Human beings have been created for relations. The bible shows enough evidence about God’s intentions to stablish relations with the humanity. The human’s history is about relations and the reality of the sin reflects the broken relations of everything, broken relations with others human, broken relations with the creation, broken relations with himself and broken relations with his creator. The only way to restore the humanity is getting over the broken relations and moving forward in direction to the God’s kingdom.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, Homemade, May 1989, says that single men are jailed more often, earn less, have more illnesses, and die at a younger age than married men. Married men with cancer live 20% longer than single men with the same cancer. Women, who often have more close friendships than men, survive longer with the same cancers. Married or not, relationships keep us alive. Let see the biblical perspective about relations. Psalm 147: 1-12, This happened about 600 years before Jesus came to the earth and this passage contains a good example of the complexity of the human relations. The Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem and took the people away to Babylon. Babylon was a country east of Jerusalem. They made them live there for 70 years. They were exiles, (they lived away from their own country). This happened because God’s people did not love him nor obey him. So, God punished (or hurt) them. But after 70 years, God destroyed Babylon and brought his people home. He built Jerusalem again and made his people feel happy again. Some of them had broken hearts. This is a way to say that they felt very, very sad (or depressed). Other people had injuries. Perhaps someone had hit them or cut them with a knife. Really, God did not do these things himself. The psalm means that he made them happen through other people. Broken stories, destruction but also restoration, all is included in the story of the Israel relations with God, with themselves as people, and with other countries. Isaiah 40: 21-31 The image contained in the text of Isaiah is a powerful metaphor about relations between God and his people, it’s a new chapter about tensions, disappointments, and struggles. God is in control of the universe but also is closed to humanity. God is using his power in favor of Israel, keeping a relation of care, love, and protection. God is a father, not a supranatural force, or a mistic essence, is a person, one who oversees a relation with Israel, He is open to care of His lovely people. In opposite, Israel is going far from the God’s will, taking their own decisions, and keeping their own mistakes. Isaiah appeals to references as Jacob because considers the importance of the incarnational understanding of the concepts, the Hebrew language usually refers to concrete expression of the reality more than theoretical ideas as the Greek does. That is an important thing to consider when we interpret the Old Testament in comparison with the New Testament. It means, from the Hebrew perspective, God is a concrete person, an incarnational reality, not a power or a force, is Someone who exist in relation with everything that He has created. 1 Corinthians 9: 16-23 For the early church, the dynamic to settle down implied a challenge in terms of changes of attitudes, behaviors, and comprehension of the piety also a lot of gaps about how to assume the new life contained in the gospel. Apostle Paul exposed his own experience as a leader trying to lever up a consistent community but suffering for himself the implications of the religious tradition, the weight of the roman cultures and the influence of the paganism into the church. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians describes the states of the leadership, including some characteristic as lack of commitment and comfort with the status Quo. He decided to incarnate a life’s projects capable to reflect the God’s Kingdom according the taught of Jesus. The relations derivatives of this project were a deep changed in favor of a more committed practice of community not just as individual but as people of God, spreading the good news with the word but also with the deeds, the sings of the Holy Spirit. Paul did exactly what he received from Jesus, and he incarnated this new understanding of the relations and taught it in this way to all the new churches stablished during the beginning of the early church. Mark 1: 29-39 In the gospel of Mark, we found a powerful story which includes a lot of concretes relational expressions. We can check the interest of Jesus to keep His powerful connections with His disciples as Simon and Andres, even Jesus felt a deeper sympathy for the pain of Peter’s mother-in-law, and He healed her. Crowds came to Jesus to be healed and to be drove out of demons but the main motivation for our Lord was to keep His close relation with His Father the Eternal God through praying. Then His disciples came to Him and Jesus decide to keep going in His mission preaching the gospel and healing people. We can identify a strong commitment of Jesus with His disciples and with the people around him expressed and the way that He was every time attending their demands not to manipulate or take advantages of His popularity, moreover, Jesus was able to feel the vulnerability of the