Of Many Such Matters He Is Reminded

 (Job 23: 10,14)

Although I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me (Ps. 23:4). In life’s challenges there is the thought that we are in that situation alone. Everyone around us seem to be indifferent to our cry for help; our voice seemly muffled by their indifference. We pray, but help does not come fast enough for us. To the contrary, we feel that we were not heard, and life goes on in that mode for as long as our trouble lingers. Like Job, we cry, Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat! I would lay my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments; I would learn what He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me (Job 23:3-5). In the pages of Psalm 139: 13,15-16 we have a beautiful, significant  and trustworthy statement from the Lord to us through David, to assure us of His involvement in our life from the beginning, when He was forming us in the womb of our mother: For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are your works, and that my inner knows well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret intricately and curiously wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.

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But Mary Stood Alone Sobbing

YAHSHUA was dead; His body was not in the tomb, Mary Magdalene puzzled over what she was seeing, without understanding what had happened on that early morning of the first day of weeks. Without any delay, she ran to tell Simon Peter and John about it. Anxiously and worried, Mary related to the disciples that they had taken YAHSHUA’S body; she did not know where to. Her heart was disturbed and fearful with the idea that YAHSHUA’S body had disappeared. While the disciples went to verify her report, they left also puzzled, for not having understood the words of YAHSHUA concerning His resurrection in three days. Meanwhile, Mary remained at the tomb sobbing, overtaken by her emotion at the thought of Him been gone. She stood at the tomb alone, for the disciples had left at the reality of the empty tomb; they pondered over the fact, for their understanding was veiled with unbelief. As of today, not all Israel has yet been unveiled to see and perceive YAHSHUA been risen from the dead. But for Mary Magdalene, that was all a different story. Delivered from seven demons, she lived her freedom displaying her gratitude to the Lord, as in together with other women, she ministered to and provided for Him out of her property and personal belongings (Luke 8:2-3). Her love for YAHSHUA was clearly genuine, even when she thought Him to be dead.

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Two Gardens

In the beginning of time

A perfect garden was created

With beauty untold

Where sin was not a thing

To be found

In that sinless world

Man and animals harmonized

With nature in a song of perpetual

Purity and joy, as God walked

Among them in the breeze of time

Planted by the hands of God

The Garden of Eden

Blossomed with trees, flowers

Birds and butterflies, too

While a river kept it green

It was a home for Adam

To work it and care for

With a command

You must not eat certain fruit

Or you will certainly die!

Who else had heard it

If not the cunning serpent

With ideas not so good

To confuse and misguide

The mind of man?

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I Want to See Jesus

Life in its entirety is empty without the desire to know its Author. When the Creator walked this earth, many rejected Him, although His life was a beam of light, comfort and healing for all who met Him. From blindness to the lifeless unto life, YAHSHUA stood tall and confirmed Who He was. The masses followed Him and few had to struggle to see Him, as Zacchaeus for being short in stature, as the woman with the blood flux, could only touch Him to receive her healing. Without the help of the media, the world in those days depended very much on word of mouth. YAHSHUA was so sought for, that sometimes, He had not even the time to eat. The Samaritans asked Him to remain with them a while, after His encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well. Two days He remained with them at their request, for the harvest was truly ripe. People upon hearing about Him, came from far places to see Him. The Greeks in particular, who went up to worship at the Feast; they came to Philip, and made the request, Sir, we desire to see YAHSHUA. Philip together with Andrew told YAHSHUA (John 12:21-22). It is not registered if they had a chance to see Him or not, but the fact remains that their desire was to see YAHSHUA, even though, their theology was polytheistic; they assumed that there were many gods and goddesses. The Apostle Paul when in Athens, was grieved in spirit when he saw that the city was full of idols; Acknowledging their theological obsession, he addressed them by saying, Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, to an unknown God. What therefore you worship in ignorance this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things (Acts 27:16, 22-25). It was that God, the only true God that the Greeks desired to see. It was the “Unknown God” Whom they wanted to see and know.

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His Broken Body

Not a sound, not a cry

They came to take Him away

In violent disarray

In the night while in the Garden

Gethsemane, that was

In intense prayer

While sweat like blood clots

Ran down His face

Swords, clubs, torches

To lighten into the dark

Of the mob’s coward way

They came, Jesus, we want

I am He, He replied

At His voice, they fell

backward to the ground

Their strength gone.

With a kiss He was marked

For trials by the authorities

Of crimes not committed

The verdict by Rome

Not guilty of the charges

Crucify Him, others cried

Rome’s deaf to the truth

Listened to the mob’s voice

Cesar, Cesar, our king

Away with Jesus

Crucify Him, crucify Him!

