Sunday, April 12, 2009

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Lonely Places

The Temptation of Jesus

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”
5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’
11 and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Luke 4: 1-13


12 Once Jesus was in a town where there was a man who was suffering from a dreaded skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he threw himself down and begged him, "Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean!"
13 Jesus reached out and touched him. "I do want to," he answered. "Be clean!" At once the disease left the man. 14 Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go straight to the priest and let him examine you; then to prove to everyone that you are cured, offer the sacrifice as Moses ordered."
15 But the news about Jesus spread all the more widely, and crowds of people came to hear him and be healed from their diseases.
16 But he would go away to lonely places, where he prayed.

Luke 5: 12-16

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

One Year Later

The world has changed quite a bit since my dad died last April 1. I am sorry for all of my social inadequacies, especially the hermitness. Back in the old days in some cultures the grieving were allowed to be odd for a year or so. I feel pretty well beat up. I had hoped to have written a worthy eulogy by now, but the words just haven't happened. While losing my dad to cancer was painful, it might have been even worse to have seen him devastated by losing all of his retirement independence. His funds had already begun to drop in the year before he died. The coming market crash should have been more apparent to those who were gambling with his money. But I guess they figured they were getting-rich-quick and didn't care about the future.

I can hear him now talking about the anarchists and socialists throwing fits in London. "They hate capitalism but they love its money and technology." Socialism is just another get-rich-quick scheme, and it's a sham too. Without capitalism the socialists wouldn't have anything.