ELISHA EQUATION – Dec 7

“Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots and fire all around Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:17

In a recent episode of Person of Interest, Mr. Finch was inquired as to his favorite equation. “What a fascinating question”, I thought. I don’t even remember his answer as I became lost in the consideration of whether I had favorite equation.

I really wanted to have a favorite equation. It seems such an intelligent thing to have. However, the opportunity for pride was quickly dispelled when I finally concluded that I know only a few equations worthy of being a favorite and those lacked the obscurity that pride necessitates in making others feel inferior. Nevertheless, I pursued the question of equation preferment.

As an engineer by education and profession, I have taken a lot of math classes. I survived mathematics not through any special abilities but through sheer determination. “Math for math’s sake” never intrigued me. It was only when I began to understand the beauty of its utility in physics that I began to enjoy it, which is probably why I am an engineer rather than a mathematician.

View image | gettyimages.com

I have always been enticed by the ability of mathematics to describe the world we live in. The fact that we can use very simple and elegant equations to calculate the path of projectiles still fascinates me. The magnificent utility of a simple right triangle’s mathematics is fabulous.

I love mathematics that I can visualize in my mind; this mathematics makes sense with the physical world that I know.

We live in a 3-dimensional world. It is natural for us to visualize a 3-dimensional world. I even can understand the 4^th dimension as space-time. It is the world of mathematics and physics beyond the 4^th dimension where I become shaky.

The dimensions beyond the 4^th are of an existence beyond our senses and the mathematics looses most of the simplistic elegance of Newton’s laws in my opinion. I guess that is why, beyond the 4^th dimension, my ability to visualize the language of mathematics falls apart.

I really wanted my favorite equation to be one of quantum mechanics. As much as I long for the Schrödinger equation or Heisenberg equation to be my favorite, they are not. I don’t really understand them or the physics that they are calculating, no matter how much visualizing I attempt.

However, my lack of understanding does not diminish my belief in the existence of a 5^th dimension. We are told that physicists are close to proving the existence of a 5^th dimension. I have only to read my Bible to see that it exists.

What is it that you believe Elisha and his servant
saw along the horizon of Dothan? (2 Kings 6:8-19)

Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be open to see what existed but was beyond his ability to see. We know they could see their physical 3-dimensional world. We know that what they saw within the 4^th dimension – time. They were looking into a world that existed beyond our physical world yet parallel with it.

Sort of sounds like the 5^th dimension to me.

I believe that Elisha and his servant were given the ability to split the fabric of our dimension and peer into another to see its inhabitants – the servants of God. My guess is that there is some mathematics that describes the physical phenomenon that allowed Elisha and his servants to see this other dimension. I wonder if it has a name. I think I will call it the Elisha equation until I know its true name.

I sit at my desk and gaze out my window into the white fog. I can imagine it parting like a curtain to allow me to see what I know by faith is there. Unfortunately, I don’t know the Elisha equation and God is not doing it for me, so I will continue to live by faith.

However, I do find great comfort in the existence of the Elisha equation. I find great comfort in the reality that God and His servants are truly with me even though I do not see them. They know the Elisha equation and can aid me in any manner that is in accordance to God’s will. Therefore, Elisha’s words to his servant still ring true to us:

Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. (2 Kings 6:16)

My favorite equation is the Elisha equation.

It is an equation that I don’t understand, cannot derive, nor even describe but I believe to be true. It is an equation that describes a condition in a world created by my God in such a way for Him to send His own Son from one dimension into another to condemn the sin of my flesh in order that the righteous requirement of His law might be fulfilled in me.

That is a pretty glorious equation and an incredibly glorious God.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for creating the world as you did.  Thank you for being near.  Help me to remember that I am never alone and that even interstellar dimensions cannot separate me from You.  Thank for making me a child of God.   I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

 

 

 

“KALEIDOSCOPE OF A PEOPLE” – May 6

“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who give breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. ”  Isaiah 42:5

We made the day-long drive back from the NCFCA Regional Speech and Debate Tournament where my son competed.  We caravanned across the expanses of the State of Washington and Eastern Oregon with two other families from our club.  At one of our many stops, a club member asked me, “Mr. Blom, what was your favorite experience from the competition?”

My immediate response was the duo interpretation finals.  I was so glad that I did not have to judge these exceptional speeches and I could just lean back and enjoy them.  Several of the speeches caused me to belly laugh, nearly to the point of being a distraction.  They were so funny I had tears running down my eyes. If you have never seen this type of speech, I have attached a couple links to previous duo interpretation competitions.

We all climbed back into our mini-Van cages and proceeded across the wide plains of Eastern Oregon.  It gave me time to contemplate my answers.  I think that I may have answered too hastily.  While I did full enjoy the duo interpretation finals, I don’t believe that was what I will remember most about the competition.  I think that what I will remember most about the competition are the people.  I was so blessed by the people at this competition in a kaleidoscope sense.