people around Him and He took concretes actions in favor of them as expression of His father’s love. The same God who loved to his people in the Old Testament, the creator, the savior of Israel, now was walking with the crowds, sharing their needs, and been exposed to the worst of the human conditions all in favor of the God’s project to recreate everything in a new reality. CONCLUSIONS God is more than a concept, Jesus is beyond of any theory, God is someone who love us, and Jesus is the incarnational expression of God in our midst. Because of His love we are saved, because His attitudes of compassion and mercy, we can feel everyday His presence amid the worst battles spiritual or materials. In a world where relations are destroyed frequently due the envy or the evil, in the middle of wars or famines, the individualism and the consumerism, we are called as Jesus taught, as Paul wrote to live to proclaim a new world, one where the solidarity and the peace are the expression of God’s kingdom. Sometimes it is too hard live new relations based in respect, love and compassion even into our families or into our churches because the weight of the sin is still affecting the God’s plan for our lives but we can resist every time that we can the temptation to destroy, to do harm and instead, to be instruments of love but not just through words rather deed, acts, and signs of the Holy Spirit. Long-lasting relationships The family matter, according to the General Social Survey (Families), of the 11 million people aged, 55 and older in Canada in 2017, 7.5 million were part of a couple. Five million, or 7 in 10, aged 55 and older were in a long-lasting relationship of 30 years or more. Long-lasting relationships were more common among married couples than among those who lived common-law. People in long-lasting relationships were, on average, 68 years of age. Long-lasting couples were likely to have at least one child. 92% of persons in unions of 30 years or longer had at least one child. 76% of persons in unions of less than 30 years had at least one child. Half of adults aged 75 and older who were part of a couple had been in that relationship for 55 years or more. Our evangelism must be relational as God is, the bible tells us about our God keeping a longer relation with the human being, a relation based in His faithfulness, His mercy, and His promises. Jesus incarnates the relational project of God being a friend for His disciples, been a healer for the vulnerable and been our savior in the cross. How can we be aware enough about our call to be relational? keeping each other and loving not just our friends but the entire humanity. Specially in this time where the love is frozen for the indifference, the individualism, and the vanity, we must come back to the simplicity of the gospel keeping relations of transparency, authenticity and true. If we adopt these concrete actions in our personal circle, we can affect positively others and provoke in our people questions for which the gospel is the answers. The love doesn’t exist just a concept, who uses the word in this way is just evading the concretion of the real love expressed in actions, in deeds, in signs. All Christian must come ambassadors of transformed relations, creating opportunities to build a new understanding about to be a friend, family, to be a Christian closely as Jesus did.
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Introduction
A Chinese writer once conveyed the concept that time is intangible yet undeniably real. Our existence serves as undeniable evidence that time is utilized, whether consciously or unconsciously. Martin Heidegger, a renowned philosopher from Germany, argued that humans must live genuinely and embrace the passing of time. Jean Paul Sartre took this idea even further, proposing that states of being are ultimately consumed by non-existence. In simpler terms, life in the present allows us to appreciate all that it offers, but upon death, everything ceases to exist. It is crucial to acknowledge that time is a vital component of the ongoing processes in the world. Nothing in this world is eternal except for God, as He surpasses the need for processes and exists from eternity to eternity. Conversely, everything created in this world undergoes a process, and within that process, time is indispensable. Moreover, time is intricately connected to space. God's creations encompass three fundamental elements: space, time, and existence. Often, humans make a mistake in perceiving space solely as a container for accumulating possessions, neglecting to recognize time as a realm for personal growth and wisdom. A wise individual possesses a keen awareness of time and maintains a balanced relationship with space, thereby attaining immense power in their life. Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15 The book known as Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Scriptures is referred to as Qoheleth, believed to be authored by Qoheleth, also known as the son of David. It is commonly assumed that Qoheleth is Solomon, who wrote the preceding book, Proverbs. Like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes falls under the category of Wisdom literature. Within this book, the Teacher contemplates and reflects upon his understanding of achievement, wealth, power, and various worldly pursuits. The passage "A Time for Everything" holds a special place in the hearts of many, often quoted during funerals and memorial services. It is believed that King Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes towards the end of his reign. This passage can be found within the Poetry and Wisdom books of the Bible and consists of 14 pairs of opposites, a common feature in Hebrew poetry that signifies completeness. Although the timing and seasons may seem arbitrary, the poem suggests that there is a divine purpose behind every aspect of our lives. These familiar lines serve as a comforting reminder of God's ultimate authority. The phrase "a time," in its original language, implies a predetermined occurrence. Therefore, everything in the universe is part of a grand plan, and every event takes place at its appropriate and predetermined time. However, it is important to note that this does not necessarily mean that Ecclesiastes promotes pre-determinism and fatalism. The initial lines of each verse present contrasting ideas, while the subsequent lines introduce parallel thoughts. In certain verses, the second line restates the first, while in others, it complements the first. In summary, this passage of Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 tells us about the interpretation in two forms of exegesis and exposition. Firstly, the temporal analysis of the time where this passage was written has to do with the Jewish agricultural context of about 935 B.C. and it deals with the cyclic times that are described in the first nine verses, where through antonyms: positive and negative terms, one understands the extent of human activity and nature. On the second part, one understands the important of God’s central role in people’s lives, where He has put eternity in their hearts, and has given the gift of work to be enjoyed by all who avail to it. In Romans 12:2, Paul juxtaposes the persistent pressure to conform to the values of the current era with a call to "undergo a transformation by renewing your mind." This transformation enables individuals to discern and embrace God's will for their lives. The Jewish community in Rome consisted of various congregations with distinct structures, providing an opportunity for early Christians to propagate the gospel from one synagogue to another without facing repercussions from a central authority. However, the growing tension between Christians and Jews eventually culminated in a direct confrontation in 49 A.D., resulting in the expulsion of all Jews, including Christian Jews, from Rome under Claudius' decree. Despite the prohibition on Jewish gatherings in synagogues, a small number of Gentile Christians continued to meet in homes. When Nero permitted the Jews to return in A.D. 54, the Jewish Christians came back to a significantly transformed church. The Gentile Christians, who had multiplied in number and assumed leadership roles, were no longer bound by the synagogue structure. The ensuing friction between the Gentiles and Jewish believers in Rome likely served as the impetus for Paul's writing of the book of Romans in 57/58 A.D. Consequently, Paul addresses both Jewish and Gentile audiences throughout his letter, employing familiar terminology and concepts. Conclusion Someone said: Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go... And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. The timeline technique. If you were requested to produce a map or compose a report detailing your activities from the previous year, there exists a contemporary alternative offered by Google, provided that you possess a smartphone or an application capable of linking such information. Nevertheless, let us contemplate a more conventional approach by opting to construct a timeline instead. Envision a visual depiction of a line extending from east to west (or left to right), where you can denote all the challenging events that have recently impacted you. Once completed, ensure to incorporate all other significant or memorable occurrences during that specific period. It is important to acknowledge that timelines are not a novel technique, and their utilization extends beyond counseling and psychotherapy. They function as a potent instrument for both introspection and planning, facilitating personalized progress - your timeline, your experiences, your past, and your present. The past leads the future. We can call posibilitation to the process through which the past gives us the enough competence to face the future, we can deal with the future because we acquire the competences to take decision through the empiria, when we live, we learn, and because we learn from the life, we can communicate our learning through new generations. The world new the elders because they keep the wisdom of the life and because the time is kept into the heart of the people, we lived enough to learn from the time meanwhile it passes by. Saying that, we can now understand that we need to learn a lot from God because he exists from the beginning and until de end. God is the real master of the Time. God is in control of everything, This statement contains the Hebrew perspective coming from the Old Testament, and with this approach we can understand the importance of our own personal biography, all the things what we learn through our lives is the system of possibility, also we can have a better understanding about the enormous opportunity the bible represents because it contains the God’s word. God, in His everlasting wisdom gave us all His statements to remind us what is His willing and His plan for the humanity. Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15 The Teacher reflects on what he has learned about achievement, wealth, power, and other earthly pursuits. A Time for Everything,' is a cherished Bible passage often quoted at funerals and memorial services. Tradition tells us that the book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon toward the end of his reign. Within one of the books of Poetry and Wisdom in the Bible, this passage lists 14 "opposites," a recurring theme in Hebrew poetry that symbolizes completeness. While the occurrence of each time and season may seem random, the underlying meaning in the poem signifies a purpose that is divinely ordained for every aspect of our lives. These familiar lines serve as a comforting reminder of God's supreme authority. The advice given is for individuals to live their lives day by day, following the guidance of God's hand. It is essential for individuals to acknowledge that God has designated an appropriate time for each task, as mentioned in verse 1. The significance of this section lies in the fact that humans are responsible for discerning the right moments for appropriate actions. When one acts in accordance with God's timing, the outcome is considered 'beautiful' (v. 11). The central message conveyed in this poetic passage revolves around God's ultimate sovereignty in both heaven and on earth. While humans have achieved mastery in various aspects of this world, certain aspects of our existence remain beyond our control. Time cannot be conquered. It is God who appoints each moment. Our lives encompass a mixture of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, harmony, and struggle, as well as life and death. Each season has its rightful place within the cycle of life. Nothing remains constant, and as God's children, we must learn to embrace and adapt to the ebb and flow of His divine design. Some seasons may prove challenging, and we may not understand God's intentions during those times. In such moments, we must humbly submit to the Lord's plans and trust that He is working towards His good purposes. The Romans passage is a good example of the larger widest vision of God about the time, we told us through apostle Paul the realization of the their project through the Christianism as a seed sowed by Jesus during His ministry and after that for the first disciples through the early church and after many centuries we are here worshiping and adoring His Holly name because this is exactly His plan from the very beginning. God knew it and Paul saw it clearly enough and the Bible is the evidence of the God’s providence above the history and the reality. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. We try to control everything but that´s impossible because we are just humans full of sin and we are weak. The real power comes from God and belong only to Him, due that when we decide to come to Him and adore Him and worship His Holly, we are preparing our eternity, we are seeing the complete landscape more the mere existence. We need to improve our vision to recognize to God as the Time Master as the only ones capable to see throughout the centuries, and through the bottom of our hearts. Introduction
Whenever we close a year and we start a new year we have different reflections about the time, we consider the goodness of the life or the madness around us, depending on our scope and experiences. We are totally related with the time, and we usually feel like we understand how it works but we live in a continues stress due we can not to control the time and it only pass by. Then, what is exactly this thing that we call time? How is it works? How can we have control about it? We can have three approaches to meditate about the importance and the implications of the time in our lives. We usually understand the time like something we can measure, or we can handle according to our expectations but at the end of the story the time looks like something out of our control. The only ones who understand and certainly has the control above the time is God. The bible says in 2 Peter 3:8: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Upon closer examination of Mark 1:15, we can observe a reference to God's understanding of time. It is important to distinguish between κρόνoς, which refers to a chronological span, and καιρός, which signifies an opportune time. In this verse, Mark 1:15 specifically uses the latter term. The phrase "accomplished" is often implied by the term "Πεπλήρωται," suggesting a fitting modern interpretation of "it's time!" This expression alludes to the period of devastation and death that occurred in the decades following 70 AD. Jesus spoke these words when he first began his mission in Galilee. According to the corresponding account in Matthew 4:17, Jesus started preaching about the Kingdom of God at that moment. The central focus of Jesus' mission was the Kingdom, which is evident from the approximately hundred references to it in the four Gospels, with the majority being attributed to Jesus himself. Jesus dedicated more attention to discussing