Beauty

There are beautiful things and then there is beauty. They are not the same.

Beauty and beautiful things are different. You can have, let’s say, a beautiful woman. But what is that beauty if you subtract the woman? There can be a beautiful sunset. What is that beauty if you remove the sunset? Beauty is, and is of itself. But what is it? Many philosophers call it a form.

Beautiful is used as an adjective to describe something. Is beauty opinion? Margaret Wolfe Hungerford is famous for her phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

According to Aristotle, opinion is below knowledge but above ignorance. Is beauty to be found between knowing and not knowing? This may explain residency, but not definition.

Beautiful by definition is, “pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically”. This describes what beauty does, not what beauty is.

Merriam-Webster defines beauty as, “The quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit”.

Here we have beauty being described in terms of cause and effect. Beauty is a quality that effects the senses. But again, we are not instructed as to what beauty is.

Beauty is appealing. We are attracted to it. We prefer it. We try to achieve it and possess it. Beauty can motivate us to wonderful or atrocious things. Beauty can be found anywhere at any time in any thing.

But what is it?

Bill Hitchcock

Well-Armed and Readied Christian

“Then said he (Jesus) unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” (Luke 22:36)

You can’t preach the word if you’re dead. Jesus told His disciples to ready themselves with three things; money, provisions and a means of self-defense. Yes, the first time He sent them into the world He did so without them. It was to teach His disciples the necessity of, and dependency in God.

Jesus was getting ready to go. They didn’t know that. Money, provisions and a sword were temporal things required for the safety and well-being of His disciples. These were things they already understood. But the disciples had to discover faith, belief and obedience in God and have that faith tried fast before Jesus would leave.

These three temporal things were required to keep the disciples alive while they spread the message of the eternal Jesus Christ.

Nothing has changed. We still need money, provisions, means of self-defense and of course, Christ our Lord when we engage this world as disciples of Jesus.

It is lawful and prudent to make the necessary preparations to defend yourself. Jesus commanded the sword. But there are two points that must be understood. First off, Jesus made this command only to tried and true disciples of Christ, not to just anyone. The command to defend yourself with the sword was to people of a Godly spirit, mind and soul. Second, this was for defense, not offense. No one can be safer than with a well-armed and readied Christian.

Don’t be fooled or lulled asleep just because you see no immediate danger to yourself. Open your eyes and look around the world and see the hundreds and the thousands of people that are hunted, persecuted and killed daily for their Christian faith.

A Christian should always be armed with two swords; a temporal sword and the eternal sword of the word of God.

Bill Hitchcock

We are horrible at cause and effect if it is not in the here and now. And even then we look at the situation in a too isolated and too minuscule manner.

Bill Hitchcock

The Purpose is God and His Goodness

I often get the impression that folks have the Creator/created role backwards. Man was created for God, in servitude of His goodness, not the other way around. God doesn’t serve. We do.

It would appear that many believe that they were created as a gift to God, as opposed to a gift from God. Many seem to think that the individual is to be left alone to do their own thing, if something goes wrong in their life, then all they have to do is go to God and get their problem fixed or wishes granted. Other than that, the working belief is that man is to be left to his own devices and to go along his own merry ol’ way.

No. We were created for a purpose, and that purpose is God and His goodness. His goodness is His essence, His being. The end effect of the cause, righteousness. All are one in simplicity. That’s what we are here for.

God does not exist for us. We were created for God. God will help us in the cause of Him and His goodness. Anything else is sin. The first sin was pride. Adam and Eve thought more highly of themselves, their wants and wishes, so they departed from God and His goodness to do their own thing.

Please understand. We are not essential to God’s being or goodness. He, however is essential, to ours. We were created for His glory!

“Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” (Isaiah 43:7)

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)

“For God wills other things as ordered to the end of His goodness….Since the Divine goodness can be without other things, and indeed, is in no way increased by other things, it is under no necessity to will other things from the fact of willing its own goodness.” -Thomas Aquinas/Summa Contra Gentiles/Volume One/Chapter 81.

