Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* Pomposity
* Scripture: Paul wrote, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Philippians 2:3, KJV

Pomposity! Oooh; That's a nice, big word! Think ostentatious; think vainglory; well, think showy.
The tune played at graduation exercises, and other ceremonial and festival events, is called "Pomp and Circumstance," to give you a better feel for the image of the word. Dignitaries, public officials, royalty and their retinues. Splendor; a show of magnificence.
Puffed up words to show a puffed up attitude - pomposity!
We use the word glory often in reference to God, and rightfully so. We confess, in The Lord's Prayer, the kingdom, power, and glory that is rightfully His. Worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving is an appropriate use of the word 'Glory' when speaking of God.
But what a different meaning we get simply by adding the word vain in front of glory, as it appears in the King James Bible. The word in the Greek language (translated as "vain") can have several possible meanings, including empty, fruitless, ineffectual, and - I like this - empty- handed!
Paul had ample opportunity to observe pomp and magnificence. Luke records that King Agrippa and Bernice arrived to hear Paul with "great pomp," accompanied by high ranking officers and prominent men of the city of Caesarea. (Acts 25:23)
Paul used the opportunity to proclaim Jesus to all who were listening, from the king and governor to the lowest servant.
Paul was serving, and had support from, a much higher authority than earthly kings and governors. He had respect for their office, but apparently was not in awe of their pomposity. Paul, as did Peter and the other Apostles, followed the example of Jesus, who also faced governors and kings confident that God stood with them.
I think that Paul understood that kings are all about pomp and splendor. We expect royalty to be, well, magnificent. But not Christians. And that's what caught Paul's attention in the Church at Philippi - pomposity!
Christ 'emptied' Himself to become a servant of others (the Incarnation.) And right there, in Christ's Church in Pilippi, Paul found strife and vainglory.
All the gold in the world is worthless in heaven. Earthly pomp and majesty pales to nothing before The Glory of the Throne. Vainglory - Don't get caught empty handed!
January 22. 2006

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* What's New?
* Scripture: “So it came to pass, when he (Laban) saw the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah saying, “Thus the man spoke to me” - Genesis 24:30a, NKJV

What’s new?
Probably not as much as you might think. For example, the buzz word today seems to be digital this and digital that. Watches, video discs, cell phones, as opposed to the old-fashioned analog stuff. Soon, all television and radio broadcasting will be digital.
Big deal! Things digital have been around for a long time. That includes me. I just checked, and I still have all of my digits. Came with the package. I’ll bet even Adam and Moses were digital as well.
Another hot-button item is identify theft. I doubt that Rebekah invented it, but she and her son, Jacob, certainly made use of identity theft a few thousand years ago. (Genesis, chapter 27)
The personality of Jacob’s twin brother, Esau, left a lot to be desired, so our sympathies sort of favor the deception. Nevertheless, the practice to deceive creates many a tangled web indeed.
We can’t help but wonder what kind of person Rebekah truly was. Genesis 24:16 comments that she was very beautiful. Sometimes beauty can be very vain, self-centered, and unduly focused on maintaining a physical appearance.
We get a very favorable introduction to Rebekah in chapter 24. Engaged in daily chores for her family, she shows hospitality to a stranger.
Now, admit it - anybody who offers to carry water for a caravan of thirsty camels is not afraid of work. My reference states that a camel can easily drink twenty gallons of water, and that equals a lot of trips down into the well.
Rebekah is possessed of kindness, energy, and beauty, fitting attributes for a wife for Isaac. Certainly, she fills the requirements specified by Abraham, and is worthy of the gift of expensive jewelry.
In case you are not up-to-date, jewelry and flashy merchandise is called “bling bling” today. Bracelets and nose rings would certainly be in vogue, oh, anytime in the past few millenniums or so. (See Isaiah 3:18-23.) Rebekah would blend right into our hip hop society.
Compare Rebekah to the haughty daughters of Zion of Isaiah 3:16. What a difference of attitude! When it comes right down to it, bling bling is neither bad nor good; the gift of jewelry complemented her beauty, and she its radiance with her hospitable demeanor.
Perhaps I should guard my thoughts and consider what is in the heart to be a better indicator of a person than what is in the nose.
April 17, 2005

