GodparentsForEldsters
God commands us. Take care of the widows (and widowers) and the fatherless (orphans).
James 1:27 (Summing up much Biblical teaching).
27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
We are failing in our response. Search ‘elder abuse,’ ‘nursing home abuse,’ ‘child abuse,’ consider abortion.
DeMar sums it up: http://americanvision.org/3394/pure-and-undefiled-religion/
Many churches help youngsters via a ceremony in which another couple agrees to help the child being baptized, were the parents to die or become unable. These helpers are sponsors or godparents. Thus the church helps the orphans/fatherless. (In some churches, the whole congregation pledges help.)
Doing the same for eldsters as for youngsters would be a good idea. Eldsters will become befuddled, weakened, and vulnerable. Here’s a link to a ceremony that could be adapted for Godparents for Eldsters. (The link is broken, but I have a posted a copy the link to which I will append at the end). http://www.dovechurch.org/godparent+ceremony.aspx
The Godparent for Eldster should be the prayer and action coordinator. Keep loved ones OUT of the nursing home, it at all possible, for once they are in there, it is almost too late. Family should help, but families fail. The civil magistrate should help, but the civil magistrate fails. Search ‘Doctors 3rd leading cause of death’.* Churches need more articulated structures of helping, even though there are pastors and deacons and elders, etc. The situation is too often morally anarchic, despite good efforts by many. It’s like this situation in the bigger arenas: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/summary.cfm?q=867
Surely honoring one’s father and mother (those who have come before) is linked to a better future: Deuteronomy 16Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
If they have waxed poor, it is even more important. Matt. 25:40.
How shall we respond to these commands and wisdom? It would best be done in one church, and spread from there, church to church. It could be done by a parachurch ministry. Eventually, profit-making companies could be formed, as insurance companies grew from mutual aid association.
The first thing to do is to pray about it, and plan in your church. The ‘Godparents for Eldsters’ website and Facebook page, upcoming, should help each help one another.
The origin of this plan came from the traumas endured by my mother. From that was made a memory palace, which retraced the chronology and the confession of the ostensibly Christian community in which it happened, on the streets of the town square. Each year as we move through Guilt, Grace, Gratitude (and GoForth+), new helps are given in answer to this prayer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci
{This conference is mostly in my own head, though it has had good consequences}. Last year we featured Dr. Thomas Szasz” ‘Ceremonial Chemistry’ in our virtual conference. Next year we will have the Hebrew letter ‘he’ and psalmodic response. One year we had Ibsen’s ‘An Enemy of the People,’ and Dr. Stockman. Here’s a short video explaining it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSqBgw03rQo (@ 2 minutes in, history conducted) [The memory palace is confessional, 80 days inclusive after Easter. The conferences are July 4. One year they were the same day. Solo so far, has been the practice, but Rescue Teams of friends came from it, and Knights Of Helping Elderly Neighbors, and wonderfully, ‘Godparents…’!
Love in King Jesus,
Charles Howard (Chuck) Hartman 1404 Broadway, Pella, Iowa 50219, edencity@aol.com, also on Facebook, and http://chuckhartmanhistoryconductor.blogspot.com/. More to come.
The Ceremony is here, pending better placement. I cannot find Pastor Monk for response. It will be taken down at his request. http://chuckhartmanhistoryconductor.blogspot.com/2010/09/godparent-ceremony-for-evangelical.html
PS: This is a very important framework. Who does rule the land? Why are actions such as Godparents for Eldsters even more important? Why are the words ‘father and mother’ also typological, representing history? http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/biblical-horizons/no-20-who-rules-the-land-the-meaning-of-the-noahic-covenant-part-2/
*medical professionals http://www.health-care-reform.net/causedeath.htm
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/30/doctors-death-part-one.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/08/top-12-mercola-predictions-that-came-true-part-2-of-4.aspx
Szasz’ timeline in ‘Ceremonial Chemistry’: From end of Civil War to early 20th C., taxes on alcohol = ½ to 2/3 of US internal revenue. Then Income Tax Amendment, then AMA comes out for Prohibition, then Prohibition, then doctors make millions in the next few years writing prescriptions for whiskey. And recent events are also political medicine.
