Seeds For Thinking

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Scripture: “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars closed upon me for ever; yet hast Thou brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.” Jonah 2:6, KJV

Jonah was a goner. Down, down, down he sank, down through the seaweed, down to the moorings of the mountains. Down to The Deep, literally, the abyss. Let’s turn our attention from Jonah for the moment and explore ‘The Deep,’ the moorings of the mountains. (We already know God is taking care of Jonah.)
Many ancient civilizations looked upon the earth, seas and the heavens above quite differently than our modern cosmology. We have the advantage of centuries of science and exploration to shape our view of the universe around us. The Bible seems to us to be using figurative language when it speaks of ‘The Deep’ in Jonah, Psalms, or Genesis. Just another way of expressing the thought of God’s domain from ocean depths to starry heaven. However, they had something entirely different in mind when they looked upon the oceans, land and sky. Some cultures thought that the dry land floated upon the ocean , ‘The Deep’ - thus, if you went deep enough, you would reach the roots, the moorings, the underside of the mountains. Jonah feels he is headed to that watery underworld beneath the mountains.
The creation story in Genesis begins with darkness upon the face of the deep. God created the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament (Gen 1:7) and called the firmament heaven. Dry land did not appear until the third day of creation. The sun, moon, and stars were created and set in place in the already existing firmament on the fourth day. Think about this for a moment: waters above and waters beneath the firmament. We can see the waters in the seas and oceans beneath the firmament, no question there. But, tell me this: where does rain come from? To their mind, there had to be a reservoir of water above the vast space called the firmament, or heavens.
The earth was flooded in the days of Noah when the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of heaven were opened. (Gen. 7:11, NIV) Waters under the firmament and waters above the firmament!
The waters are mentioned several times in the Book of Job, especially in chapter 38, where God questions Job. God speaks of laying the foundations of the earth, and shutting in the sea with doors (38:8) when it burst forth as if it had issued out of the womb.
The Psalmist in Psalm 42 expresses the suffering he endured away from God and the temple as if “all your waves and billows have gone over me.” Notable is the use of “deep calls unto deep” in vs. 7.
Jonah is not just drowning in the sea. Note Jonah 2:4, where he laments that he has been banished from God’s sight, confined to that nebulous netherworld of isolation from the Lord God. It is not death that Jonah fears, but separation from God.
Yet, even from the deepest moment of his life, Jonah finds; " Thou hast brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.”
Think upon these things when trouble and sorrows wash over you, even isolation as of The Deep. What God did for the Psalmist and for Jonah, God can do for all those who call upon Him.

Seeds for Thinking (©) 1996 - 2011 by Leland Hubbell

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

Scripture: “I am come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b, NKJV)

One of the most magnificent spectacles of life is found on the plains of southeastern Africa. An area known as the Serengeti, a vast plain in Tanzania, is noted for the annual migration of the area's large numbers of wildebeest, zebra, buffalos and gazelle. Driven by cycles of rain and drought, the animals, and their predators, follow the circuitous movement of the supply of grasses and vegetation that nourish them. A unique combination of diverse habitats ranging from riverside forests, swamps, grasslands and woodland, enables it to support more than 30 species of large herbivores and nearly 500 species of birds.
Towards the end of May, when the grass becomes dry and exhausted, the animals begin their trek in a column several miles long to the permanent waters in the north of the Park. Yet, after the rains, the golden expanse of dry grass is transformed into an endless green carpet flecked with wildflowers. In November, when the grazing is finished in the North, this army of animals surges back to the now green pastures of the south, where they calve and mate before starting the entire cycle again.
The Okavango Delta, in Botswana, is produced by seasonal flooding. The Okavango river drains the summer (January–February) rainfall from the Angola highlands, two countries away from Botswana, taking approximately one month to reach the delta. The waters then spread over the delta during the next four months (March–June). The flood peaks between June and August, during Botswana’s dry winter months, when the delta swells to three times its permanent size, attracting animals from miles around and creating one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife. More than 400 species of birds flourish in the lush forests of the delta and its islands, and along the floodplains created by the waters of the Okavango river.
On the mainland and among the islands in the delta, lions, elephants, hyenas, wild dog, buffalo, hippo and crocodiles congregate with a teeming variety of antelope and other smaller animals - warthog, mongoose, spotted genets, monkeys, bush babies and tree squirrels. The majority of the estimated 200,000 large mammals in and around the delta are not year round residents. They leave with the summer rains to find renewed fields of grass to graze on and trees to browse, then make their way back as winter approaches.
The animals have life, and have it abundantly, because of the rains that revive the forests, swamps, grasslands and woodlands. Life resumes anew in the waters of the river and channels of the delta, and slakes the thirst of the wildlife on the plains, as well. Everything is transformed by that renewing flow.
Oh! How precious is that flow!
I can’t help but think about another cleansing, nourishing flow:
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing But The Blood (Robert Lowry)
Just as the animals in Africa must come to the water to benefit from it, so, too, we must come to Jesus to obtain that life-giving precious “flow.” As John writes, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us all from unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) Jesus, speaking to the woman at the well, told her that He is “the living water;” whoever drinks of it will never thirst. It shall become “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”(John 4:14)
Come, drink, accept God’s gift of abundant life.

