Ensign: This Day After Bloomsday

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3


AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                                       17 June 2016


Bloomsday, in case it didn't show up on your calendar this year, don't panic!


It's a reference to the single day -- June 16, 1904 -- in which the action of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses takes place and refers to the main character in this implosion of Homer's Odyssey, a salesman named Leopold Bloom. Where the Odyssey deals with a grand epic quest regarding one warrior's efforts to return home from the Trojan War, Ulysses is just the opposite, one man's attempt to make it through the day and his thoughts and the thoughts and actions of everyone around him. His wife's cuckolding closing thought of the day is one sentence that takes up forty-two pages in a hardcover edition. Out of seven hundred twenty six pages.


I think you can be forgiven for not having read it, just as you can be forgiven for not having read the Odyssey, the Iliad (Homer's other great epic work), or even the Bible in its entirety. But unlike the first three I've mentioned, you can't just skim though the Bible until you find something you like. For that will be our greatest failing -- looking at the Word of God as though it's the word of you or me. The entire Bible is designed to be something you and I won't like. We won't like it because it convicts us of sin.


And what is sin, you may ask? (Come on, I know somebody reading this is.)


It's an act that violates the will of God. And yes, even the thought of doing it -- check out Jesus' words on anger leading to murder and lust leading to adultery in Matthew 5:21-30 -- is an act that violates the will of God. For you. For me. God will never encourage us to steal or kill or lie (in KJV's language, "bear false witness") but it's easy to be dragged into that without even waking up one morning and saying, "Oh, I'm going to sin today!" For make no mistake, you and I will do something today -- and probably already have -- that's out of God's will for us.


But without the separation, there can't be a restoration.


We start out born in sin, and there's always the potential in us to sin, but in a physical sense we're also separated from God. That is, we're not Him. But to be restored to where we are able to stand with God in heaven we have to get our sin -- our separation from Him, the parts and acts and thoughts of ours that aren't God-inspired -- removed, our sins forgiven of us. And for THAT we have, like I'm trying to encourage my kids to speak up and not mumble (I need work here too), to ask forgiveness. We have to admit God is not only right and we're wrong, but also God is God and we're not.


Remember the restoration?


Think of sin as energy, it can't be created (it can be committed since you and I have done so!) or destroyed, so it has to go somewhere. Or in this case to Someone Who has no sin to declare, Someone Who in their life had every opportunity to sin but didn't, and Who has an open hand -- a nail-scarred hand, yes, but an open hand -- ready to receive you, ready to forgive you, ready to restore you in God His Father's sight. And me. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, and asking the Lord through Him to have mercy unto us sinners, we are restored and we are risen.


And we bloom,


David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it's an encouragement too! If not of you'd like me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!


Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and count on You to provide for our needs, even when we're not clear what they are. And let us pray for the peace on Jerusalem on both sides of that fence and all over the world.


Thank you also, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank you for the opportunities we have and the promise of new like through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus Christ.


And one more small thing -- who am I kidding, Lord, to you they're all small things! -- let our Annual Day of Appreciation for Paternal Influence Takes [That] Place Sunday we something be all appreciate, the givers and the receivers! (I loved Facebook's wording on Father's Day.)


May we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen