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In the seventeenth chapter of Genesis it is written: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said; I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” Although we can hardly hope to attain perfection in the infinite sense, it is entirely possible for us to fit perfectly into our highest and best destiny, to attain all that God has set before us. When we achieve this, in accordance with His will, we will be just as replete in our finite domain as God himself is in his sphere of infinity and eternity. We may not be universal, unlimited in intellectual insight, or final in any spiritual sense, but God is working right now to perfect our motivation, and our understanding of his will for us.

We live in a strife-torn world. And honing our effectiveness when the situation demands articulation in matters of faith and a world of competing ideas, is essential if we are to fulfill our ministerial obligations. Perfection in life temporal is a progressive attainment; and this applies to discernment and perception. God reveals himself to us in accordance with our capacity to behold him. Because we each minister within our own sphere of influence, it is important to see that world and its proper context within God’s Universe of Universes.

As we blow through our circumscribed world view and challenge each other’s assumptions, we become better positioned to explore the notion of adjusting to Infinity and Eternity. We are ambassadors of an Infinite and Eternal Heavenly Kingdom operating on an isolated, temporal, finite, rebellion torn world. Our understanding of this world and its people is crucial to our success. 

In what became known as his Whit Sunday Sermon, C.S. Lewis discussed “transposition.” His treatise is not so much about modulating from the key of C to D but rather taking Truth from a higher plane to a lower plane or from a higher to a lower language. Lewis illustrated the problem of portraying Spiritual realities this way:

“If you are to translate from a language which has a large vocabulary, into a language that has a small vocabulary, then you must be allowed to use several words in more than one sense. If you are to write a language with twenty two vowel sounds in an alphabet with only five vowel characters then you must be allowed to give each of those five characters more than one value. If you are making a piano version of a piece originally scored for an orchestra, then the same piano notes which represent flutes in one passage must also represent violins in another.”

He continued: “As the examples show we are all quite familiar with this kind of transposition or adaptation from a richer to a poorer medium. The most familiar example of all is the art of drawing. The problem here is to represent a three-dimensional world on a flat sheet of paper. The solution is perspective, and perspective means that we must give more than one value to a two-dimensional shape. Thus in a drawing of a cube we use an acute angle to represent what is a right angle in the real world. But elsewhere an acute angle on the paper may represent what was already an acute angle in the real world: for example, the point of a spear on the gable of a house. The very same shape which you must draw to give the illusion of a straight road receding from the spectator is also the shape you draw for a dunces’ cap.”

In summary, Lewis said: “It is clear that in each case what is happening in the lower medium can be understood only if we know the higher medium. The instance where this knowledge is most commonly lacking is the musical one. The piano version means one thing to the musician who knows the original orchestral score and another thing to the man who hears it simply as a piano piece. But the second man would be at an even greater disadvantage if he had never heard any instrument but a piano and even doubted the existence of other instruments. Even more, we understand pictures only because we know and inhabit the three-dimensional world.”

Jesus routinely shared concepts that were foreign to many of his followers. The mysteries of the kingdom were presented in what he called parables. To his enemies such parables were not understood and thus would not arouse antagonisms. The parabolic analogy, whereby the story has a directing arc and a principle focus, is also an ingenious way to convey meaning that gracefully transcends gender, culture, and time. When you are working with masses, individuals, or groups of varying intellects and temperaments, you cannot speak different words for each class of hearers. You can however tell a story to convey meaning and each individual, will be able to make his or her own interpretation of your parable in accordance with their own intellectual and spiritual endowments.

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When realities are meaningful, we develop an appreciative consciousness of values. When relationships are recognized and appreciated, we grow individually, socially, and spiritually. Our most closely held values are ideally cultivated within the context of personal experience thriough relationships.

William Glasser was an American psychiatrist. His theories were arrayed largely in opposition to conventional mainstream psychiatry. Where the prevailing tradition was to focus on classifying psychiatric syndromes as “illnesses” and prescribe psychotropic medications to treat mental disorders, Glasser believed that people sometimes process their frustrations in unhealthy ways, acting out due to a lack of any meaningful personal connection with the most important people in their lives.

Glasser’s emphasis was on education and in developing frameworks for finding and following healthy therapeutic direction. After being thrown off the staff at a VA hospital due to his anti-Freudian beliefs, He worked as a staff psychiatrist at a school for delinquent youth. There he developed many of the ideas that became the basis for what he called reality therapy. He authored and co-authored many influential books on mental health, counseling, school improvement, and teaching.

