Think on These Things

1
When you think about good things, you're happier.

That's one of the reasons why Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, and other holidays are so powerful: for a few days or more we're intently focused on happy thoughts.[1]

It's the power of positive thinking.

And it's nothing new. Paul said so[2], as did Norman Vincent Peale and Anthony Robbins and Zig Ziglar and Wayne Dyer and a host of others.

Sometimes we just need reminding, even if we're not hearing anything new.

And it can be more than positive thinking, but if it's only that, it's still a good thing.

[2012-11-23]

 

2
Hung on a Tree

I just learned (by putting some pieces together while listening to Luke Timothy Johnson) why New Testament accounts often refer to Jesus as dying on a "tree."[3] That always confused me. He did die on a cross, there's no debate about that.

Deuteronomy supplies the missing piece[4]; the analogy illustrated how ignoble Jesus' death was and reinforced him as a messianic anti-type.

Using the image of the tree was a literary device intended to convey a spiritual truth, not a factual one, and first century Jews would have seen it immediately. We do this all the time when we say something like "That tastes like crap." Does it really? No, but it may be a true statement nonetheless.

I can't be the only one that hears these things and wonders "why." Maybe everyone else had it figured out and I'm just a straggler.

[2012-10-23]

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[1]
Someone is saying right now: "You've never had Christmas at MY house. Drunk Uncle Buddy and Aunt Sally, rugrats with runny noses, I'm stuck in the kitchen while others watch football..."

Perhaps, but the point is each year we try to create the perfect Christmas or birthday or anniversary, even if we know we won't succeed. And when we fail, we often still succeed just enough to try again the next year.

Year after year.

[2]
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. " (Philippians 4:8, KJV)

[3]
Eg Acts 5:30 (and a number other places): "The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree." (NETfree)

[4]
"If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance." (Deut 21:22-23)

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