To what does halcyon best refer?
You may have heard the expression ‘halcyon days’ or enjoyed some halcyon weather. The notion of happiness or enjoyment is linked to this term, but many do not know its mythical origins. Halcyon originally referred (back around 1350AD) to a mythical bird said to breed about the time of the winter solstice in a nest which floated on the sea, and to have the power of calming the winds and waves.
A variety of kingfisher is called halcyon. But the word is mostly applied in reference to the sense of calm, for which the halcyon bird was responsible.
So halcyon days and halcyon weather are those experiences which are calm, peaceful and enjoyable. We all wish for such times. Sadly, there is no such bird with those mythical powers. However, there is one who has calmed the storm. 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ commanded a storm to stop, and it did. On another occasion Jesus walked on the water and when he came to His disciples, struggling in the boat, the storm was stilled.
So if you are in need of some ‘halcyon’ changes in your life, don’t go hunting kingfishers, but turn in prayer to the one who can still nature and human nature, bringing peace that passes understanding.
Archives for May 2008
Genetics – Nurture or Nature?
A long-term debate has raged on the question of whether we are ‘born’ a certain way, such as happy, lucky, blessed or successful, or ‘made’ that way by our circumstances. Are we who we are because of the ‘nature’ of our being, such as something built into our DNA, or because of the things we are taught and the ‘nurture’ we receive in our formative years? This is the debate over whether it is Nurture or Nature that forms us.
Expert opinions and diverse theories have spoken to both positions. Life experience also argues both ways. We see people who seem to have innate advantage over others in the same situation. We also see how the right input makes a profound impact on people.
Elizabeth Kotlowski, in her book on Australia’s early history, points out that the convict parents of the colony’s children seemed irreparable in their nature, yet their children were recognized by an early judge as being of the highest integrity. This transformation was not embedded in the genetic ‘nature’ of the children, but came from the ‘nurture’ they received from the colony’s early church schools.
Similar transformation was noted by Charles Darwin on his second visit to Tierra del Fuego. He originally deemed the natives of that area to be so reprobate as to be incapable of nobility. On his second visit there, some years later, he discovered that the simple process of taking the Bible to these people had positively transformed them. Nurture, external impact from a quality source, has undoubted profound effect.
Recent genetics research now indicates a synthesis of the ‘nurture or nature’ ingredients. The science works like this. While we each have a unique DNA specifying our genetic potential and influencing all the many features of our being, we also have a unique set of control switches that activate or de-activate those underlying genetic choices. So there’s a double stream of genetic dice rolling that impacts who and what we are.
While the underlying DNA may prove to be strictly a matter of ‘nature’ – passed to us by our parents and resilient to the conditions under which we are raised – the genetic switches prove to be influenced by the ‘nurture’ we receive.
Recent scientific findings were reported in the Public Library of Science Journal, ‘PLoS ONE’. Moshe Szyf of McGill University in Montreal studied the brains of men who came from abuse or neglect backgrounds and who later committed suicide. These brains were compared with the brains of men who died of natural causes and who did not have an abuse background.
The genetic material of the suicide victims displayed changes in all 18 cases. While the genes were unchanged the related genetic material functioned differently. A cellular process called methylation, involving the RNA within the cell, is engaged in turning the genes ‘on’ or ‘off’. The observed changes in the cell indicate that the genetic function was being switched differently as a consequence of past abuse.
So, nature and nurture work together, not independent of each other.
Now that some discernible physiological change at a genetic level can be associated with nurture it will be interesting to see where science takes us in our further confirmation of what God’s Word says.
Charles Wesley – Hymnwriting begins
This is the day that … a Hymn was born.
Charles Wesley – on 23 May, 1738 – wrote in his journal: “At nine I began a hymn on my conversion but was persuaded to break off for fear of pride.”
It was two days earlier – 21 May – that he had come to a saving knowledge of Christ through reading Luther’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians!
Then he penned the first of about 7000 hymns (and many of them had a dozen or so stanzas. His poem on Whitefield had 536 lines).
But persist he did with that first hymn – “I prayed Christ to stand by me and finished the hymn…”
Two days later Charles and his brother, John (converted 24 May, 1738) were singing the hymn together “with great joy!”
But what was the hymn? Almost certainly it was …
Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to Heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire.
And there are those who believe that he wrote at about the same time …
And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
So it was that on this day in 1738 the ‘Sweet Singer of Methodism’ began to write his hymns … and he never stopped until he was on his deathbed (in 1788) – and even then he dictated a hymn for his wife to write down …
In age and feebleness extreme
who shall a sinful worm redeem?