At the heart of Reality Therapy is Control Theory, and the latter is how Glasser often referred to his body of work. By 1996, the theoretical structure evolved into a more comprehensive methodology and it was renamed Choice Theory. From the very beginning, reality therapy, emphasized the present. The goals are to change current behavior, improve relationships, and thereby address the prevailing mental health conditions. Glasser believed that disconnects, from others, are at the core of the unhappiness that ensues, a person’s general dissatisfaction with life, and sometimes a variety of physical symptoms, including chemical imbalances.

His critics, are quick to point out, it is the legacy issues and resulting internal states that may be causing a person’s troubles. In reality therapy, the process begins by guiding a person’s attention away from past behaviors in order to focus on those that occur in the present. Practitioners hold that present needs are what’s most relevant, as they are the needs that can be satisfied.

From a philosophical perspective, the “here and now” focus on choice dovetails nicely with the alternative scenarios that were described long ago, in the Book of Deuteronomy, wherein God said: “See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.” Choice Theory emphasizes responsibility, commitment, and a willingness to change. The counseling process starts with assessing the state of relationships and any unmet needs, exploring what behaviors clients are manifesting that either help or prevent them from meeting their needs. It then aims to help them find better ways to improve relationships and fulfill their needs.

The unified mind of Jesus is our greatest example of what can be achieved through self-mastery. Successful living is built upon superior habits and dependable techniques for solving common problems. The solution to any problem often becomes obvious when the reason for such difficulty is first located and isolated. Impediments may include an inability to recognize our problems due to our failure to grapple with and overcome our most profound fears. Add to this our other common human foibles such as envy, deep-seated prejudices, clinging to illusions of safety and false feelings of security and the nature and gravity of our situation can be obscured. 

The abandonment of fear, comforting illusions, and our long-cherished conceit is prerequisite to any real understanding of what a sincere and logical mind discovers. Within us is a powerful conspiracy of spiritual forces that can effect our final deliverance from the bondage of fear and the handicaps of time. We are, in purpose and ideals, empowered increasingly to subject the animal nature to the mastery of the Spirit. Evidence of character and the true measure of self-mastery stem from our trustworthiness.

The world presents plenty of evil, real and potential. This contrastive perfection and imperfection is stimulative of the choosing between truth and error, good and evil, righteousness or missing the mark. Prayer effects positive and enduring change within the individual who prays with sincere faith and confident expectation. It is the forerunner for peace of mind, cheerfulness, calmness, courage, fair-mindedness, and self-mastery.

Jesus told us it is by our love, for one another, that we will convince the world it is truly possible to pass from bondage to liberty, from darkness and death into light and life everlasting. To become the living channel of spiritual light to the person who sits in spiritual darkness is an ennobling experience. In the effectual working of God’s power, we are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth, strengthened in our inner souls by the constant spiritual renewing of our minds, and thus endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God. 

When we are born of the spirit, we are inducted to the joyous kingdom of the spirit. We produce the fruits of the spirit in our daily lives. The fruits of the spirit are best produced through the highest type of joyful and ennobling self-control, true self-mastery.

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There are those among us that have been unable to tell the difference between that liberty, as enjoyed by the truly faithful, and the license that is sometimes sold as liberty. To be sure, any so-called liberty that is exercised in ways that works to the detriment of others is not genuine and contrary to what Jesus taught and exemplified. Stoking anger, resentment, and a sense of entitlement is easy. Backbiting, while offering no clearly articulated vision for a future of light and life is also easy.

Leveraging the FIBS of Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear as used by integrity challenged politicians is only an effective technique when the consumer is unquestioning. Fear is an unworthy motivator for a person of faith. There is no excuse for ignorance with such diversity in the way information is gathered and delivered. Bigotry has always been rooted in delusions of superiority and an exaggerated sense of self-importance. And smear? What excuse is there for someone who professes love and an allegiance to the things our Heavenly Father holds dear?

We must ask ourselves, just what is it that any true parent holds dear? It is that we all cherish our children’s future. The likelihood that anything resembling a bright future will be brought about by militant factions is just about zilch. Jesus made it clear that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Even so, those cherrypicking the words of his followers can usually find some phrasing, in some interpretation, through some translation of the bible, to justify leading with an AR-15. Are such people faithful representatives of the good news? Or are they selfishly setting themselves up as the arbiters of your destiny?

Jesus said: “This is my command, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus loved all of humanity. Those who would convert the flock into their own club of self-righteous exclusivity, those who aim to do a makeover and thereby shrink the Kingdom of God to fit their nationalist, sexist, and racist ideology, and those who think hate mongering is somehow compatible with our rebirth into the Family of God, are indeed fortunate that Our Father is a Person who bestows unmerited favor upon all of his children.