I am always encouraged by the gathering of God’s people.  I particularly love the gathering of His people from diverse areas and backgrounds.  I realize that this competition was not that diverse since it was a gathering of individuals from just across the west.  Never the less, there is something special about watching people who have never met or interacted extensively with one another  exhibit the same Spirit.  I am blessed to watch people with such different personalities and experiences worshiping the same God, together.   I realize that God has blessed us with a wonderful canvas of His own people.

When we gather together in events like an NCFCA competition, where His people are drawn from far and wide, we get a wonderful opportunity to behold the Master Artist.  We are all created in the image of God but have you considered what a wonderfully extensive palate of color He uses to display that image through His people.

I saw people who are wonderful bursts of energy; vibrant colors thrown against the canvas in a chaotic merging of purpose and mess.

I saw individuals of stoic self-control; very precise pencil portraits in black and white but with incredible depth and detail.

I saw refined people; as detailed as any Dutch-master oil painting with careful brush strokes and a careful balance of light and energy.

I saw the delicate; finely crafted water-colors with so smooth and transparent edges.

I saw the bold; block and aggressively bold with a particular few colors that make their statement.

I saw the reserved; charcoal drawings that are easy to overlook until you gaze into the depths of the shading to see the master’s hand.

I saw the unique; the cubist approach that views the world from a wholly unique perspective.

I saw the informative; pure information unadulterated by form.

And I saw all combinations of these, beautiful mingled personalities forming a wonderful kaleidoscope of colors and depths that seemed to change with every walk down the hall or turn of a corner.

I don’t think that we really understand how deeply blessed we are by the variety of personalities that God has given His people.  It would be a very boring and drab world if everyone was like me.  I probably would not be as easily irritated by these strange other people if they would simply think like me but consider what we would be missing.

God is displaying His masterpiece every time His people come together.  He has used a mind-boggling array of colors and depths in this portrait that He has continued to craft throughout the centuries.  In every generation, He gives vibrant life to His people in surprising ways and masterful strokes of His mighty hand and every generation comes together into an exquisite portrait of the same image – His Spirit.  Stand back at any large gathering of God’s blessed people and the image that should come through from the variety of personalities, experiences, joys, sorrows, failures, and victories is God.  He is proclaiming His mighty Name through the masterpiece of His people.

That was the image I was blessed to see these last several days and that was my favorite experience from the NCFCA Regional Tournament.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for blessing us in ways that we do not often even realize.  Lord, help me to slow down and behold.  Give me eyes to see your hand in all things.  Thank you for your people.  Thank you for displaying your Spirit through us.  May we never diminish that blessing.  I praise you and pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.   Amen.

Related Articles and Links:

1st place Duo Interpretation NCFCA Nationals

Grayum Pitzele The Hobbitt, Duo Interp, NCFCA Nationals 2011

“Cheaper By The Dozen” NCFCA 2010 National championship Duo Interp

A FUTURE IN GOOD AND CAPABLE HANDS – Jan. 21

“DAMAGING NORMAL” – May 3

“MY HOUSE” – Mar. 25

“Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house.” 1 Chronicles 17:8b

I would like to travel one day to the United Kingdom and tour the great houses of the National Trust.  I watched a video series of several estates of the National Trust and have been fascinated by them ever since. Many of these estates were constructed by prominent and wealthy families as a testament to their position and prosperity.

I love the architecture and the gardens.  I appreciate the history that these landmarks represent.  Yet, these estates testify to the transient nature of human glory.  The reason many of these family holdings are now in the National Trust is due to the weight of sustaining and maintaining such opulence when family resources dwindle.

I am reminded that I have a house. 

A house that is greater and more majestic than any holding in the National Trust.  It is a house that is free from the bondage of decay.  The paint does not fade and the roof never leaks.  The masonry never cracks. The foundation never subsides.  It has been built according to the very heart of the Master Builder.  This house is established on the steadfast love of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

English: Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. (National Trust Property) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That is my house.

Why pursue the temporal dwellings of this life, even the opulence of the great houses of our age, when the house of the Lord is waiting for us?  When Christ walked this world, he did not have a house of his own.  That is not entirely true.  He had a house that awaited Him.  He possessed a house, greater than Herod’s palace.  His everlasting throne in the Lord’s house awaited Him every night he slept in peasant accommodations.  Not having a house crafted by human hands out of the earth’s resources is no great sacrifice when we remember that Christ’s house is crafted by the word of God from the air of heaven.

I am stunned by the thought that I have been granted a place in that house.  I will not tour His house but I will reside in His house.  It was in the Lord’s heart to want me in His house.  I have been given an eternal home by the steadfast love of the One who sits on the throne.  I have been included in a house that was never my own.  It is a house that I am not entitled to.  It is a house that will never decay or end since it is sustained by the limitless resources of God.  A house filled with the holiness and righteousness of God.

That is my house.