We were created for God’s goodness and glory!

Bill Hitchcock

It would be a very small and incomplete world if its existence depended upon my comprehension of every aspect of it.

Faith. It’s not a crutch, it’s the center support beam.

Bill Hitchcock

Enthusiasm versus Commitment

Enthusiasm is an emotion. Commitment is an intellectual process and decision.

Emotion produces an energy that will eventually peak and burn out. It is “like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1:6).

Commitment does not have energy, it has process. It is resolve. A commitment can only be voided and then replaced by another commitment.

Enthusiasm is like a wildfire, it can go in any direction. Commitment is more like a controlled burn, prescribed, defined and focused.

True, the intellect is affected by sensory and external circumstance. But a commitment can only be voided and replaced with a different commitment. For example, if you have committed to lose weight and then fail, what you have actually done is voided the first committed and replaced it with the commitment to maintain your current life style and circumstance.

Enthusiasm is not will. Will is force applied to what the mind has committed to.

Enthusiasm is a great kick starter and motivator, but do not make it your basis of cause, for it will never produce the desired effect. Commitment is the hypostasis, the substance and foundation, in which to build and accomplish goals.

Bill Hitchcock

Two Shows On Sunday

It is written in the Bible that we are to teach, preach, exhort and explain what’s in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we are to entertain with it.

We are to be teachers and preachers of the word, not entertainers.

Yes, the music is pretty and the theatrical production grand, but I don’t recall Jesus ever singing, dancing, acting or waving flags about. I do find in the Bible where Jesus taught, preached, encouraged and explained the word of God.

God’s word excites the spirit. Entertainment excites the flesh.

We were made in the image of God. We are to be Christ like. Let’s start doing that.

Bill Hitchcock

The Lord Is My Portion

“Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep thy words” (Psalms 119:57)

Nothing could be more powerful than to shout, proclaim and believe, “Thou art my portion, O Lord”! We all too often get caught up in the quest of God’s benefits and not God himself. We first go to God in need. We have a problem that is too big for us so we turn to God. Sometimes we go to God out of want disguised as a need, so we turn to God.

But how often do we realize that solutions to our problems are just the benefit of our relationship with God? The closer we grow to Him the more the benefit. And the benefit isn’t usually in the form of material gain or even problem solution. The benefit is the moving away from sin and its’ benefits. The end result of sin is death. God is nothing if not life here and ever after.

We live life with our portion being sin. Once we realize God and start our relationship with him we start to move away from our sin portion to the mercy, grace and beauty of our portion with the Lord.

The scripture was originally written, “My portion, O Lord”. The “Thou art” was added by translators. How more appropriate of a proclamation is that! Shout, “My Portion”! Shout, “My Portion Is the Lord” whenever adversity strikes! Shout, “My Portion Is the Lord” whenever temptation comes knocking at your door. My portion O Lord should be the answer to why we believe, why we are Christians, why we exist!

Our testament to God, our testimony to the world is that we “would keep thy words”. Only when buried within our hearts are Gods precepts, ways and words can we move towards Him. Only with God within can we shout God without. Mere words empty of the Lord are nothing but “vain Janglings”. They are powerless of God, impressing the world but of no benefit except as wind in the sails of sin with the final port in Hell.

Thou art my portion, O Lord! God is the benefit! God is the buckler and defender! God is our peace and salvation!

Bill Hitchcock

The Bait Trap of Fear and Anxiety

The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” 

(Proverbs 29:25)

Sin and guilt motivate us. They push and pull us in directions and down paths that we would not have done or gone down otherwise. Sin and guilt propel us in directions that a righteous self would never allow. This creates friction, like a car driving against a guard rail with sparks flying. We allow sin and guilt to drive us through our guard, our rail our salvation only to crash and burn us at the bottom of Hell’s pit of despair, anguish and desperation.