Jesus is quoted in Matthew as saying “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” And, in the Book of Numbers we are told “Now the man Moses was very meek above all men.” In his 1828 Dictionary, Noah Webster defined meekness as “Mild of temper; soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated; yielding; given to forbearance under injuries.” Dictionary-dot-com offers this phrasing in its contemporary definition for the word meek “Humbly patient, or quiet in nature; as under provocation from others.”

To be appropriately humble means to be submissive to the Divine will. Jesus was also quoted in Matthew as saying: “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls.” From these examples we can understand that genuine meekness has no relation to fear. It refers to an attitude. It portrays a scenario whereby an individual human being is co-operating with God. “Your will be done” is not an utterance to be given up grudgingly. It can be stated enthusiastically and fervently as in “It is my will that your will be done.”

Those inheriting the earth actively embrace patience and forbearance. They are motivated by an unshakable faith in a lawful and friendly universe. Faith is, first and foremost, defined by loyalty. It masters the self and is therefore impervious to any and all temptations that would lead to rebellion against the divine leading. Jesus was the ideal meek man and he illuminated the way to faithfully administer our true inheritance.

There are those who believe “When the trumpet blows” the game will be over, that Jesus will fix everything and the faithful will receive their reward. They seem to forget that when Jesus delivered the Parable of the Talents, he described a scenario where one servant was given five talents to invest, another two, and another was entrusted with one. While the first two wisely invested the funds entrusted to them, the third servant buried his. When they were called to account, the first two had produced twice what they had been given while the third servant returned only the original amount he was given, no return or increase on the investment.

The wealthy man praised the first two servants while to the third he said: “You are an indolent and slothful steward.” When the trumpet does blow, we too will be called to an accounting, and God will remember what we were admonished to do in the Book of Genesis wherein he said: “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Will we qualify as good stewards of all that has been entrusted to us?

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n his second epistle to the various Churches in Asia Minor, Peter writes: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” In Genesis we read: On the first day He said “Let there be light,” and there was light. On the second day God separated the water under the vault from the water above it. On the third say he let the ground appear and the land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit, with seed in it, according to their kinds.

On the fourth day God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. On the fifth day God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.

On the sixth day God created mankind in his own image, male and female. He said “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.”

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Now I’ve summarized these passages to underscore that there was a sequence, these were “days” of epochal significance, Genesis was prose for creativity over time.

Now in light of this I must say that it frosts my petunias whenever I hear any debate, between believers and non-believers framed as one of Creation versus Evolution. That clearly suggests a misunderstanding of just what is meant by the word ‘evolution’. In Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, evolution was defined as a noun stemming from the Latin term evolutio, which meant “The act of unfolding or unrolling.” In the very first definition offered, he wrote “A series of things unrolled or unfolded; as the evolution of ages.”

So where’s the controversy? The definition and etymology of evolution dovetails precisely with the Genesis account. What’s really at issue here is the idea of intelligent design and implementation versus mindless causation. Now anyone reading and accepting the Genesis account already understands something of the intelligence behind creation. We may even see it as God exerting evolutionary over-control.

The use of terms such as mindless causation may be an unfamiliar way of framing the debate, so I will borrow a theme from a popular comedian. Jeff Foxworthy became famous for his “You might be a redneck if . . .” jokes. Sooo, I’m going to ask you a question in that same Foxworthy style. Here goes: If you had an infinite number of rednecks riding around in an infinite number of pickup trucks, with an infinite number of shotguns, and shooting an infinite number of stop signs, would they eventually spell out all of the world’s great literature in braille? That, my friends, is what we mean when we say mindless causation.

Most of the arguments made by secularists are oversimplifications. They like to refer to the authoritarian church, that existed prior to the Enlightenment, in making their case. But the faithful of today recognize and embrace a Science, a Philosophy, and a Religion that are commensurate with the intellectual, societal, and cultural development of human kind. We believe Science is to facts, what Philosophy is to meanings, and what Religion is to Values. These essential parts within the intellectual disciplines are not mutually exclusive.

These are undisputed facts. In 1859, some 31 years after Webster’s 1828 dictionary was published, Charles Darwin published Origin of Species. On the Galapagos islands, he discovered several species of birds. He discovered that the different species of birds varied from island to island as did the food supply. What does this mean? Because some birds have ratchet like jaws that can break the shells of nuts, while others have long needle like beaks that can extract nectar from a delicate flower without crushing it; “every winged bird according to its kind” is what he witnessed. Point is, there is an ingenious food distribution system that supports a wide variety of wildlife on a small island.

What is the value proposition? God makes provision, that is more than adequate, for “everything that has the breath of life in it.”

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I recently read an article by Valerie Tarico, a psychologist and writer who describes herself as having “a passion for personal and social evolution.” It was written for people she describes as having left biblical Christianity behind. She suggested “that popular Christian versions of heaven would actually be hellish.” I must admit, I have never really liked the idea of sitting on a damp cloud strumming on a four string harp. But, I also never entertained such childish notions with respect to the afterlife.

Tarico refers to her intended readers as “recovering believers” and, while the article zeroes in on Bible-belief and fundie culture, it never ventures beyond the secular context. It’s one thing to rail against the control freakery characters that enjoy excessive prominence within the context of religious authoritarianism. It’s quite another to understand the larger reality that may not have even been discerned by those who have traded the Word made flesh for the Word made book. Jesus never promised more holy books or more layers of hierarchical ecclesiastical authority. In fact, the Promised Helper Jesus spoke of is not material but rather The Spirit of Truth that will lead us into all truth.

Psychology is also not pseudo-science. Although the most disciplined working within the hard sciences, consider psychology to be the softest of the soft sciences. This is likely because of subjective interpretations by the observer, together with selectivity as it relates to relevant facts. There is no denying that the Tarico article carries a lot of her personal experience, with fundamentalism, into the analysis. And, to be sure, she has also shared valuable insights from which we can all learn.

The outgrown and outmoded conceptions of God, as an offended monarch whose chief delight is to detect his subjects in wrongdoing, does support her contention that the God described in the Bible can be a jerk. But such a notion would be forever dispelled by just a closer walk with Thee. And that’s the rub. We’ve largely outgrown the elemental religions that worship the sun, the stones, the trees, the wind, the rain, and the gold. Ok, well, some of us still worship the gold.

Shaking the fundamentalist world view, whereby the Spirit of the Living God gets reduced to – and contained in – a material record and effectively circumscribed by human language, can be a positive thing. This is because the only thing that really matters in the long run is the extent to which our religion is personally experiential. Nothing short of the wholehearted embrace of God through what Jesus taught and exemplified, will take us beyond subjective gratification to objective satisfaction. 

Psychologists and even neurologists have, for too long, held that the mind exists within, or is somehow subordinated to the brain. And, there is good evidence for this because, as any mental health professional can tell you, chemical imbalances can surely impair the mind’s function. Religious fanatics and science fiction writers alike have even compared the mind/brain capability as something analogous to a dumb terminal as they were used in the early days of client/server computing.

That having been said, those considering the problem, from a more spiritual vantage point, see the mind as an endowment. It is bestowed as the mediator between material and spiritual realities. The brain is thus seen as an electrochemical subsystem upon which the mind gently rests. Add to this the fact that truth seeking Christians have long been fascinated by the statement Paul made in 1^stCorinthians where he wrote: “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

Trying to make sense of the Bible through authoritarian personality cults, has always been problematic. But ours is a religion of the Spirit. Since the Enlightenment, the intellectual disciplines have been trifurcated. Science is to facts, what Philosophy is to meanings, and what Religion is to values. It’s not a competition, they are complementary, especially when they are truly commensurate with the intellectual, societal, and spiritual development of humankind. The Spirit’s workings, within the superconscious realms of the mind, are where evolution meets and becomes augmented by revelation.

While the Bible may indeed be a fragmentary record, it still represents the highest and best understanding of God that a variety of people held in accordance with the light of their day. In our day, those who remain teachable walk a path illuminated by physical light, intellectual insight, and spirit luminosity. The Spirit that leads into all truth is not bound by books, incantations, or even prayerful recitations. Prayer is not about getting our way. It is rather about taking God’s way. This means that no one knows more about our highest and best destiny than our Divine Parent. We are entirely free to accept or reject any or all of it.

It is the Father’s plan that you learn about love. So, since we know from personal experience that the God of reality is not a jerk, we can freely choose to say ”It is my will that your will be done.”

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There is a crater on the moon named after William Francis Gray Swann. He is widely recognized for his research into cosmic rays and high-energy physics. His book, The Architecture of the Universe, was published in 1934. In that seminal work Swann, referring to chemical elements, made the statement:

Starting from any one of them, and noting some property such as the melting point, for example, the property would change as we went along the row, but as we continued it would gradually come back to the condition very similar to that which we started … The eighth element was in many respects like the first, the ninth like the second, the tenth like the third, and so on. Such a slate of affairs point[s] not only to a varied internal structure, but also to a certain harmony in that variation suggestive of some organized plan in building the atom. 

