stars sing together?

"You can't see the stars. How can you possibly know about them?"

Total incomprehension from the farae. If Meg and Calvin kythed in visual images, this was their limitation. The farae had moved beyond physical sight. p. 174

"But you said your last assignment was to memorize the names of all of them."

"I did. All the stars in all the galaxies. And that's a great many."

"But how many?"

"What difference does it make? I know their names. I don't know how many there are. It's their names that matter." p. 175

"Don't you understand that the Echthroi are your saviors? When everything is nothing there will be no more war, no illness, no death. There will be no more poverty, no more pain, no more slums, no more starvation--"

Senex kythed through the Echtros, "No more singing!"

Proginoskes joined Senex. "No more stars, or cherubim, or the light of the moon on the sea."

And Calvin: "There will never be another meal around table. No one will ever break bread or drink wine with companions." p. 181

Sporos's twingling was slightly dissonant. "Farandolae are born to Deepen."

"Fool. Once you Deepen and put down roots you won't be able to romp around as you do now."

"But --"

"You'll be stuck in one place forever with those fuddy-duddy farae, and you won't be able to run or move, ever again."

"But--"

The strength and calm of Senex cut through the ugliness. "It is only when we are fully rooted that we are really able to move."

Indecision quivered throughout Sporos.

Senex continued, "It is true, small offspring. Now that I am rooted I am no longer limited by motion. Now I may move anywhere in the universe. I sing with the stars. I dance with the galaxies. I share in the joy-- and in the grief. We farae must have our part in the rhythm of the mitochondria, or we cannot be. If we cannot be, then we are not." p. 183

Like precious oil poured on the head

Today was wonderful :) A beautiful service on what does freedom mean, wonderful discussions, badminton and then a relaxing dinner with friends. Mmmm, what more could I want out of life? :)

Lately, I've been thinking about the topic of `loneliness'. In a small group a couple weeks ago on `fear and hope', I realized that most of my major fears relate to this in some way or another. What does the bible say about loneliness? About living amidst a community? Or on living abundantly despite not having a community? What does the bible say about who He is, what our relationship is with Him?

Here are two passages that resonate with me now :)

I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."

- Psalm 16:2

How good and pleasant it is

when brothers live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron's beard,

down upon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon

were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the LORD bestows his blessing,

even life forevermore.

- Psalm 133

Faith requires Humility

I read this verse in Andrew Murray's book "Humility". It was so surprising, thought-provoking, and convicting: "we shall see that we may indeed have strong intellectual conviction and assurance of the truth while pride is kept in the heart, but that it makes the living faith, which has power with God, an impossibility."

John 5:44

How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?