Being Misunderstood

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Nothing infuriates me more than being misunderstood.

I know that "understanding" is the other person's job.  If I say what I mean as clearly as I can, that's all that I can do, or be expected to do.  I can't "understand" for someone else.  

My problem (and it is my problem) is thinking that if I explain things again, in a slightly different way, the person I'm talking to will be able to "get it."  And if they don't, maybe another try, from a different angle, will get across to them what I'm saying.  In library-school terms, I tend to "re-package" information to make it "accessible" to the "consumer."

But I know that amounts to trying to make another person understand, which isn't in my control.  And it always has something of manipulation to it, when you try to make another person's cognitive processes work the way you want them to.

That kind of "manipulation" isn't always a bad thing.  Anyone who teaches (formally or informally) is manipulating another person's cognitive processes, to a desired end.  It's the process we call "learning," and human society could not exist without it.

And anyone who has ever tried to teach another person something, formally or informally, knows that there are people who simply don't will to, or even consciously will NOT to, learn.  Many times the frustration of talking to people who "don't get it" is that they clearly don't want to understand, or want to "understand" only in their own terms.

Yesterday in Sunday School we were talking (after watching a rather "pious," in the not-best sense, Max Lucado film about the resurrection) about forgiveness.  That isn't it wonderful God forgives us; and doesn't He command us to forgive each other; and how many times did Jesus say we should forgive others ?

My thought was that forgiving people who do wrong is one thing: but that there are people who are wrong.  That forgiveness is redemptive toward those who recognize right and wrong, and can see that they've done wrong; but wasted toward those who vest their identity in wrong character.

In John 8 Jesus confronted some of "...those...who had believed Him," telling them they were children of the devil, because they wanted to lie and murder, just like their father.  In II Thessalonians 2 God says He eventually writes off those who persist in refusing to "...receive the love of the truth so as to be saved:" and at that point Himself sends them a "deluding influence" ("strong delusion," KJV) so they will believe a lie.  

Obviously none of us manifest Jesus' "seamless" Character (Lucado talked at great length about how Jesus' seamless garment was like His Character)...but people unmistakably show what they are by whether they love truth, or love lies.

One gal in the class disagreed, as she has before, by saying people had certainly fooled her before.  Which is true, for any of us.  People have certainly fooled me before.

But it seemed to miss my point, which was that everyone is unmistakably of one character or the other.  The way God sees it is that human beings are either of the spirit of truth, or that of lies.  We have to say God sees it rightly...and we have to see it the way He does.  That simple.

It also seems simple to do.  We have the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus called "the Spirit of Truth:" we only need to listen to Him to see it as God sees it.  And to hear what He says, we only need to ask Him.

What I replied to my sister was something like "The Holy Spirit doesn't get fooled."  I didn't mean it that way, but thought later she may have taken that as a put-down: that she wasn't spiritual enough.  She may have even taken it as "I'm spiritual, and you're not," and been offended.  I don't know.

I doubt she's one of those people who choose to misunderstand, because they don't want to hear what you're saying: but I think she misunderstood.  She was talking about person-to-person perception, and I wasn't.  There can only be understanding when two people are talking about the same thing.

Nonetheless, it was frustrating to be misunderstood.  Quite apart from the fact I felt like I was saying something important about how God sees things, and how we must see things, it was frustrating on a person-to-person level.

Frustrating that I said what I meant as clearly as I could, and it evidently didn't get across to people.  Frustrating that people will "understand" my words the way they choose to, and I can't do anything about it.

Frustrating that my sister may have been offended because of the way she "understood" my words, and if so, there's nothing I can do about that either.  If offended, I hope she'll remember that our context was God's command we forgive each other.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jerusalem

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The president declared today that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, against almost universal warnings by people who have a burden for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalms 122:6).

With all the Baptist end-times preoccupation I soaked up as a kid, I've long regarded Israel as key in God's end-time plans (sorry, American nationalists); and Jerusalem as the apple as His eye.
 
In 1967 (certain of God's destiny for Jerusalem, though at best a superficial believer) I eagerly wrote the Israeli embassy in Washington, volunteering for the Israeli Army when the Six Day War began.  (The war was over by the time I got a reply.)

When I became a Christian, it was under the ministry of Derek Prince, a man whose "dangerous privilege" (he said) it was to have lived in Jerusalem during the War of Independence, and who maintained a home in Jerusalem all his life.

Brother Derek was the most profoundly scriptural preacher I have ever heard.  All his life he taught that we owe a debt of gratitude to the people whom God chose as His own, through whom He gave us the Torah and Jesus; and that we must recognize Israel's special place in God's affection.

