My Lenten vision beyond temptation to triumph

By the Spirit of God

As this Lenten season according to church tradition begins tomorrow on Ash Wednesday, I have been thinking about what spiritual growth I seek to achieve. There are many struggles and situations I find myself in that challenge my discipline and resolve, understanding how to triumph is a walk of faith and “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the LORD Almighty. [Bible Hub: Zechariah 4:6]

Yet, we think that by mental capacity and fortitude, the force of determination and discipline, we can totally overcome the vagaries of humanity to which we are too susceptible in habits, desires, temptations, and tests. There is a reason why the phrase, “Lead us not into temptation,” exists in the Lord’s prayer. Temptation is more than a lure; it feeds on our natural instinct to yield and fall into it. There is always a way out, but we rarely find it.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. [Bible Hub: 1 Corinthians 10:13]

Bible Versions, so many

In view of how temptation seems to wield such influence over us, I have decided to revisit the temptation of Jesus Christ, not in what He was tempted of, but in how He responded to each temptation. Those red letters in the gospels have drawn my focus to a new understanding of what is possible.

While I have developed a preference for listening to and reading the New Living Translation (NLT), the traditions in which I was taught and how I remember verses are in the King James Version (KJV). However, when I share single verses, I offer links to over 30 English translations covering the modern, classic, literal and other versions, to give context and understanding in the different modes of English we use.

Temptations abound, but we can win

Apostle John talks of the ways in which temptations take hold of us, in each of which Jesus was tempted too. “For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses; but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.” [Bible Hub: Hebrew 4:15]

The apostle lists out the fundamentals of temptation and how they are all not of God.

“For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” [NLT]

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” [KJV] [Bible Hub: 1 John 2:16]

The lust of the flesh

To the first temptation of turning stones to bread to feed his hunger after a 40 day fast, Jesus answered the devil and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” [Bible Hub: Matthew 4:4]

I find in this the need to immerse myself and feed on the Word of God for strength and sustenance. This always transforms my thought processes and guides me in places where I need inspiration, insight, peace, and resolution.

The lust of the eyes

When the devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and asked dared him to jump because angels will bare him up, lest he dash his foot against a stone, the devil was quoting from Psalm 91:11-12, though inaccurately, Jesus said unto him, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” [Bible Hub: Matthew 4:7]

Understanding God’s word better would give one an understanding of God’s will, what He would do, and what He does not do. God is not into the sensational or theatrical displays for entertainment, feeding our egos or lusts, but for bringing men into the kingdom of God.

The pride of life

Finally, the devil chose to tempt Jesus with giving him the world he came to die for by suspecting he could have the world just by falling and worshipping the devil. The same devil and the works of the devil; he came to earth to condemn and destroy. Then saith Jesus unto him, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” [Bible Hub: Matthew 4:10]

Temptation always offers a shortcut to pleasure and attainment, but never by the right and just means. We could be easily drawn away with pride and that sense we could do things alone without anyone’s help or the discovery of how we have achieved success by suspicious means.

Stoicism and strength in faith can only come from trusting in God, feeding on His word and seeking only to do His will with the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

This is my Lenten vision and my greatest desire to live and love this way. Have a wonderful Shrove Tuesday. Now to find a Lenten prayer group for study and devotion.

Thought Picnic: For the stories yet untold

Little time for the story

Some 21 years ago, my partner took me to see a friend of his who had recently returned from France having been given a compassionate pardon to go home for his last days.

He was racing against time as AIDS was ravaging his body, the pills brought horrific side effects and there were good days, but too many bad days.

He had a story to tell and all the drafts on papers strewn across the room had facts, detail, tales and much else, but he did not know whether that story would ever be told.

Tortured days

My job was to look at his computer and help setup Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1 to accept text and formatting – for all my computer precociousness and curiousness, this word processor was atrocious and unbelievably un-user-friendly, it was created to torment the tormented.

I earned my stripes on WordStar 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 & 5.5 and WordPerfect 5.0 & 5.1 doing styles, tagging, formatting and porting to desktop publishing software as Xerox Ventura Publisher, I knew what you could get word-processing software to do; the right one I mean. None of these applications made a good crossover to Microsoft Windows; in fact, they recoded Word for Windows from scratch for version 2.0.

The plan was to visit him again, sadly, I never did, his condition got worse and eventually that story never was told.

To story and the tool

Two news stories excite the memory of this man, on an island nation called Iceland where I would so love to visit, we learn that 1 in 10 people publish a book; they are an island of storytellers, following a tradition of old called Icelandic sagas.

Elsewhere, I read a Jeremiad advocating why Microsoft Word must die. We cannot rewrite history, the once unusable Microsoft Word that flirted with ignominy in the Microsoft Word 2007 incarnation is kind of the word-processing landscape, in fact, and it does tricks one never thought word-processing software would ever attempt decades ago.

Its death would only come with the death of the host, the desktop, the laptop or any other trendy device that can accommodate its bloated code.

Finished before departure

Then again, I remember James Andersen, a very good friend who finished his own book, The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta in 1993, we all gathered in 1994 for what was his last birthday, one of the authoritative opera buffs of a generation, snatched away by AIDS.

Many friends with stories of life and others of the work they do have come and gone, many completing their work but few surviving long after they had blazed that trail.