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Scripture: Paul wrote, “Watch your life and doctrine closely.” 1 Timothy 4:16, NIV

Henny Penny, my black hen;
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
Sometimes nine and sometimes ten
Henny Penny, my black hen.
Old nursery rhyme

Unlike the hen in the nursery rhyme, our black bantam hen prefers that the fruit of her labors do not go to feed gentlemen, or ladies, either, for that matter. So she hid her nest away where aforesaid nest robbers could not find her. However, the date of her last regular appearance was duly noted on the calendar, and twenty-one days later - the length of incubation for hen’s eggs - I was anticipating her reappearance with chicks.
Some of the other residents of the barn knocked over a few bales from the hay stack, and Lo! I spy a hen looking out at me from a crevice between the bales thus exposed to view. A quick check showed that chicks were indeed hatching. There were five at that time, with more eggs to go.
I left her for a time to finish her work. Cheeper(s) by the dozen - almost! She finally came out with eleven chicks. And I am positive she was smiling.
I am always amazed at the vitality of newly hatched chicks. Once the entire clutch of eggs has hatched, mama hen has them on the go. She will typically hunt for food almost immediately, as she has been fasting since the first egg started to hatch. At first, they stay pretty much under mama’s feathers, and she guards them well. Soon, however, it is scratch and cluck, a special mama hen cluck, that means, “Dinner is served.” The chicks dive after the choice bit of food she has uncovered.
This is the time I most enjoy, watching as they learn about the world around them. I put out a chick water bottle for them to drink, and sat back to watch. They cocked their heads, and examined this new intruder into their world, but did not recognize it for what it was - a source of water. Finally, mama hen went to the waterer, dipped in her beak, and tipped back her head. Quick as scat, eleven little chicks were around that waterer, dipping and tipping!
While chicks are drawn to mama hen’s cluck, it is her actions that model proper behavior and relationships to things in the world around them.
Lest we forget, our own little ones, children and grandchildren, learn quickly from what we do, both good and bad. Our words may inform, but our actions demonstrate what really matters. We need to “model the message” in our culture that runs so contrary to Christian beliefs. We are to be living examples, not only to youth, but to the world as a whole. Read Paul's letters to Timothy, and “be diligent in these matters.”
August 8, 2004

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

* Storing Up Water
* Scripture: Jesus told the woman of Samaria, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:13-14, NKJV