Some good organizations: http://www.empathictherapy.org/ http://www.drugawareness.org/
There are many more.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Day of the Lord Super Bowl Sunday Rosenstock-Huessy
The quarterback was invented to show the Old West cowboy, and settler. So this game, as are many celebrations, is for our children to show that we have conquered, in this case, we have made a garden out of a wilderness. But who is wise enough to tell us that, who has studied and applied the work of Rosenstock-Huessy. [And we live in a time of multiple covenant sequences running at the same time. Work is like unto the empires, community celebrations are tribal, education is Greek, and the ecclesiastical calendar is Israel.] {Since the Reverser of Trends, Jesus, the church has become the new Israel, without exclusiveness, the Christian nation-states are the new empires, without slavery, and we are engaged in the tribal time now, so as to do it without perpetual war. The Greeks are companions, and the worst of all}. www.argobooks.org, online: Multiformity of Man. Day of the Lord Super Bowl Sunday Rosenstock-Huessy
Covenant Renewal Worship--Doing It Better?
Host1938CovenantRenewalWorshipDoingItBetter
This is based on the implications for covenant renewal for Big Projects of Families. The families would be very specific on their covenant goals, e. g., colonizing Mars for King Jesus.
Now, how would you sum up the covenant we renew in 25 words or less, and do we specify it as we could?
A couple of options: 1--I will be their God and they will be my People. 2--Matthew 28:18 ff. Going, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I have commanded.
Now if we were a band (Saul joined the band--with instruments--of the prophets) but I mean orchestra, we would have instructions. If we were a military troop, and we are, we would have a briefing on the war situation and our part. Hmmm.
This is based on the implications for covenant renewal for Big Projects of Families. The families would be very specific on their covenant goals, e. g., colonizing Mars for King Jesus.
Now, how would you sum up the covenant we renew in 25 words or less, and do we specify it as we could?
A couple of options: 1--I will be their God and they will be my People. 2--Matthew 28:18 ff. Going, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I have commanded.
Now if we were a band (Saul joined the band--with instruments--of the prophets) but I mean orchestra, we would have instructions. If we were a military troop, and we are, we would have a briefing on the war situation and our part. Hmmm.
Pella Re-Covenanted?
PellaReCovenanted
I had proposed that we do an Acts 7, or other such Biblical process whereby history is recapitulated so as to bring us to what we should do now, namely, since we started as a covenant unit with the emigration, and since history has driven us to a breakup of that because technology increases the space over which we can operate, decreases the time it takes to do things, and breaks up the old community, that we were in crisis, resolvable by re-covenanting in a more glorious way, as the Temple was more glorious than the Tabernacle.
One wise one asked: One possible outcome: as you've talked about technology reducing distance and breaking down old communities - will Pella /be/ recovenanted? or is the town of 10,000 too small now.
But that's just an offhand question.
Maybe it's a recovenanted Pella of those who are 'Pella at heart'
We could be small, yet large. An example. Typological. We have advantages in that we were covenanted to begin with. (What was the Scholte covenant?). So we could re-covenant, as you say (and please give me 25 words or so on that, that could be expanded?) and export this all around, as we help missionaries, etc. The covenant and the process of the memory palace history square is what we would teach.. Love in King Jesus, Chuck Pella at heart, then would be covenantal. Transitions Towns is a way this is happening, locally. And the breakdown of organizations such as the Soviet Union and these USA.
I had proposed that we do an Acts 7, or other such Biblical process whereby history is recapitulated so as to bring us to what we should do now, namely, since we started as a covenant unit with the emigration, and since history has driven us to a breakup of that because technology increases the space over which we can operate, decreases the time it takes to do things, and breaks up the old community, that we were in crisis, resolvable by re-covenanting in a more glorious way, as the Temple was more glorious than the Tabernacle.
One wise one asked: One possible outcome: as you've talked about technology reducing distance and breaking down old communities - will Pella /be/ recovenanted? or is the town of 10,000 too small now.
But that's just an offhand question.