Dick van Galen Last before he died in 2010 was the authority on the conscription of African soldiers by the French in World War I (In Dutch), he was gone within two weeks of his defending his PhD, his voice trailing off as he stood the rigour of discourse and questions before he succumbed to lymphoma.

If we must, we should

This all reads like a dirge, but we have here, the desire, the project, the completion and the demise. For the desire to tell stories abounds, the project is rarely clearly defined if we are running against time on variables almost beyond our control like failing health, the completion leaves a mark and then rest is whatever life one has left to live.

I cherish the memories off all these people, the story, the tool and the product they strove with daily to meet schedules and deadlines. For those who never got to finish what they started, it is not a lost tale, and though I am saddened others never lived to enjoy the fruits of their amazing labours of scholarship and excellence, they will not be forgotten.

Swaffelen is the Dutch word of the year

The Dutch amuse

Living in the Netherlands offers its bouts of seriousness and levity as people engage in activities that leave us expatriates amazed, astonished, aghast, amused, appalled or abashed.

This one that I write about takes it to another level of concealed lewdness that juxtaposes the supposed Calvinist roots of the Dutch with a secret appetite for the lascivious.

The authoritative dictionary publishers Van Dale fed into the Dutch propensity for end-of-year lists and nominations which resulted in a word being selected as the Dutch word of the year.

Amorously attracted to India

Swaffelen took 57% [1] of 16,000 votes and somehow the organisers of this nomination frenzy cannot explain why this word seemed to make it to the top.

Swaffelen is as verb by reason of the –en suffix but it is not a Dutch word per se, it has for some reason become common usage if not impolite when used.

It owes its notoriety to the filming of an event where a Dutch student was arrested for swaffling against the Taj Mahal in India.

Slapped across the face in titillation

I would not suggest my readers know the meaning of the word swaffle but the urban dictionary [2] gives a very phallic connotation of the male member being slapped forwards and backwards against a partner’s face.

In other cases, it is allowing the repetitive whipping of the male member on something for stimulation of self or the pleasure of others, a liberal dose of which might be orgasmic – the Dutch lexicographers have gone into overdrive looking for homonyms in other languages.

It reads like one would want to swaffle only to realise that you are not at a delicatessen but you have already produced a serving of thin-sliced phallic salami (mind what participates in a swaffle) – I grab the parts for a miraculous rescue of the mythically renowned endowments of the negroid.

I may never understand the Dutch but if swaffelen is what excites them, male and female together – each to their own – my word of the year would most certainly be Reprobates!

Source

[1] Swaffelen is Dutch word of the year – Expatica

[2] Urban Dictionary: swaffle

It's Only a Book

It’s only a book

I remember a song from my childhood when I watched the children’s program the lyrics stuck in my head for days; any idle moment was occupied by that song seeping into my mental tranquillity.

The first two lines went thus:

It’s only a book
Paper bound in leather and glue

I cannot remember the other lines but this is sufficient for the purposes I have raised it.

Abusing the Quran

The newswires are now excited with the news that a US soldier in Iraq had used a Quran for target practice; it was riddled with bullet holes and scrawled through with graffiti.

In any event, I would consider this act utterly insensitive, probably outrageous but I would offer the offender the benefit of the doubt that he was not malicious.

The American Army in Iraq has apologised to the local tribal leaders and hopefully, this will not be hijacked by malevolent forces to bring people unnecessarily onto the streets in protest.

Books, words and acts

I would concur that many religions have their books of knowledge and Scripture, which adherents hold in varying degrees of reverence, but a book on its own does not constitute anything in and of itself.

It has to have words that are read, meditated upon, voiced in prayer or preaching to make any sort of impact.

I would be very sorry if a rare version of the Quran, the Bible or the Torah were destroyed in some Barbaric vandalism, such a book might be irreplaceable but the import of the words would not be all the more potent if the same words were read from a modern-day cheap reproduction.

The benefit we have beyond the days of Johannes Gutenberg is that a basic Bible or Quran can be easily replaced by going to the shops without making wanton destruction affect us so adversely.

Giving books reverence

I remember the reverence with which people picked up their Bibles when accidentally dropped them, they were overcome with a combined sense of guilt and piety as they picked up the book and bowed their heads into it in mock worship.

I would be very concerned if the book were to accidentally leave the grasp of a holder and then fail to obey the laws of gravity just as I would have been concerned that religious books had such powers as to be resistant to the impact of bullets.

A book is a reference document; the quality of the information in it is only as good as how it is used; hopefully for the benefit of mankind – if a book begins to exhibit onomatopoeic tendencies without human influence or anthropomorphic attributes, one might be persuaded to say the book is bewitched.

Yet, we ascribe without thought powers to books which they do not have as inanimate objects – because only the realisation that the content when read can influence situations has any potency.

Between reverence and survival

It is only a book, paper bound in leather and glue.

I would wonder what would happen if one were caught in a dire survival situation where a fire was an essential thing to maintain life – one would hope that the essential bits of information to maintain faith and hope would have already been committed to memory – allowing for the book to be set on fire to provide warmth.

However, appealing to a greater sense of civility, I would hope that this matter would be treated with temperance and put in perspective whilst accepting the apology offered.

Religious fervour is not well served by bringing the mob onto the streets to protest about the peacefulness of one’s religion.

It’s only a book, paper bound in leather and glue, what would happen if one smashed a computer screen where the words in the book appear?