sufficient-unto-this-day

Sign of the Times

2008-12-02T17:26:00.002+05:30

"Socialism for the Rich"

'Cleanliness is next to....'

2008-11-30T09:40:00.000+05:30

Genie in a Bottle

2008-11-21T19:20:00.001+05:30

a portrait

2008-11-13T08:39:00.002+05:30

Slofjes

2008-11-13T08:36:00.001+05:30

rooster

2008-10-22T06:55:00.000+05:30

pelican

2008-10-22T06:52:00.000+05:30

eagle head

2008-10-21T07:31:00.000+05:30

snow owl

2008-10-21T07:28:00.001+05:30

hippo,bearded seal

2008-10-20T09:14:00.002+05:30

snapping turtle

2008-10-20T09:11:00.001+05:30

birds

2008-10-19T19:09:00.002+05:30

lotus

2008-10-19T08:28:00.000+05:30

cover design-poems

2008-10-19T08:24:00.000+05:30

A portfolio of artworks

2008-10-18T18:06:00.003+05:30

In the days to come I shall be posting my drawings and paintings. I am an architect by profession and I am self taught in drawing. Hope my works give pleasure to all who visit my space.

A potted banana plant

2008-10-18T18:02:00.000+05:30

portrait-Ayan

2008-10-18T17:58:00.000+05:30

portrait-arnold

2008-10-18T17:52:00.001+05:30

The Book of Life

2008-10-15T05:40:00.004+05:30

Consider the optical illusion where we could spot a figure or a vase depending on what we are looking at. In other words we choose to see what we want to see. (see note)
Can there be an island without the sea or a doughnut without the hole in the middle? We may be talking about the island but sea is ever in the background as a reality. Man has a body to which spirit is conjugated. Our physical reality has its counterpart in spirit world and so on. Soul is that aspect which is common to both worlds. On the pinions of soul suppose we could reverse our shapes as in the face-vase illustration mentioned above.
2.
Hereafter denotes the period in which we have spiritual bodies reverse with physical realities here and now. What we experienced in the body in such a case remains in terms of energy or any other mode that is clear as day. As though written down in a book. The book of life which is mentioned in Revelation 20:15
The light of the body is eye… if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness”(Mt.6:22-23)The eye here would stand for the soul of man.
Note:‘To make sense of the world it is necessary to organize incoming sensations into information which is meaningful. Gestalt psychologists believe one way this is done is by perceiving individual sensory stimuli as a meaningful whole. Gestalt organization can be used to explain many illusions including the Duck-Rabbit illusion where the image as a whole switches back and forth from being a duck then being a rabbit and why in the figure-ground illusion the figure and ground are reversible’(wikipedia).
benny

God's Promise

2008-07-15T21:44:00.001+05:30

‘It repented the Lord that he had made man…’ (Gen 6:6,5)
Does God repent or grieve over His creation or the work of His hands?
Let me cite two verses. ‘God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent.’(Num. 23:19) This verse was spoken by Balaam, a prophet. He was brought before the King of Moab to curse the people of Israel. Here repentance that he refers to is something else. God had earlier warned him in a dream not to curse the people whom He had blessed (Num 22:12). It had nothing to do with His work or creation. The next verse refers to the point where Samuel brings God’s word concerning the kingship of Saul. ‘…the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man that he should repent’(1 Sam 15:29). Here the venerable prophet and Judge of Israel refers to David: ‘Out of the stem of Jesse’ as we read in the book of Isaiah(11:1) God had decided Saul had not in him to be the Chosen One. The anointed one or the Messiah was, instead, to emerge from the root of Jesse. Here again the word repentance is used to refer Israel and His promise to bless them through His anointed one who shall be an ensign …to it shall the Gentiles seek…’(Is.1:10)
God shall never repent as to His Promise, which is revealed gradually in a dispensation that as I mentioned earlier is representational. That Promise in a nutshell embraces both Old Testament as well as New Testament. In any case Israel is a linchpin around which His blessings should cover the whole earth. In a manner of speaking His Promise to Abraham is valid at any point of time. (Gen 12:1-3).
His repentance that He had created man must refer to something else to which I shall come in the next post.
benny

Representational Dispensation

2008-07-10T14:00:00.002+05:30

Dispensation is a theological term. In American Heritage dictionary dispensation is defined as divine ordering of worldly affairs. Considering the order of Divine Will in Old Testament pertains to Israel in terms of other nations it is implied that His Dispensation is representational in its working. It becomes all the more significant since dispersal of Israel happened as a result of His judgment for their unbelief and apostasy, the blessing of God was to cover all other nations as well.(Gen12:3)This being the case judgment on Abraham’s seed was to work as a blessing for the gentiles by the same token. Like the widow whose lump of leaven covered the whole dough Divine chastisement though bitter at first shall work for the blessing of the whole nations. Hence we need to see Divine Will in terms of Judgment as representational in essence.
In Old Testament the Law of Moses set apart strangers from the Children of Israel. But in the New Testament grace that came with the advent of Jesus(Jn1:17) would reach the ends of the earth. The nation of Israel also would be reinstated consequently. (Rom 8:24) Such promises ought to show dispensation of God in setting apart the line of Seth from that of Cain would set apart a nation of Israel. As a prelude to this we see God sending a great flood. Did that cover the whole earth? In my opinion it was more of a local occurrence, which judged the nations inhabiting around what is now Middle East.
Divine dispensations prior to Last Judgment must be thus seen as representational in its nature.
benny