the Kingdom of God in the Bible than any other topic. The phrase "The time is fulfilled" signifies that John the Baptist, who fulfilled the role of "the one crying out in the wilderness" to announce the arrival of the LORD in human form, properly proclaimed and introduced Jesus as the prophesied Messiah mentioned in Isaiah chapter 40. John the Baptist ultimately met his death in prison. As the Lamb of God who atones for the sins of the world, he presented Jesus Christ as the Lord (John 1:29). John's role in fulfilling the prophecy from Isaiah 40 clarified the identity of Jesus Christ: He is both the YHWH of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New Testament, who came to establish the promised Kingdom. Other Bible verses such as Romans 13:11–12 ESV, Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV, 1 Peter 1:20, Galatians 4:4, and Ephesians 1:10 also emphasize God's oversight of time. A prime example of God's Kairos can be found in Mark 1:15. The second thing that I would like to address is about the Kronos, the human time, we are going to use the passage in Dt. 32 about the story of Aaron and the Golden calf. While Moses was up on the mountain receiving God’s laws, the people were getting anxious down on the plain. Moses spent forty days (Exodus 24:18) up on the mountain with God, and by the end of that time, the people were beginning to think Moses had died or left them. The people urged Aaron, their temporary leader, to make gods for them to follow. Since they were accustomed to having visual representations of gods, this was the natural (but sinful) result of their thinking. Aaron took their gold earrings, which they had brought from Egypt, and melted them down to make a golden idol. The idol he crafted for them was a calf, but Aaron maintained the name of the Lord in connection with it (Exodus 32:5). He was merging the pagan practices they were familiar with and the worship of the God they were just beginning to be re-acquainted with. Aaron called the people together and told them that the golden calf was the god who delivered them from Egypt. The people offered sacrifices and then engaged in pagan rituals, including orgies (Exodus 32:25) to worship this new god. Then, how can we ascertain God's intended timing? We can explore 1 Chronicles 12:32, which recounts the tale of the sons of Issachar who possessed a discernment of the seasons. According to Jewish scholars, the individuals from this tribe were well-versed in astronomy and the physical sciences. The purpose of mentioning this was likely to emphasize that these intelligent and knowledgeable individuals were aligned with the military and had pledged their support to David. They possessed a profound understanding of public affairs, the nation's disposition, and the prevailing trends. Their wisdom was evident during this period as they remained faithful to Saul while he was alive, recognizing that it was not yet the appropriate time for David to assume the throne. Furthermore, they could not join David while Abner, who commanded the other tribes surrounding them, was still alive. However, as soon as Abner passed away and they had the opportunity to declare their loyalty, they acknowledged David as their king. These were men of extensive experience who always possessed the insight to discern what needed to be accomplished. Conclusion We must recognize the time is just a structure that only operates under the control of God, we cannot to know exactly how the time is or how to manage it, but we can live under the Kairos of God which means under His plans for our lives. We can trust in the God of the History who govern everything with His wisdom and mercy, His providence rules the universe then we can be sure that He knows when the right time is to move on or move back, we need to learn how to listen the God’s will, how to discern the God’s Kairos has come. We need to take care about the Kronos which is the main source of stress and anxiety, as individual and as society we have biographic time and historical time which are concretes forms through which the time imposes above us, we are part of generations of humans: We live in jails of time, our lives depends primarily on clocks or agendas but at the end of the day the only truth is the eternity which is the place where God wait for us. We are more than packages of time, we are people, with a legacy, with a personal history who are called to build a legacy and to transform the time in favor of other and in the name of God. We need to learn how to discern the times’ signs around us, around the history, around the reality, as individual and as structures, we can find that there are a lot of signs of sin and injustice but also, we can identify signs of hope and mercy coming from God through the church and through of people of faith trying to transform the reality. We need to grow in our discernment skills, we need to improve our senses to see in everything happening around us the God’s plan not to stay inactive but to mobilize ourselves in the right directions according to the guide of the Holy Spirit. May the good Lord and His Holy Spirit help us to discern the current time and how we can be pertinent for the new year to live under His will and under his governance meanwhile we expect His kingdom comes. |
AuthorJuan Carlos Cárcamo ArchivesCategories |