Bric-a-brac

This is the main reason for the laments found in Lamentations.  (What is the destruction of Jerusalem?)

Song of Solomon is an example of this ancient tradition.  (What is Near Eastern love poetry?)

This caused the allegorical interpretation of Song of Solomon to lose some of its footing, even among Protestant reformers.  (What is historical critical criticism?)

As stated previously, being behind causes a back up in postings… but, I have also completed the reading of Isaiah.

Okay, so I’m a little behind in posting this, but that’s okay.   I’ve completed the reading of Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther.  It’s a lot to put together, I know… but it is interesting reading these books together.

When helping someone through grief or some other unexplaind loss, does Job provide us with an answer other than the cliche “God knows best”?  Explain.

In Job, this word would have been a better translation for “patience”.  What is endurance?

Even kitties visualize their victories.

Many times when we read the Psalms, we run across sections that are quite violent and claiming victory before it has happened.  Of course, the Psalmist believes God is on their side.

This makes complete sense.  Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a world-renowned plastic surgeon and author of Psycho-Cybernetics coined the term “psychocybernetics” to describe such visualizations.  Okay, not all the violence, but in battle… violence makes sense. Cybernetics is the goal-striving behavior of machines and mechanical systems, and the “psycho” on the front of it causes it to be applied to the human thought processes.

Basically, Maltz says that our goal-striving mechanisms seek to accomplish the pictures created in our imagination.  This goal-striving mechanism cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy.  It needs images to be vivid to work effectively.

In That Winning Feeling! by Jane Savoie (reserve rider for 1992 US Olympic Dressage Team, coach for US team at 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics) goes into how we can apply the psychocybernetics principles to our daily lives in order to achieve our goals.

Although this seems like something that is relatively new, it is not.  We see it being played out in the Psalms, as well as in every  motivational speech that we hear before any sports activity.  We are to visualize our victory.  We are to go out there and play like we are already the winners.  This doesn’t mean to slack off, but to do everything possible to bring our visualizations into reality.

In other words, it makes sense for the Psalms to carry these violent tones and to claim victories.  Who goes into battle desiring to lose?  Who sets up tactical defenses with the hope that they fail?  The Psalmist is claiming victory, visualizing how God is on their side and helping them.  It does not matter if the Psalmist is reminding the people of past events, the pictures are so vivid that the mind remembers the joy of victory and strives to achieve it again.

I have read Job

I have read Proverbs.