Pilate scourged and whipped Him

Mercilessly by the hands

Of his soldiers, one by one

In a spectacle of cruelty

Disgraced and guilty

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Inside the Belly of a Fish

When we read such a tittle, Jonah’s experience comes to mind. Yes, and it is so this time. In his running away from answering the call to Nineveh, Jonah was swallowed up by a great fish, God had prepared to save him from death. For three days and three nights in the living room of the fish’s belly, Jonah had time to reflect on his foolish decision, that of running away from his calling. The fish not only provided safety for Jonah, but also a prayer room. In that uncomfortable environment, Jonah bent his heart toward God and said: I cried out of my distress to the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and You heard my voice (Jonah 2:2). Imagine for a moment how awkward that must have been for him, and for the fish too, not being able to digest him for those three days. He could not burp him; neither release him. And Jonah? well, we can just imagine by placing ourselves in his place. He was probably in a fetus position, not being able to move freely. A nightmare that lasted him like forever, so we would express ourselves. This great fish provided Jonah the means of transportation, too. For God directed it to take Jonah where he was supposed to go. That must have been a bumpy ride for several miles to his destination. But in the darkness of that fish, Jonah learned to call on the Lord for his salvation.  The Lord, Who is compassionate and abundant in lovingkindness, heard Jonah’s cry for help. He commanded the fish to disgorge Jonah and it did. That must have caused Jonah to have a change of heart, and when the Lord coming to him a second time saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach and cry out to it the preaching that I will tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord (Jonah 3: 1-3a). Smelling like fish, Jonah sure had a story to tell others and encouraged all not to behave like him.

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Guarding the Heart and the Mind

(I Thess. 5:8; Eph. 6:16-17)

The heart and the mind are often connected to the spiritual world in their functions as the life of the body (heart) and the controller of our thoughts (the brain). The Bible tells us to guard our heart above all things, because everything we do, flows from it (Prov. 4:23). The word heart is found more than 800 times in the Old Testament and 200 of these times, it is related to the soul of man: intellect, emotions, will. In the field of the physical, the heart and the brain are two organs that work together communicating in four ways:

Neurologically (through the transmission of nerve impulses

Biochemically (via hormones and neurotransmitters)

Biophysically (through pressure waves)

Energetically (through electromagnetic fields interactions).

The brain and the heart together comprise the soul of man. As a matter of fact, man is what his soul is. The soul, which is invisible, becomes visible in the ways we behave. Our actions reveal what is inside our heart and mind. The heart, the size of a fist, is a muscular organ serving as a pump carrying blood via the circulatory system, supplying oxygen, nutrients, and removing carbon dioxide from it. In an amazing way complete in divine wisdom, the heart is the life of man, as it controls the flow of blood, for life is in the blood.

The Bible says that everything we do flows from it. Imagine that, a muscular organ with such power, but in the physical, it does not do it alone. It just cannot do it. It takes the brain to work with it, for the brain, our three-pound organ, controls our thoughts, memory, speech, etc. The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord. It receives information through the five senses: smell, sight, touch, taste and hearing. The messages are meaningfully put together to serve us.  In the Garden of Eden, Eve was tempted by the sight sense. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate (Gen. 3:6). So, here we have the lust of the eye. The connection between our hearts and our brain happens silently, in a subconscious dialog of emotion through signals between our heart and our brains. Our emotional estate when out of control, affects the body, and the soul. Anger, for example, is one of many reactions that takes a toll on our health, when not under control. The Bible warns us when angry, do not sin. There is nothing wrong in displaying anger, when kept under control. Do not let anger control you; let not the sun go down upon your wrath (Eph. 4:26); Psalm. 4:4 says: Be angry and sin not; commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be silent. Controlling anger is one way to guard the heart and the mind, and also the body. Diseases often happen to the body when we hold anger deeply in our hearts and minds -soul. From mental illnesses to heart diseases as in stroke, heart attack, hypertension, etc. The body is very much affected as a result of the heart’s and brain’s decision. It receives the injuries as the result. Protecting the heart and mind, the rest of our organs will be protected also.  Solomon says, Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep your corrupt talk far from your lips; let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before God; give careful thought to the paths for your feet and steadfast in all you ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil (Prov. 4:24-27). Mouth, lips, eyes, feet will follow the heart and the thoughts of the mind. The Bible says, Out of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34). Paul advises us to control our thoughts directing them to whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious. If there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things (Phil. 4:8).

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Eternity

How can it be defined?

Obscurity of the mind

No beginning, no end

Forever and ever

Grey cells wonder

This thing was, it is

And will always be

The song of eternity.

Like a sea roaring

In the tempest

In its immense power

Rocking the waters

With wrath at its best

Embracing the earth

As if one with it

Uniting it with the sky

In the horizon

Sea and earth meet

East the birth of a new day

West hello to the night

As eternity waves its banner

Existing in a forever span

A day, 1,000 years

A 1,000 years, a day.

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