Nathanael Szobody

Time Does Not Exist

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The past is completed; the present is not; only the future is, which yet is not.

— Soren Kierkegaard

True; time past and time future do not exist, and as soon as one acknowledges the present it is already past; so what’s time?

That “time will be no more” may simply be the statement that we will dwell always in the moment, in the life of God.

Then again, the ESV translates that totally differently.

Church and State

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The separation between Church and State is as firm a doctrine in America as the Trinity is in Christianity. The Church as a visible orginization must surely remain seperate from the State; the two instititions are given entirely different tasks in this world and to mix them ends up weakening one or the other.

However, every Christian has a different application of that principle in daily life and politics. Some understand this principle to mean that a Christian should not be involved in politics. I understand this view point to be a confusion between the church government and the true church. In fact the separation is not between the spiritual church and the State, but between the government of the Church and the government of the State. For the true church is the collective body of all those whose lives are controled by Christ and who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. One cannot separate this sort of pervasive faith from one’s life in politics or anything else.

The Invisible Church

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Jesus told the Samaritan woman that one day people would worship neither in Jerusalem nor on the mountain in Samaria, but that “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” If then the church does not consist in a place of worship, nor in outward forms, but in spirit and in truth, then we may truly speak of an ‘invisible church.

However, this Spirit is active; it is this Spirit which obeys the Word to create. This Truth is also incarnate, for he hung on the cross and rose from the dead to give life. So if the Church visible wants to excuse its divisions and its lack of faith in actions of love by saying that it is only the ‘invisible church’ dwelling within the visible church that matters, then it has unwittingly confessed its estrangement from the true church of Christ. If one is truly a part of the invisible, spiritual church, then one will seek to bring about the visible unity of that church. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

The Faith of Ruth

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Ruth’s faith in the God of Naomi caused her to leave her people for the enemies of her people. She served Naomi with diligence and obedience. She left all that she knew and cast herself into the arms of God’s providence, and grabbed every opportunity handed to her with a tenacity of one who holds on to what they are sure of receiving. She did not receive a direct promise of God, but the voice of her mother-in-law was effectively the voice of God, mediated through the authority that God had ordained for her.

In Ruth we see the aspect of faith which is a new identity. Noah and Abraham and Joseph and many other great people of faith all received a new identity when they rested in God by faith, and this is seen most dramatically in Ruth. For her faith was not in a God who had spoken directly to her, but in a God that she knew was compassionate and faithful to those who sought him with all of their heart. And on that basis she gave up all and received all that God had promised for humanity.

Humility

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Humility does not consist in self-deprecation. Seeking to hide what one is and what one is gifted with is to see those gifts and abilities as belonging only to oneself, and therefore an act of arrogance not to conceal. In fact this in itself is a pride, for we do not realize who gave the gifts and for what purpose they were given. We are mere tools in the hands of the maker. The gifts that he gives are meant to be displayed and used to the utmost extent so that his work is done. True humility is in being so consumed with the proper use of our gifts and abilities and calling, whether they be publicly displayed or never recognized by a single person, that the self almost disappears in the glory of God’s work.

To Drink or Not to Drink

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Tacitus wrote, that by the ancient Germans it was held no shame at all to drink and swill four and twenty hours together. A gentleman of the court asked: How long ago it was since Tacitus wrote this? He was answered, about fifteen hundred years. Whereupon the gentleman said: Forasmuch as drunkenness has been so ancient a custom, and of such a long descent, let us not abolish it.

— Martin Luther

And just when I thought living on a college campus had made me privy to every imaginable justification for drunkenness!

Procrastination

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Procrastination is as bad as overhastiness. There is my servant Wolf: when four or five birds fall upon the bird net, he will not draw it, but says: O, I will stay until more come, then they all fly away, and he gets none.

— Martin Luther

Who Needs Finals

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

So why am I studying for finals? Theoretically a test, and especially a final, should be simply a reiteration of what has been taught in class or read in the text book. It is simply a way to determine if a student is progressing academically at a satisfactory rate.

In this case, there should never be cumulative finals. A course grade should be an assesment of the cumulative participation and production of a student throughout the semester.

Whereas in reality a final only shows a students ability to retain information studied the day before in frantic effort to grasp those essential bits of information for the test.

Maybe I should ditch college and get a real education.