The uniqueness of the individual elements and the recurring features that Swann describes are similar to the way our seven note diatonic scale plays out within our musical heritage, together with seven named colors of the rainbow. Of course there are other ways to segment a musical scale and the colors of the rainbow are clearly in the eye of the beholder. The naturally occurring and recurring relationships in chemistry and those that can be attributed to human preference may be worlds apart. But, why do we have such an affinity for sevens?

We have seven days in the week, seven wonders of the ancient world, seven seas, seven continents, seven deadly sins, seven years of plenty and seven of famine. Shakespeare advanced a theory about the seven ages of man. There were seven sages of Greece, and seven hills of Rome. Atlantis reputedly comprised seven islands, and the Spanish thought there were seven cities of gold.

According to a poll of thirty-thousand people, seven is our favorite number. They play lucky seven. Sinbad the Sailor had seven voyages. There were seven brides for seven brothers. And, lest we forget, Snow White ran off to live with seven dwarves. What is so special about the number seven? To understand the answer to that question one must acknowledge there is also something very special about the number three.

From the Hindu Trimurti to the Christian Trinity there has always been a qualitative conception of the powers that be. Deity has been understood to consist of three primary personalities, each with their own emphasis while we mere mortals engage in a seemingly endless exercise of transactional analysis. Add to this, the self balancing and self-correcting nature of the child’s tricycle, the three legged stool, and the surveyor’s tripod. You have, what the betting man would describe as, a trifecta.

Threes and sevens make for a lousy poker hand. The superstition among doctors, that deaths comes in threes and sevens over the course of a day, is only reinforced by a statement in the Book of Numbers that reads: “He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.” John, Matthew, and Mark each quote Jesus as saying: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Indeed he did, for on the third day he rose from the dead.

Just how does the finite attain the embrace of the infinite? How does the temporal even begin to comprehend the eternal? When the Son of Man, as the Son of God said: “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” the art of the possible came into view. Just as true art serves as a prelude to a higher reality, Jesus lived his life in such a way as to stimulate the imagination, challenge our discrimination, and provoke our critical thinking.

The parables of Jesus represent the highest and best teaching technique for it can appeal to the widely varying intellectual and spiritual capacities of a diverse group within the human family. A parabolic analogy always consists of a directing arc and a focus.The focus is, of course, the love of God. At times, Jesus arrayed three glimmering pearls along the directing arc, such as the qualities of eternal truth, all encompassing beauty, and infinite goodness.

Throughout his sojourn, as a mortal of the realm, Jesus was always mindful of the qualities inherent in the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. Working in concert with such a trio ultimately leads us to an understanding that sometimes all three will take part. Sometimes they work individually. And, at other times, any two of the Divine Personalities may decide to work together. This gives rise to seven possible combinations of Supreme Deity expression.

The handiwork of God the Sevenfold is real. And the three personalities of Deity left a spiritual birthmark that is now evident in our music, the color spectrum, and even the Periodic Table of the Elements.

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At about 10 years of age Cub Scouts enter into a pact summed up by the acronym WEBELOS which unpacked stands for We’ll Be Loyal Scouts. Fourth grade boys work toward a Webelos Badge, while Fifth Graders work toward what’s called an Arrow of Light badge. These older Scouts carry the responsibility of being good role models to the younger Cub Scouts. The seven rays of the highly symbolic Arrow of Light represent wisdom, courage, self-control, justice, faith, hope, and love.

In Hong Kong, the Brownie Promise contains the words I will promise to do my best, – To be true to myself, – To my God, and my country. In Singapore they say I promise to do my best, – To do my duty to God, – To serve my country, – And to help other people, and to Keep the Brownie Law.

In Canada the girls will say: I promise to do my best, To be true to myself, my beliefs and Canada, I will take action for a better world. In that country an earlier promise contained the line I promise that I will do my best to love God. In the United Kingdom the girls say: I promise that I will do my best – To be true to myself and develop my beliefs, To serve the Queen and my community. Before September in 2013 they said I promise that I will do my best To love my god. . .

In the USA the Girl Scouts still recite the pledge: On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, To help people at all times. . . And the Boy Scout Oath includes: On my honor I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

What is it about the concept of God that causes Canada and the UK to remove it from their scout promises? Could it be that they want to be seen as somehow politically and properly amoral? Are they simply acting in accordance with some secularization hypothesis? Or does God have no place in their common understanding of what constitutes social progress?