Jesus, my only hope Thou art,
Strength of my failing flesh and heart.
Oh could I catch a smile from Thee
And drop into eternity!
Logophile – Afflatus
From whom would one normally expect an afflatus?
Afflatus comes from a root which means wind or breath. In centuries past much was made of the notion of breath – even back to the Greek word for spirit being pneuma – breath. Similarly the word ‘inspire’ comes from a root that means ‘to breath upon’.
And where does the most powerful breath come from? Where does the greatest inspiration originate? The breath of God has always been regarded as the source of true inspiration. And so it is with an afflatus. It is an inspiration, resulting from being breathed upon by God.
One dictionary definition for afflatus is: divine communication of knowledge
Now, in common usage, the term afflatus has been secularised to simply mean personal inspiration, as if ideas came from within a person. A poet’s afflatus may be seen as his own personal gifting to perceive and convey notions. But the place we would normally expect an afflatus is from God, Himself.
Example: Peter the fisherman, disciple of Jesus Christ, once declared that Jesus is the messiah they were all expecting and also the Son of God. Jesus’ response was to declare that Peter had an afflatus, although He did not use that terminology. Jesus said, Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, by My Father in Heaven revealed this to you (Matthew 16:17).
May the pneuma of God blow on you, by His Holy Spirit, to inspire you, so you enjoy a daily afflatus and have much divine revelation to guide and empower you in the purposes of God.
Sovereignty Reigns Supreme
One of the awesome realities about our personal sovereignty is its inherent power. We, as sovereign citizens, can exercise incredible, miraculous power. That’s not because of any power resident within us in inherent in our being. The power is God’s power. But we can access that power, as people able to enter God’s presence and do business with Him.
History provides us a number of compelling examples, passed down to us in the historical records of the Bible. We find that ordinary citizens, less physically capable than their opponents, have been able to overthrow their enemies and win against insurmountable odds. The reason they could do so is because they were able to exercise their personal sovereignty. That’s why I say that sovereignty reigns supreme.
Personal sovereignty, when properly understood and exercised in the fear of God, brings people into line with the will of God and gives them access to the power of God. Consequently they end up with more clout than governments, armies and people of obvious social influence.
Consider the prophet Elisha. He had no political privilege. He had no special social influence. He had no army, nor any great store of money to use for productive ends. He was simply a ‘prophet of God’. He lived in a country where the ruler did not fear God and where most of the populace were idolaters. Yet he was a man who knew God. He had diligently pursued the right to do business with God.
So, when the nation of Syria decided to invade his country, Israel, this insignificant man, living in one of the villages in the countryside, was able to know what the king of Syria was planning. He would send intelligence information to the King of Israel. This happened so consistently and so accurately that the King of Syria suspected there must be a traitor among his closest advisors.
When the King of Syria discovered the personal influence of this one, defenceless prophet, he sent his whole army to capture the man of God. Yet Elisha was able to boldly walk straight up to the leader of the invading army and lead them all into a trap. See 2Kings 6:8-20.
One solitary sovereign citizen can exercise greater clout than a king and his entire army. One solitary person who understands their right to stand in the presence of God can call down power and outcomes that cannot be bought with millions of dollars.
David was a lad, but he knew his sovereign right to stand in faith in his God. So David, the shepherd boy, killed the fiercest enemy warrior, Goliath.
King Saul’s son, Jonathan, knew that with God on his side he could beat a group of enemy soldiers, and so he did.
Gideon, reluctantly at first, discovered that a small group of soldiers with God on their side is no match for a huge army without God.
Personal sovereignty reigns supreme. That doesn’t mean that people can be anarchists, because the only way to exercise personal sovereignty is to be in submission to the will and purpose of God, Himself. It also doesn’t mean that people should defy the authorities under which God has placed them. But it does mean that those who will press in to God’s presence, and be the people God wants them to be, will be empowered to work the works of God, despite opposition and every resource that is thrown against them. Some will experience miraculous power and miraculous outcomes. Others, like the many martyrs in human history, will take a stand for God and pay for it with their lives.
Personal sovereignty starts with the realisation that we all have to fall at the feet of Almighty God and enter into relationship with Him, on His terms, for His purposes, despite the personal cost to ourselves. From there, there is no stopping you as you step out and fulfil the will of God in your life.