PRAYER: Lord, words fail me as I try to comprehend all that you have done for me.  I am in awe of  You, Heavenly Father.  I rejoice in You, my Lord.  May the song of praise that is in my heart be a sweet fragrance to you.  The wonderous works that you have accomplished, I will be ever mindful of and make known.  Father, you are so good.  Thank you for your steadfast love and abounding grace and mercy that you have shown me.  Amen

I absolutely love this sermon…”That’s my King! I wonder, do you know him?”

RUBE-GOLDBERG’S OF GOD – Dec. 25th

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” Luke 2:1

I appreciate a simple and elegant solution to a difficult problem. God had a little problem with the birth of the Messiah. Mary was in the wrong city. There were a myriad of solutions to get her to travel: business, family responsibilities, friends, etc. but God didn’t take a simple solution.

Rather, He took the superpower of the age and made them do a census. The US just employed 635,000 people & paid $13 billion to do a census. Augustus’ census was probably propositional and resulted in multitudes of people traveling across the face of the earth.  The real purpose of all that effort was to getting one teenage couple from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

That sort of seems like a complicated way of doing things.

God could have gotten Augustus to send out messengers announcing the birth of the Messiah just like they did for the census.  He did not use scrolls or official announcements; He used the sky.  The birth announcement of the Son of God was made with the ink of planets and constellations.

Seems like a complicated way of doing things.

It all seems like a “rube goldberg” solution, until we consider why. Why does an NBA basketball player do a slam dunk when a lay-up or just a dunk will do? A slam dunk is a statement. The census of Caesar is a mankind slam dunk – a statement by God in relation to humanity and our political systems. The Star of Bethlehem is a cosmic slam dunk – a statement by God in relation to the entire physical universe.

God’s redemptive plan is about His glory even down to the details of getting people into the correct locations and the birth announcement. Caesar, any political leader or superpower, is not beyond God’s control and never has been; God can even use pagan Rome to accomplish His purposes; slam dunk – statement!

The orbit of planets and stars are not beyond God’s control. God placed them where He wants them to be and they go where He tells them to go and always have.  Nothing is too hard for him. He writes in the sky even when all but a tiny handful will miss the real meaning. God can use the universe to accomplish exactly what He wants; slam dunk – statement!

God’s glory is about God.

God does because He can.  We should be encouraged in all situations and give Him all the glory because He deserves it. May our eyes be open to the reality that God is doing “slam dunks” all the time. We just need to be looking to see how awesome our God is.

PRAYER: Lord – you are so far beyond me that I tremble in fear of your vastness. I feel my smallness when I consider the displays of your glory. I am astounded that you would send your own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin, in order to remove the condemnation that I faced in my flesh. I am in awe that the righteous requirements of your law is fulfilled in me as I walk not according to the flesh but according to your Spirit. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for sending your Son to save me.   Amen

GOD IS (NOT) MY BUDDY – Nov. 22th

“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! Psalm 33:4

It seems like most people have a very similar tendency.  If we are shown an image enough times we begin to accept it as real even when we know it is a caricature. Caricatures are used all the time to help communicate a point. I have seen characteristics exaggerated to highlight what can be overlooked. I have also seen caricatures used to simplify that which is hard to fathom.  The problem is when the caricature becomes so engrained that we begin to believe the distortion.

Most of us are familiar with maps of the United States like this one:

What is the largest US state?  Most of us know that Alaska is the largest state, followed by Texas. However, I think many people fail to grasp the true size of Alaska. We become so familiar with this common map of the United States that our perception of Alaska is that it is just a little bit bigger than Texas. The reason Alaska has to be shown at the scale it is on the map is in order to get it to fit. This map puts Alaska into scale for us.

Alaska is big. It is really, really big.  I mean no offence to my friends in Texas but y’all need to come up with a new slogan.

Our God is like this. God is so big that we have to use caricatures to simplify Him, so that we can explain and understand Him. The scale of God is indescribable. Louie Giglio does a great job in this video, giving us a perspective of the indescribable-ness of God.  It is so important to occasionally take our eyes off of our God caricatures and behold the true scale of the Almighty.

This is the Milky Way. Just consider that God made this with the breath of his mouth; our small, little, insignificant, backwater of the Universe that still contains billions of stars just like our own.  God not only created that but the entire Universe, with a word.  Let that sink in – with a word!

We get so familiar with the caricatures of Jesus holding us, carrying us, comforting us, defending us; all of which are very true and demonstrate wonderful characteristics of our God. However, there is a gigantic scale distortion in those images. We may begin to think that we are on God’s scale if those images are all that we behold. We can default into thinking that our glory is almost as important as God’s glory. It is so very important to take our eyes off our caricature aids and behold the grandeur of our God.  Behold the scale of the universe…that is just a word of God Almighty.

How does your glory stack up against that?

PRAYER: Lord, … wow … you truly are awesome. You know that I have a hard time even understanding your grandeur. Thank you for helping me grasp just a small portion of it. Thank you for showing me how absurd it is to worship myself or anything else on this small little planet that you have given us. Lord, give me perspective to live my in awe of you. You are great beyond my understanding. I give you all the praise and glory that I am capable of giving.   Amen