Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

• John 14:23-29

“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!”

• Matthew 10:24-25

“Nothing can be understood unless God himself by his eternal truth immediately enlightens him who understands  God is to be called our teacher because our intellect attains to him as to the light of our minds and the principle by which we know every truth. (Disputed Questions Concerning Christ’s Knowledge 4. l .24, 34).”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Bonaventure, aka Giovanni di Fidanza (1221-1274) was a Franciscan Monk.  He told a story of how St. Francis of Assisi prayed over him in his youth, and he was healed of a life-threatening illness.

But the quote is beautiful.  When I examine my coming to faith, I look to what happened when I woke up the next day.  I read the Scripture that I had read the night before.  That was where the bookmark was, but what I read meant something completely different from when I had read it the night before.  I kept saying, “So, that is what that means!”

And the funny thing is that I could read that same passage today, and I would get a different meaning out of it.  The Holy Spirit instructs us as God needs us to understand something from His Word.  God never changes.  The Bible never changes although new translations keep up with the changing of the language.  But our understanding becomes deeper as God guides us.  The same meaning, but a fuller meaning, or a hidden nugget that we missed before.

Movies are starting to do that, in a sense.  At least, it explains this phenomenon.  You watch a movie and you do not know much about the literature or comic books that the movie is based upon, and all you get is a movie, good or bad.  But if you know some of the books that provide the basic plot of the movie, you might find what they now call Easter Eggs.  It could be the creators of the character are the names of the two streets at an intersection.  You might watch the movie ten times and never read the street sign, but it is there.  So, it is with the Bible.  God reveals those hidden gems when we need them.  And in some cases, we might not know we need them.  God may reveal that nugget from Scripture when God needs us to go into action.

In fact, in the movie “Easter Eggs” nobody but a devoted fan would ever catch those hidden gems. God does not hide the Truth from us, but He waits patiently until we are devoted to Him enough to see what we could not see before, what we are now able to comprehend.

God is an amazing teacher.  The question is whether we are ready to learn and are willing to let go of this world to learn everything God has in store for us.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.