Maybe it's a recovenanted Pella of those who are 'Pella at heart'
We could be small, yet large. An example. Typological. We have advantages in that we were covenanted to begin with. (What was the Scholte covenant?). So we could re-covenant, as you say (and please give me 25 words or so on that, that could be expanded?) and export this all around, as we help missionaries, etc. The covenant and the process of the memory palace history square is what we would teach.. Love in King Jesus, Chuck Pella at heart, then would be covenantal. Transitions Towns is a way this is happening, locally. And the breakdown of organizations such as the Soviet Union and these USA.
Liturgical Warfare and Super Bowl
We're in a war. Christ has conquered and we are mopping up. The key to this war is prayer (and action) and the key to these is that we renew our covenant with the Lord on the Lord's Day, Sunday we call it now. When we only get together to hear some sermon and to sing some songs, rather than responding to the Spirit of what God does, we are not engaging in liturgical warfare, we are not preparing our people by transforming them from those filthy with sin to those warrior bride members who have on the full armor of God and who are adorned as a bride for her husband. Revelation, for example, is such a liturgical warfare in which God sums up the whole Bible, tells what happens A. D. 30-70, and this process is what continues to happen, in form, until The Great Day. Word and Sign go together. Most churches don't even celebrate the Lord's Supper weekly.
Now, we are made for this war, Holy War being one of the 3 main arcs of the Bible, along with redemptive history and maturation.
So, war breaks out elsewhere, in some symbolic form, and this is football on Sunday, for instance.
Jeff Meyers' book on worship is a good start. Here it is free on Google Books--also on Amazon. http://books.google.com/books?id=6CSuYz4zj8wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Meyers+The+Lord's+Service&source=bl&ots=kKRtAc83sp&sig=LqaD10RbN5wVgelCqkbAmYHHhBg&hl=en&ei=mUBPTa_6GoHGlQf7h5w8&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
I'd love to write more. I pray this is helpful. Love in King Jesus, Chuck
Now, we are made for this war, Holy War being one of the 3 main arcs of the Bible, along with redemptive history and maturation.
So, war breaks out elsewhere, in some symbolic form, and this is football on Sunday, for instance.
Jeff Meyers' book on worship is a good start. Here it is free on Google Books--also on Amazon. http://books.google.com/books?id=6CSuYz4zj8wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Meyers+The+Lord's+Service&source=bl&ots=kKRtAc83sp&sig=LqaD10RbN5wVgelCqkbAmYHHhBg&hl=en&ei=mUBPTa_6GoHGlQf7h5w8&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
I'd love to write more. I pray this is helpful. Love in King Jesus, Chuck
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Eldercare and sponsors/godparents.
I've been thinking about eldercare, since our family had bad experiences. Could the church help? Per James 1:27 and the 'sponsor' institution (godparents elsewhere), I'm thinking that Godparents for Eldsters might be good. I know that some social service agencies said to us that 'It's always the daughters-in-law that call'. Relatives are too close. Idea: Sometime around 60 a church member would get a 'godparent' to help with elder issues--not a lawyer, or a doctor, but definitely bot to be there in case the relatives are missing, and to be at the right 'aesthetic distance', and for prayer, etc. I know the whole congregation and the pastor and all believers are to help, but this might be a specific help.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Let Us Now Catechize
Host1915LetUsCatechize
Benefit: No Hartman children in home, adopt Pella. This liability is unto we would lead.
Benefit: Paradigm for discipling any community.
Benefit: Consummation greater than creation.
Benefit: Memory Palace, so we/they/all remember—strongly.
Benefit: Some improvement each year. [1750 @ 2%/year = great Western prosperity].
Benefit: Proven over 5 years on micro-scale.
Benefit: Be what you are, Christian community! Community ‘writes’ it. Tulip Time.
Benefit: Psalmodic response. Get the spirit of first, glorify it by applying as in Psalm 1:1.
Benefit: This shows the advantage of Covenant Renewal Worship, for we are applying the covenant structure to a community over a long time, once per year, so as to transform it as we are transformed by CRW.
From Pella Books, east. At SW corner of Square, start Guilt Street. At SE corner, north onto Grace Street. At NE corner, turn west onto Gratitude Street. At NW corner, turn south onto GoForth+ Street (hat tip:JH). End at Pregnancy Center, crossing SW corner.
