The whole nine yards, in a nutshell?

In a nutshell the good news is this. The Divine gets reduced to the finite, so the finite, can be reduced to the divine. In other words, when we look at the exodus, we can see Moses (speaks for God) not without Aaron. After convincing the divine that he did not have the talent, God agrees and mitigates with Aaron, staff, signs and wonders. The finite is reduced to divinity.

Church guys and Gals have been known to call this process, disciple making, spiritual formation, shepherding, Sunday school, cell groups, kinship groups, the list goes on. Church is generally the place we assume we can find out about God, or do something for God, because we already know all about God. Can we look at that?

This whole process of  reducing man to God, is the hardest. Of course we are told from many of the pulpits and mainstream media; that it is all about better, church life is better for business, church is better for family, better for self esteem etc. The truth is, however,  the good news is about death. There is no reason to fool ourselves at this point, the good news is that we are forgiven, the bad news is, they still don't let darkness in the new Jerusalem.

Everything around us changes at this moment of clarity. Some people believe it is at this time that a holy spirit, begins to replace or, de-emphasize, the not so holy flesh. For some this is a time that God begins to "speak" to them. Others have an experience in the mystical sense. Still others find teachers, or become teachers at this time.

The book of 1 john in the bible says this, if you can believe it, "As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.  We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?  Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.  We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him  in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;  

 

 

blue rubber gloves

 blue rubber gloves, if only the city officials had faith 


On 8/26/2013 the city of Fresno cleared out the homeless from an area near  99 and Ventura. City officials (I guess they were) took pictures and videos and some even had blue rubber gloves on. These gloves look the same as the gloves CSI uses when they cut up dead people, or I think I have seen Parole agents use the same rubber gloves when they gather piss tests.

The thing about the gloves that bothered me a bit is this: I personally have used those gloves (because of law) when dressing, and preparing the bodies of people who have "passed", died. The ones I used had this horrid powder stuff in them, and because of the Funeral  Home; I always had a dark suit on and the horrid white powder left on my hands from the gloves, always ended up on my dark suit.  I guess I don't like rubber gloves that much. In fact we used to put that same powder on nails when we were framing. I am not sure I even like the fucking powder.

However my friends have never showed up at my house to help me move, with blue rubber gloves on. I have worked around funeral homes most of my life, and worked for an ambulance co. We have had people with aids die, in our care, no gloves, no blue rubber gloves, no aids,  nothing....So why do we insist on wearing stupid gloves....................because we can, because someone made them disposable, and now they come in boxes, and now funeral homes, buy cases, of boxes of blue and white and pink  rubber gloves with powder in them. Auto mechanics buy cases without powder, or with. Soon everyone will have a tan line at the wrist. The cops have them, they put them on when they want to get personal, they may not be that worried about getting their hands dirty, the gloves however do add a touch of  "we care", about what, I am not sure.

Not only that but there was a young lady in Oregon washing the feet of the homeless, when the sponsors of the foot washing event requested that she put on the rubber gloves, no is all she said, I think?  So when the cats from Fresno deal with the poor they put the rubber gloves on. The gloves don't make them bad people. The  gloves could cause the homeless to feel less than. Well that should not bother them, The gloves are for safety and the street people will understand.

When we are living on the street, we don't understand. And here is something you may not understand, before rubber gloves in boxes came along we did not wear them,  the little blue gloves.
They are made from oil or rubber or plastic, the more people that wear them the more money Wall Street makes, if we could just get everyone to wear them all the time!

We have been to India and touched the untouchables, because God loves us, no blue or pink or green rubber gloves. The chances of you catching something because you touched a piece of dog shit, or took out the garbage, or wiped a kids bloody nose, or shot heroin using the same dirty needle as your buddy with aids, are around the same as the chance you will win the lottery.  I think?

And the garbage had me a little concerned as well. So I asked a few of the shot callers about the garbage service to this area of Fresno. They responded, "we gave these people cans and they would not use them", as if poor people don't know what garbage cans and blue rubber gloves are all about! When I first got "my" garbage cans someone showed me where to put them, when to put them, how far apart to put them, and I bet when the garbage people took the cans to the homeless they were wearing blue rubber gloves, while they were explaining to the folks what days to put the cans out, and what time to put them back in the tent.

If only city officials were people of faith. Then they would help the poor, help them build clean camps, with restrooms, provide safe places, Blessed are the poor, Woe unto you who are rich, that is just how it is.

Nothing says "I Care" like, blue rubber gloves................to a point.

The good news is right here before your very eyes

The Issue is us, can you say "I love my enemy"? would you like to be able to love your enemy?  The gospel means us, we are off the hook, #embracepoor and it all goes away.