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Paul wrote, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Philippians 2:3, KJV

Pomposity! Oooh; That's a nice, big word! Think ostentatious; think vainglory; well, think showy.
The tune played at graduation exercises, and other ceremonial and festival events, is called "Pomp and Circumstance," to give you a better feel for the image of the word. Dignitaries, public officials, royalty and their retinues. Splendor; a show of magnificence.
Puffed up words to show a puffed up attitude - pomposity!
We use the word glory often in reference to God, and rightfully so. We confess, in The Lord's Prayer, the kingdom, power, and glory that is rightfully His. Worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving is an appropriate use of the word 'Glory' when speaking of God.
But what a different meaning we get simply by adding the word vain in front of glory, as it appears in the King James Bible. The word in the Greek language (translated as "vain") can have several possible meanings, including empty, fruitless, ineffectual, and - I like this - empty- handed!
Paul had ample opportunity to observe pomp and magnificence. Luke records that King Agrippa and Bernice arrived to hear Paul with "great pomp," accompanied by high ranking officers and prominent men of the city of Caesarea. (Acts 25:23)
Paul used the opportunity to proclaim Jesus to all who were listening, from the king and governor to the lowest servant.
Paul was serving, and had support from, a much higher authority than earthly kings and governors. He had respect for their office, but apparently was not in awe of their pomposity. Paul, as did Peter and the other Apostles, followed the example of Jesus, who also faced governors and kings confident that God stood with them.
I think that Paul understood that kings are all about pomp and splendor. We expect royalty to be, well, magnificent. But not Christians. And that's what caught Paul's attention in the Church at Philippi - pomposity!
Christ 'emptied' Himself to become a servant of others (the Incarnation.) And right there, in Christ's Church in Pilippi, Paul found strife and vainglory.
All the gold in the world is worthless in heaven. Earthly pomp and majesty pales to nothing before The Glory of the Throne. Vainglory - Don't get caught empty handed!
January 22. 2006

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul.” Mark 8:36, NKJV

Baseball catcher Yogi Berra is reputed to have said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Well, I suppose one could just sit there, in a state of stultification, or turn around and go back. Chances are, though, one fork or the other will be taken. Choices, decisions, alternatives. If this, then - What? What will the answer be?
John Greenleaf Whittier brought two people to such a fork in the road in his poem, “Maud Muller.” Maud was a farm girl, “Of simple beauty and rustic health,”raking hay in the meadow on a summer’s day, when a Judge stopped his horse to rest in the shade of a tree, and asked the maid for a drink of water. While he tarried, they:
“talked of the haying, and wondered whether
The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.”

When he at last rode away, Maud’s thoughts wandered to what it would be like that she the Judge’s bride might be.

“He would dress me up in silks so fine. . . ”

The Judge looked back at Maud and considered her pastoral world - the

“low of cattle and song of birds,
And health and quiet and loving words.
But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,
And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.
So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on,
And Maud was left in the field alone.“

The years pass, and their roads diverge:

“He wedded a wife of richest dower,
Who lived for fashion, as he for power . . . .”

“She wedded a man unlearned and poor,
And many children played round her door.”

Often over the years each thought back to that summer day:

“In the shade of the apple-tree again
She saw a rider draw his rein;
And, gazing down with timid grace,
She felt his pleased eyes read her face.”

while he wished to be

“Free as when I rode that day,
Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay.”

Oh! For the fork in the road not taken.
Choices, decisions, alternatives.

“Alas for maiden, alas for Judge,
For rich repiner and household drudge!
God pity them both! and pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.”

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: `It might have been!`”

As Jesus observed, many take the fork that promises the “riches” of the the world, only to find that it leads to a soul lost for eternity. Too late, too late, one can then only look back and sigh, “It might have been.”
May 8, 2005