The very first ray, in the Cub Scout’s Arrow of Light, is wisdom. Is it possible to have wisdom, in any meaningful form, that is divorced from the First Source and Center of all that is real? Are those scout programs, that emphasize a promise to be loyal, betraying the foundational principles of their respective organizations? Whatever became of the “good role models” that are to lead by example?

In the story of Job, God asked: Who is this that darkens counsel by words without wisdom?” There is something clearly unattractive about a lack of appreciation. Life is a gift. Mind is an endowment. Health is, first and foremost, predicated upon harmonious relationships, whether they occur within the physical body or socially, throughout a greater humanity. To keep one’s self physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight is a challenge at all stages of growth. To serve the community is largely dependent upon such physical, mental, and moral health.

How can any organization advance wisdom without an understanding of these foundational principles? What is the value of a leader that is not mindful of humanity’s ultimate destination. Children need to know that the best that can be achieved with a hazy goal is likely to be a hazy result. The adults within their respective spheres of influence also need to understand these principles if they are to serve as effective leaders.

People in the know see the tremendous potential of power in the store of wisdom as it continues to reside and repose in the central personality of our universe. Religion is to values what science is to facts and what philosophy is to meanings. Scouting organizations can and should debate these things without framing the questions in such a way as to squelch honest introspection.

Jesus said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” And, while it may seem there is a God shaped void within those who fail to recognize the Author and Finisher of our faith, He still resides at that nexus of the mind and heart. Intellectual balance is trifurcated. Accordingly, it is wholly dependent upon the recognition of that holistic intersection that exists between the things, meanings, and values that inform our spiritual growth.

Scouting is truth seeking. And the truth never suffers from close examination. If those in the secularist movement are confident they are right, they would welcome such an open and honest discussion. If those in the faith movement represent more than a thin veneer of religiosity, they will faithfully represent the seven rays; the wisdom, courage, self-control, justice, faith, hope, and love that are arrayed as the Arrow of Light takes flight within the lives of scouts at all stages of maturity.

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A yoke originally referred to a wooden frame. It could be fitted to a person’s shoulders to help them carry a load in two equal portions. It was used to join two animals, such as oxen, to help them work together. It refers to the bar, at the end of a wagon’s tongue, that is suspended from the collars of the team’s harness. It can be the frame from which a bell is hung or a crosspiece on the head of a boat’s rudder. it was also an arched device clamped about the neck of a defeated person when the authorities wanted to subject someone to conspicuous ridicule, scorn, or indignity.

The control wheel and column used by aviators is also called a yoke. It is used to control the plane’s elevators and ailerons to effect movement about the pitch and roll axis. Throughout history, the yoke has been a device for doing work whether it involved multiplying foot-pounds, incentivizing man or beast to fall in line, or some other means of directional control.

When Jesus said “follow me,” he coupled it with the statement “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This is definitely welcome news for anyone that’s tired of getting yanked around. When God gave his son, we beheld this gentle giant of a man as the best possible example for leadership. We are fond of saying that the best leaders lead by example. And, one of the foremost qualities of a leader is that they are driven. They’re not driven like beasts of burden that are pushed but they are drawn to achieve something.

Most introductory management courses stress what’s called positive and negative KITA. The acronym means a Kick In The Ass. It is usually explained using the picture of a donkey. The rider is often depicted as holding a stick in front of the animal from which a carrot is dangled on a string. The donkey moves towards the carrot hoping to get a bite. Behind the animal is a guy holding a paddle. If the donkey is too stubborn to move, he gets whacked on the butt.

The more advanced management courses stress the fact that every time the donkey gets a bite of the carrot, his appetite is diminished and you end up with less carrot. Likewise, when the donkey gets whacked on the rear, he grows callouses back there and you had to invest a considerable amount of energy in swinging the paddle.

What’s often missing from the management curriculum is the difference between incentivizing someone and motivating them. Unfortunately, one of the biggest product lines, within those initiatives managed by custodial CEOs, is a wide variety of de-motivators. Custodial CEOs are typically not the ones that actually built any given enterprise. They are usually selected by subsequent investors to engage, surreptitiously, in activities that have the effect of siphoning off equity from the company as well as the host country.

Companies are typically formed by people that are enthusiastically working in company with one another. Authentic corporations are composed of people, associating for a common purpose, and acting corporately. Our definitions of terms such as company and corporation have been distorted over the years by certain judicial and political sophistries. And we need to understand those if we are ever to have authentic companies, corporations, and democracies.