Wells are nice - if you have one. Water is precious, and essential to life. Many ingenious ways have been devised to obtain it; many a battle has been fought to retain it.
Wells figure prominently in the scriptural record, including accounts in the book of Genesis that relate how the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dug wells to water their flocks and families. Jacob's Well, at which Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman, had served for nearly two-thousand years.
It takes a lot of work to dig a well, a shaft in the ground that reaches down to the level of a vein of water. Then, some form of raising the water to the surface is needed. Some wells were made large enough that a circular staircase actually allowed people to walk down to the level of the water
A long rope with a bucket attached is often used, sometimes with a pulley or winch device to more easily raise and lower the weight of a full bucket of water. I have seen the rope and bucket attached to a long lever, called a sweep, to counterbalance the weight.
A pump is a much more convenient form of bringing up the water, whether hand powered or by a motor or engine, IF you have a source of power.
Springs are also mentioned often in the Bible, including ones the Israelites found during their wanderings in the wilderness. A fertile area, watered by the spring, is called an oasis, a name used today by a manufacturer of drinking fountains.
Do you think of Rome when you hear the word fountain? The Romans were masters of building aqueducts that brought water over long distances to emerge in strategically placed fountains.
Many of the farmhouses in the area where I grew up had a different source of water. This water came, not from the ground, but from the sky. Rain! Rain collected in a container - small, in a barrel, or larger, in a cistern - had the advantage of being free from minerals - rain-water soft, to be exact. We had both a well and a cistern, the best of both worlds.
Wells, springs, fountains and cisterns are all rightly the center of life. They all share one trait, however. They are not portable. Potable, yes (meaning suitable for cooking and drinking) but you can't slap wheels under one and take off with it on a journey.
So, enters the water bag, perhaps draped over the saddle or back of a donkey or camel. Ships at sea carried water in barrels or casks, as did the "ships of the plains," the wagons headed west during the pioneer movement in the USA. And the water jar, often pictured on some woman's head.
Such is the scene as Jesus sits by Jacob's well, having nothing to draw water from its depths. After hearing about the "living water" Jesus offered, though, the Samaritan woman left her water pot to hasten into the city to share the news with her friends and neighbors.
Can you imagine going to all that trouble to obtain water, and then not using it? A flowing spring, a full cistern or the best pump and distribution system can only bring it to you. All of my examples above have left out the most important thing of all: water supplied or saved is of no value unless you drink of it!
God's living water is readily available, just as Jesus said, but you have to drink of it. You can not store it up, you can not hoard it. You have to consume it to become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
Better yet, you can then become an 'aqueduct' or water pot, carrying living water, feeding fountains in others.
Best of all, your source will never go dry!
October 29, 2006

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

Scripture: But he (a lawyer), wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29, NKJV - The Parable of the Good Samaritan)

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1594:

True, whatever we choose to call a rose won’t change the plant, but unfamiliar names can be very confusing.
Jesus used the names of three possible “neighbors” in the parable of the Good Samaritan: A priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. The first two served in the temple as intercessors between God and the people. Samaritans were despised by the Jews, and viewed as least likely to act charitably.
Think about this list of names, given in their formal or scientific form, and choose which ones you desire to have as a ‘neighbor’:

Helianthus
Cucurbitaceae
Rosa multiflora
Rhus radicans
Pueraria montana
Dianthus caryophyllus

Now for a little bit of chemistry (just a little.)
Carbon Dioxide
feric oxide
il latte scremato
aurum
carbon monoxide
dihydrogen monoxide

Ready? Picked out your ‘neighbors’? Let’s start with the plants.
If you like sunflowers, you will go with Helianthus.

Rosa multiflora is pretty, prickly, and invasive - multiflora rose. But ‘many flowered.’

Kudzu, “The plant that ate the south,” is scientifically known as Pueraria montana.

Cucurbitaceae is a plant family commonly known as melons, gourds or cucurbits and includes crops like cucumbers, squashes (including pumpkins), luffas, melons and watermelons.

“Leaves of three - Let it be!” - aka, Toxicodendron radicans; aka, poison ivy.

And most of you probably don’t go around referring to a carnation by its given name - Dianthus caryophyllus.

Now for the next list, with some more ‘surprises.’

Carbon dioxide. -“greenhouse gas” that is changing our climate. We have apparently got too much of the stuff, but plants could not survive without it.

il latte scremato is Italian for skim milk.

A colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, which is highly toxic to humans and animals. So - carbon monoxide.

Ferric oxide by any other name is still - rust. Iron oxide.

Go for the Gold! Aurum, the Latin word for Gold.

dihydrogen monoxide -
The Hebrew word for it is "mem", (pronounced, mayim). The Greeks called it ‘hydor,’ or ‘hudor.’ We get the the prefix hydro- from them. The Romans called it ‘aqua. In Spanish, it is ‘agua.’ Perhaps the German “wasser" is closer to the term you are looking for. This mysterious stuff - commonly written as H2O. Water!
There was a hoax perpetrated using this unfamiliar name for water, listing some negative effects of water, then asking individuals to help control the seemingly dangerous substance. “Bad stuff!!” And people fell for it!
Jesus was talking about prejudice - preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Did the word ‘chemistry’ turn you off? If carbon monoxide is bad, did you assume that dihydrogen monoxide also had to be bad?

