Life Learning Series

Sometimes, I hear my brothers and sisters of the kingdom of man, speaking of a reality in which we share our self with one another, freely and without restrictions. Among the references to which they are pointing is this one.

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.

And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

(Revelation 7:13-17)

I must admit that; that is an enticing reality to ponder. But; I do not have to share my self, in order to go there. In fact; in some matters, it is easier to achieve this state when one does not try to share ones self, or to place ones self in a position to be shared. Here, I am thinking about such wisdom as the following.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Thirteen –

In the Beginning, in a time of rapid expansion of mankind’s awareness of his ability to share self, there was limited interest in discovering how to do that righteously. At that time, we moved in a compartmentalized view of the purpose of our existence . . . as, it being solely for us. Some may say that; today, we have come full circle, back to that atmosphere. Well, let us not rest in that assessment.

Let us return to the example of, how extended sharing must be done. That example begins in Noah. In the matter of sharing self as in an extended fashion, Noah is significant because; in a world that was in disarray, Noah did not lose his focus on either of these two things: the requirements of the community; the place of the Greater Law of God. This is apparent in the accolade that the LORD bestowed upon Noah.

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

(Genesis 6:7-8)

This was not an example that was restricted to the time of Noah. Indeed, it could not be restricted to the time of Noah because; there was no significant population, of that day, with which it could be shared. This event sealed that truth.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Twelve –

In the Beginning, the LORD allowed us to use a measure of discretion in our interaction with the world. I say, a measure, because, God did not, just release the new citizen of the world, for it to be overwhelmed by the other, more seasoned constituents of the earth. This provided the type of precautious staging that was accomplished in this certain, later time.

And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

(Exodus 23:25-28)

Even as early as the Beginning, the LORD applied the following type of restraint, as for mankind’s sake.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Eleven –

At the beginning of adam (mankind), we, each one, were allowed to be a self-focused type of being. In that statement, the concept, self-focused, includes the immediate family members, almost exclusively . . . the nuclear family: husband, wife, sons and daughters. This limited focus had to be extended, outward, on all sides of the family.

The first level of extension occurs when we reach out to nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, and grandchildren. This form of extension of the nuclear family was packaged in a most noble example: Noah. Noah, as by way of the Ark, extended his focus to all these others, in due time. This may not have been apparent, if one does not expand upon the potential that is in this action.

And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

(Genesis 7:6-9)

To expand upon the understanding which is in that event, consider this Scripture.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Ten –

We have seen the power that is contained in aesthetics, but, we need to extend beyond dependence on that. It is nice to be able to appreciate pretty things; isn’t it? But, what should we think about the ingredient of, control? Aesthetics seems to have a way of wrestling control from us. Here, I have an image of a male jogger, running along a beach, as he passes by attractive young ladies. Next, I see him turning, to continue his observation of a certain one of them. There are several television presentations of young men that are in this sort of situation; as they trips over some stationary object, while looking back. This concept has much ancient iteration, involving various sorts of reviews of attractive items. The beginning of that ancient collection is this.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,

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(Genesis 3:6a)

At that point, Eve and the fruit possessed an intellectual type of drawing force, as for a certain man. This is an attraction that has a power that may be even more potent than sight of the eyes. The drawing force is: the anticipation of tastiness. (What is that quote: The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?) That came into play, at this time.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Nine –

When we started to appreciate of the beauty of the LORD, as in a communal fashion; then, we were ready for a durable example. That point occurred during the time of Noah . . .

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

(Genesis 6:1-2)

In that day, physicality was gaining too much of an upper hand in man’s judgment of the weighting to give to aesthetics. So, the LORD moved us backward; to a place of very limited distractions. That was the point of an Adam-like environment. In fact, if not for the offense of Cain toward Abel, the environments would have been identical. In both of them, mankind started a world on the strength of three sons and one set of parents. Actually, it was identical as in a spiritual, world-shaping sense. It was identical in that; Abel, too, contributed to the shaping of Adam’s world, thusly . . .

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Eight –

Before obligation is set down, pleasure must have been provided: for a parent, that is obvious. Before telling a child, no; one must give the child a reason to listen. This is even somewhat true for infants; though, for an infant, the word is not, no. For an infant, the word is: rest.

