----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2004 8:12
PM
Subject: [TruthTalk]
Incompatibility
I've
been doing some thinking. I know... it's dangerous, but sometimes I can't help
it. I'm supposed to be doing my homework, enjoying my children, or making my
wife happy, but here I am.
Today I'm a grump. I'm under stress from all
sides and I'm taking it out on my family. I was going to work at home
tomorrow, but I think I'll take it to a coffee shop with a power point (i.e.,
power plug -or- plug in) and let the family get a break from me. Well,
enough confessing.
I've
been doing some thinking. I know... it's dange... hmmm. Been there. Done
that.
Judy
made the following comment few days ago. I would like to quote
it.
Good Morning Terry
& John: Why let Satan steal your
peace? Jesus
said that in the world we would have tribulation. It's sad but true that
the world has infiltrated Church and since light and darkness is
incompatible there
will be trouble, but hey! we can
allow His Peace to reign in our own hearts - regardless. jht
Has
there always been an incompatibility between darkness and light? I must say I
don't think so. While the argument can be made that the Creation Narrative is
merely Midrashic, or parabolic literature, I tend to believe it is most likely
literal truth, not figurative pandering.
Within this narrative, and interesting phrase is
given:
And Elohim distinguished between the light and between the
darkness... (Slade's translation)
The
nuances in the text here are subtle and I differ from some translations which
indicates a separation between darkness and light, and that is probably just
as accurate. In my rendering, Elohim is the one who notices a difference
between the two and calls each by their proper names: Chosek (Night), and Yom
(Day). This caused a separation between the two entities.
This
means that before this time, there was no separation between the two. They
coexisted in the same swirling pool. Before you blow me off, hear part two. In
like manner, earth and water, when they were first created were one
entity:
"Let the waters under the Heavens be collected to one
place and let appear the dry land."
When
haEretz (Heb. the land) was created, it was a "soupy" combination of water and
soil, and when Elohim spoke, the water was pulled from the "soup," exposing
solidifying Yabbashah (Heb. soil).
In
like manner, we are to remove the allegiances we have toward "our
kingdom" and focus on "His Kingdom" [Thanks, John for the
terminology of allegiances], or perhaps another way of looking at it is:
separate the acts of carnality (Adamah, Heb. Earth) from the acts of
the Spirit (Mayim, Heb. water). However, as the Land was created as
a mixture of soil and water, we were created both with diverse allegiances
(spirit and flesh), inseparable until an act of God creates
change.
God,
from the beginning, has been in the business of separating. But He's also been
in the business of collecting together. I'm glad we haven't
lost important parts of that collective in TruthTalk (I'm speaking
specifically of Bill and John).
By
the way, Judy, thanks for NOT saying
irregardless.
-- slade