(I'd hasten to add Brother Derek also preached that God repeatedly said His laws in the Torah, and the just society He enjoined on Israel, were for both the Jews and "the alien [alternatively "stranger"] who sojourns among you:" and that "...the aliens who stay in your midst...shall be to you as the native-born among the sons of Israel..." [Ezekiel 47:22].  His love for Israel was entirely based in scripture, and not in nationalism.  His family comprised Jewish, Palestinian, and Kenyan orphans.)

When I went back to college in the mid-70s, U.M.K.C. had a new program in Judaic Studies.  I was a new Christian, and wanted to know as much as I could about everything in the faith: so I took as many of its courses as I could, and graduated with a minor in Judaic Studies.  My wonderful Hebrew teacher, Tzivia Gaba, was the wife of a man who'd helped smuggle arms to Palestine before the War of Independence, whom I was honored to meet one time.

I consider myself a staunch long-time friend and admirer of the Jewish people and nation.

I am nonetheless conflicted by Trump's rash action today.

And I have to say I'm greatly put on guard when a world-leader who's established himself as a "man of lawlessness" (II Thessalonians 2:3) postures, for his own self-glorification, about the status of Jerusalem, the city of the Great King.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Who's Next ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Many people, even some of his former followers, are beginning to see that Donald Trump's presidency is disastrous for our country.

It makes me cautiously hopeful.  It's always good when people are honest about reality.  Living by lies (or the "spin" today's deceivers give it, "alternative facts") inevitably brings people, and nations, to a bad end.  Jesus said He IS "the Truth" (John 14:6): and scripture affirms that people and nations perish when they will not "...receive the love of the truth so as to be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:10).

It will be good when Trump is removed from the office where he has the power to do harm to the country.  But no individual politician completely embodies the enemy's destructive spirit, until antiChrist comes on the scene.

It's been clear from the start that; as much as he operates in the enemy's spirit of lies, immorality, pride, unrighteousness, and greed; Trump is neither smart enough nor "slick" enough to fill the role of anti-Christ.  According to scripture, anti-Christ will be a unifying figure who is almost universally adored and trusted.  Jesus said that deceiver would be able to "...mislead, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).  But it's increasingly clear that the majority of  people...maybe even millions of his white "evangelical" followers..no longer believe or trust Trump.

I think it's easy to see how the enemy might manipulate our current politics to his purposes.

Those who've tied their political fortunes to Trump will frantically try to disassociate themselves from him as he sinks in public estimation.  They will try to shore up their political fortunes by putting forward a "leader" perceived as more honest, intelligent, and likeable than Trump.  They will easily find such a person: 99% of people meet that criteria.

But in the political nature of things, many who've become disgusted with the evil politics that Republicans (and the vast majority of America's Christians) have so long practiced, will be convinced that only voting counter-Republican will "save" them.

If the enemy is smart...and he is, very... he can be expected to manipulate the other parties to also offer a person smarter, more attractive, and more masterfully deceitful in hiding his evil spirit, than Trump.  The enemy's surest deception might be to give us a Democrat, or Independent, or third-party, evil "savior:" someone who appears personally and politically opposite to Trump.  That ploy could be very successful with the simple-minded, the politically-minded, and those lacking spiritual discernment...surely the large majority of humanity.

I think the Spirit is saying we should be alert, and sharply discerning, towards anyone presented us as the "anti-Trump:" and especially careful to not be deceived by his anti-Trump political credentials.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Where We Shop

Chuck Colson's remarks about Ayn Rand raise a question.

I'm appalled at where many Christians "shop" for ideas.  We have Jesus' Own endorsement of scripture: that God's word is truth (John 17:17).

. . . Why would CHRISTIANS shop anywhere else ?

Yet many "Christian" websites and e-mails endorse and promote ideas from controversialist and partisan sources.  The general run of "Christian" information pressed on me daily as "the Christian view" traces back not to the Bible, but to Ayn Rand, Glenn Beck, Fox News, WorldNetDaily, Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart News, anonymous "conservative" bloggers, and even less Godly sources (if such a thing can be imagined).

In the nature of our form of government...more importantly, in the nature of spiritual warfare...it's a given that manipulative lies will exist.  In the nature of mankind, there will always be those who CHOOSE to believe and promote such lies.

The question is why so many CHRISTIANS are among them ?

Ultimately, the only answer is because they choose to.  Receiving "the love of the truth so as to be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:10) is a choice.

When we want shoes, we go to a shoe-store.  We go to a candy-store when we've decided we want to buy candy.  We shop in a place where we can find what it is we want to buy.

Christians who "shop" for their operative ideas someplace else than the Bible show they're not really looking for Truth.   When they CHOOSE instead to browse the shelves in places where lies are sold, it's because they want to buy lies.  They will find what they are looking for, and they will "buy" it.

God guarantees so: "For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false..." (II Thessalonians 2:11)