“The fear of man” is his anxieties and cares. The very thing that Peter says we should give to God. “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” 1 Peter 5:7. It is these anxieties that cause worry and grief. It is an anxious worry that can drive us to tears and trembling or, “quaking” as the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew lexicon defines it.

Our fear and anxieties “bringeth a snare”. This “snare” is more literally defined as a lure or bait. The devil can only tempt, trick and lure us. Anxiety and fear is a reaction to something perceived adverse from the adversary the devil. Our fear and anxiety then motivates us to do something. Physical reactions include worry, grief, sleep loss, stomach problems, ulcers, heart attacks. Man’s solutions to these problems include Doctors and therapy, drugs and alcohol, distractions, perversions and fornication, irresponsibility and rebellion.

Lures and baits are the preferred tools of the devil to trap and ensnare us. It is how he motivates us to sin and to get the righteous man to do what he wouldn’t otherwise do. The devil even tried this on Jesus.

“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.’ Matthew 16:23

The word, “offence” comes from the Greek word, “skandalon” which means a trap, bait trap or snare.

The answer to all of this is God as the rest of Proverbs 29:25 tells us. “…but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe”.

Fear and faith cannot co-exist. If we find ourselves fearful then we have taken our eyes off the prize of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what the devil is trying to accomplish.

The next time you find yourself worrying, fearful, drowning your sorrows in drugs and alcohol or whatever it may be, just remember this. The devil threw out a lure and you bit. Fortunately we have a forgiving God who wants you to cast all of your cares (worries, problems and anxieties) upon Him. 

Why? Because He cares (loves) you!

Bill Hitchcock

Holy Calling, Bluntly

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9)

God called us with a “Holy” calling. This is a righteous calling, according to His will, His way, and not ours.  We must renew our minds and conform to Him. Too many people have this backwards. God will not change or conform to your desires and demands. That’s impossible for God cannot change. He is immutable. God is concerned with you conforming to Him. Why? Because only through righteousness can you live eternally.

“Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” (Ezekiel 18:31-32).

“Not according to our works”. Please understand what this means! Most people limit their understanding of “works” to believing it is a reference only to performing righteous deeds so as to earn a spot in heaven. You can’t earn your way because God does not owe anyone anything. But it means more than that. But it also means not according to our own way. God called us with a Holy calling. This is clearly defining that the way to Heaven is through righteousness, not by our own carnality.

It is His purpose to save us. It is also His choice. We can’t do it on our own. Man minus God leads to death, destruction and Hell.

It is by His grace, that God is loving and forgiving and “big” enough to offer up this invitation, even though we don’t deserve it. But we can’t live eternally doing it our way, the carnal way. We must do it according to God’s Holy and Righteous calling. 

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.” (Jeremiah 7:3)

“But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:18-25).

God has invited us to Him with a righteous call. God has invited us according to His will and His way, not ours. Can we do this perfectly? Do this, yes. Perfectly, no. At least, not on our own. This is why God sent His Son Jesus Christ to be our propitiation and redemption through His blood.

Only by the blood of Jesus Christ are we covered so that God no longer sees our sins.

Accept Christ and live!

Bill Hitchcock

Atheism 

Atheism is acquired. It is learned. We are all born with the knowledge of God. It is innate. We might not have God properly formed and identified in our mind, but we know of His existence, we feel His presence. We are aware of His universal supremacy, that something is bigger of first ourselves and then second everything else.

“Children (or societies) have to be educated out of theism into atheism, not vice versa. Atheism always comes later”. - Richard Kreeft

God is intrinsic. Atheism is extrinsic. Knowledge of God is natural. Atheism is a deviation and is abnormal.

Bill Hitchcock

A Chosen Generation

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

We are that chosen generation; the post-Christ Christian. Are we shewing forth the praises of Him? Is it evident to others that we are out of the darkness and living in the light of Christ?

