The Keener Way

  I read a story the other day, almost definitely AI-generated. It was about a grumpy old man who lived on cans of beans, and his granddaughter, a typical broke homeless Generation Z who moves in with him when she can no longer pay her apartment rent. Grumpy Grandad blamed his granddaughter's money problems on her $7 lattes and Netflix subscription. She blamed inflation, high interest rates, and a bad job market. Overall, the story was quite cliche, drawing on every stereotype that exists in the great debate of trying to afford housing. Granddaughter felt that she deserved to treat herself to lattes and Netflix and ordering out, because the economy was bad, life was hard, and she needed a few simple pleasures in life.  Grandad told her how he worked 14 hour days, living off of a baloney sandwich and a can of beans every single day. Where you stand in this debate is irrelevant. What is important is one particular line of the story that hit  really  hard. The Grandad s...

  I know, its been yet another long gap since I've posted. The thing is, I write stuff as inspiration hits me. Sometimes i get lots of ideas, sometimes they trickle slowly. This time around, I've had an idea for a while, but its been simmering on a backburner until I got the angle I needed this morning.  It started when I received a text with a quote by C.S. Lewis from his essay collection, "God in the Dock", which goes, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." This weighed heavily on my mind, as I often feel like I treat Christianity as only moderately important. Indeed, sometimes it feels like the modern church at large is doing this with great unity. As I mulled over this for some weeks, my church started a sermon series in the book of 1 Peter. What particularly stood out was Chapter 1, verses 13-16. "Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-min...

  You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Say what?? Indeed. In Yeshua's sermon on how to live as one of his disciples, He takes a very sudden shift from "blessed are they" to talking about candles and table salt. "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:13-16, BSB  There's a few interesting pieces to this section. And we can nearly fill an entire lesson with salt alone. Salt was a valuable thing in ancient times. There was an era where merchants traded North African salt for...

    The third blessing of Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount says that the meek will inherit the Earth. In a Greek transliteration, this comes out to  "Happy are those of willfully surrendered strength, because they are allotted heirs of the land." Matthew 5:5 The Greek word for meekness is "praeis". Countless articles have been written, which compare this to wild horses which have been tamed and turned into warhorses. Which isn't entirely untrue. But digging a little bit deeper into the antiquity of its usage, praeis really doesn't seem to actually implicate any kind of strength or military origins, either in Scripture or in secular sources written in contemporary. But it doesn't imply any sense of weakness, either. It is neither. It is simply its own thing. When used in a people context, it is generally associated with a gentle, regulated temper. When used in the context of beasts, it is simply "tame", whether a broken warhorse or a domestic...

  Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 Happy are them lamenting, because they paraklēthēsontai Literal Greek to English  Here we have Yeshua's second teaching from His Sermon on the Mount. His second lesson about "you have already become my disciple, you've already repented, already committed to learning my way of life, so here is how I live" But wait! Because they paraklēthēsontai? What kind of a word is that? Well, it is Greek. But wasn't I doing a Greek to English text analysis? Yes. So why did I leave a Greek word there? Well, most Bibles render this as "they will be comforted". But this big, complex word contains so much more than that. There is no English equivalent. So let's look at the root, parakaleo. Para : very close-beside, in the presence of, alongside, very near This denotes a nearness and closeness that is often lost to translation. Think about parallel lines.The two 'L's in parallel are para L...

  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 5:3, BSB Divinely favored those who are impoverished to the breath, that belonging to them is the dominion of the sky realm Literal word-by-word Greek to English paraphrase These are the first recorded word's of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. But what odd words to begin a sermon with! But let's step a couple verses further back and introduce this series, shall we? See, when Yeshua saw the crowds coming, he climbed partway up a mountain. And when He sat down, His disciples came to him and He taught them. This sermon was not evangelical in nature. There was no "believe in me, repent and be baptized" and while there is no doubt the crowd followed Him, the "He taught them" is grammatically attached to His disciples. This sermon was not "this is how you become my disciple". It was a sermon about "you have already become my disciple, you've already repented, already...

   Every old story has the barefoot country kid walking down the dirt road. It's a classic picture of "the good 'ole days". Even many people reading this can probably look at the picture and feel it in their memories. The thick humid air. The hot, rocky road. The cool blades of grass tickling your ankles.  In that picture, would you be walking that hard, rocky dirt? Or that thick green grass beside it? The thick, cool grass feels so much better than the dirt. Enough so to lead a few traveling pilgrims astray in John Bunyan's allegory, Pilgrim's Progress . But no Giant Despair resides in these lands! So come and walk in the grass with me! As we stroll the soft greenery, let me tell you a story. See, a few months ago, I took the plunge of choosing farming as a career path/lifestyle. Its been an amazing journey thus far. And this past week, I had the opportunity to listen to, and speak with, a sixth-generation farmer and leading voice in the regenerative farming ...