This is a Memory Palace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci As we go along spatially, we remember. What do we remember? Structure of covenant(s).
Big Idea Applied: Pella started in covenant. [What was it?] Over time, and as a response, Pella has changed. But the starting covenant can be glorified, made more, were we to understand and apply history. Any new technology increases the space over which one can act, decreases the time it takes to effect change, and destroys the old group.
Test: Put the parts of our CRW onto this square. It would ‘rhyme’ differently. We are called in the space between Pella Books and SW corner, Guilt is handled on Guilt Street, but the Grace part (word and sacrament) would occupy, it seems to me {Proverbs 18:17] the complete next two blocks, so that Gratitude and GoForth+ Street overlap.
Once one has gone through the transforming CRW structure, a fact is done, and this fact leads to the new Torah, command. We can tell this new command. Jordan: Law, Lyric, Evaluation, Fact. ERH too.
What threads would run along this history square, this memory palace. Community, Business, Religion, Education. Both locally and as the ‘outside’ impacted Pella. We need @ 7 turning points for each. It could be a cooperative effort.
This can be a paradigm for discipling any community, for our history space/memory palace is nested into larger ones, as Russian dolls are nested, and the Big One is from Creation to Consummation. These USA, Western Civilization, Christendom….
Next Step: Souvenir History of Pella. What 7?
Has been done with eldercare, producing one per year, over 5 years. Rescue Team, Cure Team, Godparents for Eldsters, Knights Of Helping Elderly Neighbors, and this expansion, in ‘He’/HEY! Year of Psalmodic Response. More elsewhere.
Benefit: No Hartman children in home, adopt Pella. This liability is unto we would lead.
Benefit: Paradigm for discipling any community.
Benefit: Consummation greater than creation.
Benefit: Memory Palace, so we/they/all remember—strongly.
Benefit: Some improvement each year. [1750 @ 2%/year = great Western prosperity].
Benefit: Proven over 5 years on micro-scale.
Benefit: Be what you are, Christian community! Community ‘writes’ it. Tulip Time.
Benefit: Psalmodic response. Get the spirit of first, glorify it by applying as in Psalm 1:1.
Benefit: This shows the advantage of Covenant Renewal Worship, for we are applying the covenant structure to a community over a long time, once per year, so as to transform it as we are transformed by CRW.
From Pella Books, east. At SW corner of Square, start Guilt Street. At SE corner, north onto Grace Street. At NE corner, turn west onto Gratitude Street. At NW corner, turn south onto GoForth+ Street (hat tip:JH). End at Pregnancy Center, crossing SW corner.
This is a Memory Palace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci As we go along spatially, we remember. What do we remember? Structure of covenant(s).
Big Idea Applied: Pella started in covenant. [What was it?] Over time, and as a response, Pella has changed. But the starting covenant can be glorified, made more, were we to understand and apply history. Any new technology increases the space over which one can act, decreases the time it takes to effect change, and destroys the old group.
Test: Put the parts of our CRW onto this square. It would ‘rhyme’ differently. We are called in the space between Pella Books and SW corner, Guilt is handled on Guilt Street, but the Grace part (word and sacrament) would occupy, it seems to me {Proverbs 18:17] the complete next two blocks, so that Gratitude and GoForth+ Street overlap.
Once one has gone through the transforming CRW structure, a fact is done, and this fact leads to the new Torah, command. We can tell this new command. Jordan: Law, Lyric, Evaluation, Fact. ERH too.
What threads would run along this history square, this memory palace. Community, Business, Religion, Education. Both locally and as the ‘outside’ impacted Pella. We need @ 7 turning points for each. It could be a cooperative effort.
This can be a paradigm for discipling any community, for our history space/memory palace is nested into larger ones, as Russian dolls are nested, and the Big One is from Creation to Consummation. These USA, Western Civilization, Christendom….
Next Step: Souvenir History of Pella. What 7?
Has been done with eldercare, producing one per year, over 5 years. Rescue Team, Cure Team, Godparents for Eldsters, Knights Of Helping Elderly Neighbors, and this expansion, in ‘He’/HEY! Year of Psalmodic Response. More elsewhere.
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