We are a peculiar people. God has chosen us (Deuteronomy 14:2). We are to be zealous, enthused, and excited to do the good works of Christ (Titus 2:14).

The word “peculiar” means both possession and acquisition, and that describes who we are and what we do as Christians. We have given ourselves to Christ, we are His possession. But we also, as the chosen generation, are in the acquisition business. As Royal Priests of a Holy Nation we are to be out and about being and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. We are to be inviting not some, but all home to Him.

We are that chosen generation, the last generation, until Christ returns.

Bill Hitchcock

Belief Isn’t Enough

With few exceptions, I have spent the last month or so continuing/renewing my studies of Augustine and Aquinas. One of the common denominator’s between the two is that they are not only both theologians, but also great philosophers. Augustine was a student of Plato. Aquinas a student of Aristotle.

To many, the marriage of theology and philosophy may seem strange. Often times Christians poo-poo Greek philosophy. I think I understand why, it is due in part to what Paul said in the Book of Colossians.

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

But keep in mind that Paul wasn’t banning or discouraging philosophy or the study there of. In fact, in my opinion, the Apostle Paul would have been well versed in Greek philosophy.

The word philosophy comes from the Greek, “phílosophía” and simply means the love of wisdom. The Bible repeatedly tells us to “get wisdom”!

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7).

Philosophy in a practical sense is the rational and conscious investigation and analysis of truth. Jesus Christ is the truth! We are to investigate and learn of Christ!

Augustine lived during the 4th century, Aquinas during the 13th. Philosophy was their tool for digging into the truth of Jesus.. They didn’t “spoil” us with philosophy or “vain deceit”, but rather astounded us with revealed truths and methods of discovering the word and wisdom of God!

A real problem in my opinion, is that many Christians never move past the belief stage in their relationship with Christ. Belief comes first and is a prerequisite for all learning and knowledge. But too many simply believe and don’t intellectually know Him. It’s emotional. God has your heart, but your brain is somewhat left out in the dark.

Jesus said that we are to “…love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…” (Mark 12:30).

We are to love God with our heart, soul, strength and mind! How many of us are really only giving Him 3 out of 4?

Jesus Christ made it Crystal Clear in Matthew 11:29 when he said, “learn of me”!

“But suppose the ignorance and difficulty are the natural state of the soul, that it begins there and advances toward knowledge and rest as the happy life brought to perfection within it. Even so, the soul is not denied the power to make this progress by piety and diligent study of the highest things. If by its own will it refuses to do so, it is justly punished by being cast into deeper ignorance and greater difficulty; by the most proper and suitable government of the universe, it is placed among inferior things. The soul is not held guilty because it is naturally ignorant and powerless, but because it did not apply itself to learn and did not work to acquire ease in acting rightly.” 

– Augustine from his book, “On Free Choice of the Will”

And what “will” would refuse “progress by piety and diligent study”? Who would elect to remain in “deeper ignorance” and cause “greater difficulty” for himself?

Pride. Holy pride causes many to stay in the belief stage and not to venture into the pursuit (knowledge) stage. After-all, what is learning of God if not pursuing after Him?

Please do not misinterpret what I am saying. I am not suggesting that we all need to become philosophers. I am not suggesting that faith is an academic exercise. Belief in God is requisite. But to grow and expand in our relation with Jesus Christ we must learn of Him. And that learning does not happen through osmosis. It comes through, “piety and diligent study”.

I’ve known folks who for 20 years attended Church every Sunday, believed in God with all their heart but have never read the Bible outside of a few select verses. I have seen atheists who were Bible smart rip apart a Christian and shatter their faith because they were ignorant of the Word.

Belief plus knowledge equals an unshakable and unbreakable faith.

Now, just to trip everyone up, if we had perfect love for God and neighbor, none of this would be necessary. But that’s a topic for future discussion.

Bill Hitchcock