“There is so much good in the worst of us; and so much bad in the best of us; that it doesn’t behoove any of us, to talk about the rest of us.”

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* Arise; Ascend
* Scripture: Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2, NIV

The word “descend” keeps coming to mind lately. Perhaps it is the pull of gravity, especially as I pass the couch. More likely, it came about as I was thinking about the flow of water in the streams in the mountains. There is something enticing about the gurgle of water lapping in eddies around boulders and through riffles as it makes it way, ever downward, toward the seas. Water descends until it reaches its lowest possible level. The downward journey takes it over and around rocks, through narrow canyons, at times twisting and turning and at times forming a still, calm pool. Not too unlike our life’s journey, I thought.
Generally, though, we do not desire to descend on our life’s journey. Down is not the direction we usually think of as achieving the goal of heaven. No, we want to look up, to ascend. We read about Jesus ascending to His Father in heaven. Up! That is the goal of choice. Yet it seems that the nature of mankind is a continual struggle against the downward pull to mankind’s baser nature.
There is no question that sin exerts a pull that is every bit as strong as the force gravity has on water. Intended at creation to be in the image of God, how quickly, how completely, mankind succumbed to the downward pull of sin. From the heights of fellowship with God, Adam and his wife, Eve, were brought down by the lure of Satan. Their son, Cain, slew his brother, Able; the descent became so great that the Lord became sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:6)
Water enters this allegory again; water was the means of cleansing the earth of the ungodly. Noah and his family were literally raised to the mountain top physically, if not spiritually. In any event, the descent into sin began anew. Fast forward to Moses and the Exodus.
The Laws and Commandments were given on a mountain top as a guide that people might look upward toward God, and not descend again into sin. God’s very presence dwelt among the Hebrew people, the Israelites. His shekinah Glory and radiance filled the Tent of Meeting. The Mosaic laws provided for atonement through sacrifices, purifications, and washings, that sin might be purged and the heart purified, yet the descent continued.
The water that trickles, rushes, and flows to that lower level, the great catch-basin of the ocean, begins in the form of rain or snow on the heights and the plains. Consider for a moment that the rain and snow comes from the seas and oceans themselves, a remarkable process that transforms the gravity-following water into a gravity-defying vapor that ascends into the heavens!
And now, a leap in thinking . . . In terms of that water cycle, is it possible for us to rise out of the depths to which we descend? I think, “Yes!” If, that is, we can overcome the pull of sin and be transformed with a new spirit that pulls us toward God.
That transforming power comes from Jesus. There is no other name by which man can be saved (and ascend!)
Do not be conformed to the oceans of sin; be transformed in spirit, and arise, ascend to that which is the good and acceptable will of God.
January 9, 2005

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

Scripture: Ezekiel wrote, “I will remove from them their heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh. Ezk. 11:19b, NIV
Good News!
“For to unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given,
and the government will be upon his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
Matthew affirms that a “’virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ - which means, God with us.” (Mt. 1:23)
We look forward to the culmination of that promise in the birth of Jesus as we begin the Advent season of the church calendar, the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting.
Good News, Indeed!
So why, then, are some so stressed out and irritable?
Thoughts of endless rounds of shopping, scheduling, cooking and decorating send some to questioning, “Who started Christmas, anyway?” That is usually a rhetorical question; they don’t really want to know, and couldn’t care less about the real reason for the season. They feel trapped, pressured, by a social custom they dare not ignore, missing the joy they are supposed to have, but can’t find. On the other hand, some who know the real reason for Christmas also get themselves worked up to a purple tizzy, over those who ignore Jesus’ role in it. Santa Claus, “XMAS,” the whole commercialization of the Savior’s birth so grabs their focus that they loose sight of the Good News. They also miss the joy of Jesus.
My suggestion is to think of caves. That’s right, caves. Sure, we can rant and rail against the ‘world’s way,’ but that is about like making a cave by bashing rock against rock. It creates a lot of noise, and an abrasive residue. No, better to be like the steady drip of water that dissolves the limestone, and leaves behind a cave.
First, watch that anger at the world doesn’t eat away at the foundation of your “temple”,” bringing it down to ruin.
Second, be as drops of sweet water, dissolving the hardness of hearts of stone. Set an example of joy, peace, and good will. Perhaps some will see, and open their hearts to Jesus, the real Reason for the Season.
November 30, 2003