Rest; dearly beloved: to get an infant to accept this admonition, we must provide the pleasure (satisfaction) that quiets the yearning. In an infant, we “persuade” the child to believe that; we are the source to which they must turn . . . that, we are the provider of their desires. This involves more than just; giving them the milk that quenches hunger, and the water that calms thirst. We also have to provide the hugs and attention that draws the infant to us. These things are true for all sizes of infants.

The need for positive attention also applies to the one that is an infant to a particular process–a novice. For a novice, we must shield them from the rush of life. This rush tends to press us toward a level of achievement that is beyond our capabilities. Surely, there is a need for some amount of, pushing toward higher level of achievement. Also, these levels are, in general, beyond the present capability of the one that is being pushed. However, the proper push that is applied is a progressive one. As we push others to a level of readiness that is beyond their present capabilities, we must apply a strong measure of deliberative concern; such as this type, which the apostle Paul describes for the candidate for the office of a bishop.

This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

(1 Timothy 3:1-7)

Also, the category of, process and procedure infants, includes the one that is an infant to a particular philosophical system– a proselyte. These will need careful attention. To give such attention is one of the joys of the servant of God. The LORD’S servants are keenly aware of the need for evangelical follow-up. Their desire is; to represent the way of the LORD, without putting a distance between them and the ones that observe them. It is easy for such distance to quench the spirit of an infant of the way of the LORD, specifically; but, too, an infant in any process that has measure of, awe that separates. We must be careful and persistent in such outreach; so as to draw the observers into the process, to prevent the discord such as might have overwhelmed this group of observers.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Seven –

But–blessing and honor be to the LORD, always–God gave us a do-over. In the grace of God, we were allowed to return to a time of malleable innocence; such as Eve had. This is the time when; the opportunity for sustenance, as in the LORD, was refreshed–with the addition of new possibility and potentiality. At that time, we received this example of feasting, as in the LORD: Noah.

In Noah, sustenance was expanded, to include moral integrity, and acceptance of differences. At that time, we received our first diversity training lesson. From that time, forward; it was not sufficient for us, to only preserve our food chain. Also; from that time forward, we were pressed beyond catering to our desire for eye candy. Rather than catering to our eyes’ satisfaction, we had to accept things that; because, specific things were uniquely required by the other creations of God, they were of no direct, easily discernible benefit to us. To give us another type of sustenance, we were fed a goodly helping of such diversity.

As flowing from the time, and in the spirit, of Noah; this is the diversity that was pressed on us.

And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

  And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.

(Genesis 7:1-5)

Sisters; imagine being locked in a room with your brother’s sweaty gym socks. Brothers; imagine being locked in a room full of spilled sister perfume, and mirrors with smeared facial treatments of the girl. Both of these captivities would be a fraction of what Noah had to endure, in order to maintain the sustenance for the physical continuity, and moral integrity, of the kingdom of man. I, for one, am impressed by Noah’s acceptance of the diversity of the Ark. More importantly, God was impressed by Noah; as Noah exited that diversity training session, and was of a ready mind to share of his sustenance, with God. We see that, here.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Six –

Some gifts come with choices: to use them, or, not. The life that the LORD gifted to the kingdom of man was not of that sort. Once that gift was delivered, it took control of the first place of activity in the kingdom of man. Though; God did not give this gift absolute control of the kingdom of man–for, life, too, has to operate in a span. Life’s span is complete when it releases control to another of the gifts of God: death. Wait; before we answer that question you just raised, here is our introduction to death.

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

(Genesis 2:15-17)

Okay; now, back to that question. You ask why I say that, death is a gift. I say so because; in an extension of its charter, death was enlisted to deliver us into this fulfillment.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Five –

To move in the flow of, life as a gift, as in an extended fashion; we needed an image of how we can navigate this mental terrain. To give us that example, the LORD inserted a reasoning process in Noah. The reasoning process took Noah to the place at which he understood that certain things are wise to do. Among the things that are wise to do is this one: to be faithful in our communion with the LORD.

It is because of Noah’s inaugural faithfulness–as extends to us, in his example–that, he assists us in molding our life in religion. As a part of the lesson of Noah, we acknowledge both, religious outreach, and, cherishing life, as being a tightly coupled gift from God. A certain servant of God revealed the beauty of the gift, as in these words.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

(Ephesians 2:4-9)

In the living example, Noah; the gift is as we see its coupling, here.

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– Explore kingdom of man: Part Four –