The people that are “enthusiastically working” are at the heart of healthy families, companies, and countries. The term “enthusiasm” stems from the word elements “en’ plus “Theos.” Thus the first definition is “God within,” which is entirely consistent with what Jesus taught when he said “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” The second definition is “in God” which was delineated by Paul when he said “for in Him we live and move and have our being.”

Clearly, there are two ways to look at “corporate personhood.” Corporations are people in the sense that they are comprised of people. The deception is based upon any holding that a corporation is “a person” that is somehow in addition to, or over and above the people within, that are actually doing the work. This latter definition has been used to misrepresent the workers, drown out the diverse voices of the masses, and thus distort the social and political discourse.

Where actual citizens are held responsible for their speech, corporate speech can be delivered anonymously. Since a corporation is not “a person,” for it lacks personal responsibility while exerting excessive influence over public policy. The crosspiece that is supposed to hold the rudder for the ship of state is missing. The conceptual framework for our constitutionally grounded democratic republic exhibits decay. The team is not equally yoked nor is it usefully yoked. 

The bell of freedom and liberty is no longer suspended from the arch that is supposed to remind us of how unbridled self-assertion works to the detriment of others. The is only one remedy and it doesn’t force us to nose up or down or do a hard bank left or right. Yielding to the yoke of Jesus is the only way to be forever centered in the will of Our Heavenly Father.

Full Transcript:

One of my favorite TV characters was the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live. Her facial expression had all the warmth of a descending hatchet and appeared as though it was ultimately achieved through a lifetime of sucking on green persimmons. To many of us, enthusiastic about matters of faith, she represented an outmoded type of churchianity that was, not only amusing but, wholly foreign to us. It was simply unattractive as its adherents slavishly sought to suppress their innermost desires while attempting to obey and conform to rules of living that only made life more burdensome.

By contrast, the Gospel of Jesus strengthens us through the constant spiritual renewing of our minds and hearts. As we become increasingly responsive to Divine Leading by the Spirit of Truth, our inner soul transforms us, much like the small amount of leavening by which the whole loaf becomes leavened. When we are endowed with the power to advance the perfect will of God, we experience a new way of living that is joyous, gracious and, most importantly, acceptable in his sight.

When Jesus said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light, he was not minimizing the importance of the work. He was instead highlighting the fact that we would be working in concert with a great number of celestial associates and earthly cohorts that could make any heavy lifting seem light when compared with going it alone. When we are admonished to become equally yoked, we should also give some thought to being usefully yoked.

Coordination is an English word that stems from the Latin term ordo meaning order. Our dictionaries define coordination as “the organization of the different elements in a complex body or activity so as to enable them to work together efficiently”.

The Body of Christ is understood by analogy to the human body. When things are working as they should, we enjoy good health. When they are not, we group our various ailments into the all inclusive category of dis-ease. One of the books I always recommend to people dealing with cancer is titled The China Study. The book summarizes a huge research project focusing on cancer and nutrition. The study was conducted by individuals with a sincere reverence for the scientific method. The book’s conclusion also just happened to dovetail with my highest and best understanding of intelligent design when the authors summarized their findings with the statement: “Give the body what it needs and it will do the right thing”.

What can we, as individual human beings, contribute to the Body of Christ on earth so that it will more efficiently and effectively exude the health and happiness it exemplifies, thereby becoming even more attractive to our friends? The answer is not likely to be found in either green persimmons or recitations, but rather through the sincerest form of prayer. It is not obtained by denying ourselves and praying “Not my will but Your will be done.” It is though the sincerest form of appreciation in which we proclaim “It is my will that Your will be done.”

Now just how do we discern that will? We’re not infallible. We sometimes get it wrong. But we do have some big clues and rules of thumb. For example we know that the attributes of God are more likely to be seen through our highest and best understanding of His truth, His beauty, and His goodness. The central truth of the Jesusonian Gospel is that “The Kingdom of God is within you”. The beauty of his ministry is to be seen in his exemplary life with beautiful symmetry together with the quality of coherence conveyed through his teachings. Jesus always highlighted goodness and was also quick to point out that “there is no one good but God.”

If we are ever confused about what constitutes Truth, we should proactively distance ourselves from those who exhibit a reckless indifference to the truth. If we have been corrupting our sense of beauty through a failure to evolve beyond our animalistic instincts, we should proactively cultivate an appreciation of higher spiritual values. If we routinely conflate malevolence with benevolence, we can and should choose those good things that will favor ushering in an era of light and life over any sustained orgy of darkness and death.