Key To Bible Study

2008-07-09T19:44:00.004+05:30

‘that no prophesy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.’( 2 Pe. 1:20)
While we study the Bible grace the single most essential quality we need to ask for. As Peter says it is God of all grace who can make us perfect, strengthen and settle us (1 Pe 5:10). If we rely on our own wisdom or imagination we are likely to go out of bounds and arrive at conclusions that may prove to be contentious and also detrimental to our own spiritual growth. Grace of God however does not make interpretation fit only one size but does according to each person’s needs. If it were the case Paul would have had no case for finding fault with Peter while he visited Antioch. (Gal 2:9-11) Grace was given to Paul as one coming to the Lord from a Gentile background to worship Him in a manner that Peter could not entertain. We see Peter was too steeped in Hebraic tradition to hearken unto the vision of God. While in Joppa he heard the voice say: ‘Arise Peter; slay and eat.(Ac 11-7’ Was not the vision in preparation for an important turning point in the history of the Early Church? We have no right to give private interpretation but exercise the spirit given to us from above. By which grace working in Peter allowed him to give Paul an upstart in comparison his freedom to go among the Gentiles as he himself would minister to the converts from Jewish sect.
All interpretations that build up the church in love and unity must be considered as from God. That of the worldly wisdom caters to divisions, pride; such division distracts us from God. What is not glory for the Lord might end up as grist for the mill of Satan.
What are we at best? We are rational in thinking and yet we are far from adequate in measuring His Wisdom and Power.
In the coming posts I shall try to explain the nature of Dispensation to explain the second part of Genesis.
benny

Just One Point

2008-07-08T21:30:00.004+05:30

Our conception of God as a patriarchal figure in white with flowing robes has nothing to do with reality. Perhaps it may owe much to the art of Michaelangelo for an example. But is it a true image? It isn’t. No man has seen God and yet we create an image which is cunningly devised to give art its due.
Similarly we find many cunningly devised fables’ (2 Pe 1:16) associated with the birth of Christ. What is the worth of celebrating Christmas if the spirit of Christ is missing?
benny
Technorati Profile

Two Geneologies

2008-07-08T18:45:00.004+05:30

‘Adam…begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth’. Gen 5:3
Curiously we see two sets of geneology as the creation account in the preceding sections, of Holy Spirit focusing God and Man on the other. The two geneologies are similarly of two groups: of godly and worldly family.
In Hebrew tradition name of a person is the essence of his being. It is not without reason Abram was renamed as Abraham.(Gen17:5) He was to be the father of many nations just as God had promised. Eve named her firstborn Cain meaning ‘I have gotten a man from the Lord (Gen 4:1).
Let me digress here a little. Cain’s destiny was too much bound up with the sin of disobedience of his parents that he was not adequately protected from it. Since we do not read what sort of home life young Cain had it is a matter of conjuncture to think his parents neglected him. Did they train him in godly ways? Perhaps tilling the ground and eking out a life from the ground took too much out of Adam. We do not read of Eve stepping in to prepare the boy to walk with God as Enoch later would do (Gen5:22). We read however that God in His mercy set a sign on Cain so he might survive in the world. What was that mark? Was it something that would make him succeed in life? Did he cultivate those social skills that we see in celebrities of the present day? As the expression is ‘if you cannot win them, join them’. Cain settled down outside the Garden where God had initially intended. Outside God’s will Cain certainly prospered because of the mark. He didn’t build any mega church or gathered people around him but he built a city and named it after the name of his son Enoch (Gen 4:17).
From internal evidence I suppose Cain’s descendants at some point married into one from Adam’s descendants. Thus we have two sets of genealogies.
It is the second geneology that I want to focus on.
Seth came into the world to take the place of Abel whom Cain slew. His name meaning ‘appointed’ by God was very apt. Through him was His Will to be perfected. Merely because man failed the intent of God didn’t mean that God had scaled down His Will or His Holiness. ‘The foundation of God standeth sure…’ (2 Ti-2:19)
God had let Adam begin anew: In him lay the foundation of His church. Sin of obedience must have removed His explicit seal that His image signified. Consequentially Adam begat a son in his own likeness. Even so his geneology would measure up to the Holiness and perfection He had intended for Adam. Cain and his progeny stand for those who prosper without God. In them dynamics of their prosperity and visible trappings of success owe to the spirit of the world. They march to a different drummer than God. Their beliefs or gods are not to be compared with the manner Holy Spirit has chosen to highlight the destiny of Seth and his descendants. In him we may trace our kinship to Adam. The geneology of Jesus where Adam was the son of God ties up Old Testament and our destinies together. (Lk 3:38)This account was given in the gospel in order to show our antecedents.
benny

Our Strengths...

2008-06-29T10:08:00.004+05:30

In serving God we need to have an entirely different attitude. Our strengths are weaknesses since we rely on our own bodies than What He Can do. The gospel of Luke gives an interesting example. Peter who had known the lake of Gennesaret like the back of his palm would fail to catch any fish. He might have persevered whole night but still he drew a blank. His own industry shall fail. Why? It was not because there weren’t any catch but his own knowledge was at fault. (Lk 5:4-5) Our knowledge however excellent is still the second best and also erratic at the best of times. Knowledge of good and evil is what we have to work with. Where we attempt on our strengths alone we may no be able to set apart the two as God can. Hence we let Him guide us and also take control of the events.
Coming back to the sacrifice of Cain, he was working with a ground that was accursed. He should have left out himself from the equation and presented the fruit of the ground to God as it was his duty to do. His abundant grace could have transformed it unto a sweet savour.
Our best effort in wrestling with our bodies only highlights things of the body. Vow of silence, dietary restrictions etc., aren’t worth a fig if grace was not present in the equation. Not our weakness or strengths but God ought to be glorified above all.
benny