We all have our Deuteronomy moments wherein God presents us with the ultimate choice. He said: I set before you life and death. Therefore choose life. We don’t evolve independently of time and so our life and death choices are, to some extent, incrementalist. The super-saturated sugary snacks in the Type II Diabetes aisle at the grocery store together with the tar and nicotine available through the assisted suicide department at the drug store clearly represent such an incremental approach to life versus death.

While sowing seeds of self-denial has value in the personal quest for a quality life, there are also choices we can make that don’t cause us to feel like we’re giving up all the things we like best. There is something truly exhilarating about maintaining a steady climb out, letting gravity and inertia have their way with the poor habits we’ve left behind. The Fruits of the Spirit are sweet.

Full Transcript:

I recall reading long ago that the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven are sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. That really didn’t resonate with me at first because I believed then, as I do now, that we are justified by faith and faith alone. Of course, over the years, we each learn that faith is more about the perfection of purpose than it is about any certitude we may enjoy. In fact, our deliverance from the uncertainties of time is wholly dependent upon the loyalty aspects of faith.

I’ve since given much prayerful consideration to those early lessons on sincerity. I believe they refer, first and foremost, to the quality of our faith-submission. After all, even atheists often seem to value the things of God such as his goodness. They just don’t acknowledge or recognize the Originator, the First Source and Center of All. Jesus addressed that very point when he said: “Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God.” Indeed, all Truth, all Beauty, and all Goodness originate with the Author and Finisher of our faith.

It seems to me that people of faith have modes of perception that non-believers clearly lack. We see Our Father’s Truth, Beauty, and Goodness as scintillating pearls arrayed along a drawstring that pulls us nearer to the heart of God. So, if we are in agreement, that the first part of the sincerity test is the authenticity of our faith, the second would likely be in our responsiveness to Divine Leading. 

I’ve often heard it said that prayer is not about getting your way. It’s really about taking God’s way. In that light, many of us have struggled with the various concepts of destiny. Pre-destination and fore-ordination seem, at first glance to be at odds with any doctrine of free will. However, upon close examination, we begin to discern the fact that God knows us better than we know ourselves and, because of this, He’s our ultimate Thesis Advisor.

As we mature in our faith, we eventually realize that our inherent attributes appear to align with and support a higher calling, a first-best destiny. Now we are all free to interpret this as somehow in accordance with God’s plan. And we are certainly free to accept or reject any part, or all of it. The question before each of us is always one concerning whether or not we will choose to take full advantage of our God-given opportunities.

So the third sincerity test in my estimation would be centering on this last question. Many of yesterday’s Hell fire and brimstone preachers would have us believe that God would corral us into his camp by means of manipulation and by leveraging our fears. Such a base motivator is unworthy, and likely offensive to, Our Loving Father. His program is never one of coercion and it is best understood as one of attraction rather than promotion.

Affinity marketers push the notion that a shopper’s rewards card will help to insure customer loyalty. Think about that the next time you buy something from that store’s competitor simply because it’s a dollar cheaper. Such an experience could also serve as a constant reminder that, while there may be incentives for living, God is more focused upon your true motivations.

A person of good will can be instrumental in bringing others closer to God. Those possessing a thin vernier of religiosity, one that is more of a fashion statement than a witness, usually lack any deep abiding devotion to Our Father or his supreme values. The truly faithful are always the ones whose commitment is voluntary, wholehearted, and sophistry-proof.

When we pray in the light of scientific facts, philosophic wisdom, intellectual sincerity, and spiritual faith, we are not engaging in a process whereby we treat Our Father as if he’s just one big cosmic vending machine catering to our every indulgence. We are also not seeking some unfair advantage over our fellows. We are instead appealing to Our Universe Sovereign just as Jesus taught his disciples—honestly, unselfishly, with fairness, and without doubting.

Without sincerity, we are like cancer cells running amok within the Body of Christ. It is unlikely that, within such a state, we would advance anything of true value while we may be causing tremendous amounts of damage. Ask yourself, what is your opinion of someone you perceive as less than sincere. Would you vest any significant amount of trust in such a person?

A sincere person is the one we tend to rely upon, even when they are occasionally wrong. If they are well motivated, we can count on them to realize they’ve made a mistake and take corrective measures. We are all learning. Jesus promised the Spirit of Truth to help drive out all serious human error. The open question is whether we will be responsive to such Divine Leading.

In this way, sincerity can be seen as the master key. It unlocks the provisioning whereby God has granted all that we need to be increasingly more effective in our respective ministries. Such ministries serve to advance the will of God in the hearts and minds of human kind. And we know, based upon our experience, in just a closer walk with Thee, that this is the best way we can love others as Jesus loved and continues to love us.