Short sighted

There is a reason that the early church fathers, the monastics and our priests speak of the overarching importance of humility.  It is easy to compare one self to others, especially when one can cherry pick those to whom comparison is made.  It is easy to criticize and condemn others.  But it is much more difficult to only compare ourselves to those above and beyond us.  This is one of the reasons that having a spiritual mentor is so valuable.  We find someone that is spiritually superior to us and then we emulate them and hear their instruction.
But to really hear, we must first recognize and acknowledge our lack. This means we identify where we are ignorant, immoral and weak.
This is about humility.
But even besides all of this is recognizing our short sightedness.  As temporal and distracted mankind, we cannot see further than the moment.  We cannot even accurately remember the past.  Science has shown us over and over again just how faultily and romantic we remember past events.  And the further back we go, the less accurate these memories become.
Looking forward is even worse, for we cannot see past the "right now".  We might think that we can plan for the future, but we do not even know if we will be breathing tomorrow.  We cannot even rightly interpret the events of what is taking place right now.  Sure, we can see these events, but we cannot know how they will affect us tomorrow, or next week, next month or next year.
Something we see as terrible or troubling might every well be the exact thing we need to become more holy in our future.
We must have faith that God is working all things for our good.

Interpreting Scripture

Biblical interpretation or technically speaking, hermeneutics, is a powerful field within the Christian faith. It is also a very serious one. To take into one's hand, the word of God, and explain it, is a very serious matter, that should not be taken lightly. This is, after all, THE word of God, upon which men are to build their lives and hearts.

There have been many books written about the subject, each one purporting to be a faithful methodology. Some are extremely academic works, written by and for the educated and others are simple, straightforward efforts by simple, straightforward men.

On one hand, it could be argued that any passage of Scripture could be interpreted in any way the interpreter sees fit, as long as it draws the listener to God. But it could also be argued that the text must be faithfully interpreted according to word meaning, literary form and context, taking into account historical context, author's intent, and the culture of the original audience.

Ultimately, I believe that any interpretation or commentary on the text of Scripture should not be arbitrary. The reader must have a sound reason for any interpretive position. “Why” and “on what grounds” is any meaning applied to a text. Scripture is not wax, to be molded as one sees fit. The original author meant something by the words he used and the original audience would have, most likely, understood what the author meant. These should be a starting point, at the very least.

And remember, the Bible warns about being a teacher. It's a great responsibility. We must not project upon the text, our own opinions or ideas. The explanation of the text ought to be built from the text itself (and its context), not upon our whims, ideas or preferences. Our goal should be to explain the text, not define the text.

The state of eternity

1 Tim 4:10 - For to this end we toil and strive,2 because we have our hope set on the living God, qwho is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

What does Paul mean by this?  “... who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe.” We just read in the previous verses that Jesus paid the ransom for all men (1 Timothy 2:6).  Here we read that He is the savior of all men. When we read of the final judgment, the sequence is this: Jesus returns, all men are raised from the dead and given perfected bodies, all men are judged according to what they did or did not do, all men then receive the fruit of their time on earth.  If they spent their time loving God, loving neighbor and forming their souls to mirror Jesus Christ, they will glory in the immediate presence of God. But if they spent their time feeding their passions and desires, the holiness of God will be unbearable to them, it will be their hell.

Hell is self made and freely chosen.  If you choose to reject/ignore God during your time on earth, why do you think you would have any desire to be in his holy presence for eternity?  But since God is everywhere and fills all things, you cannot escape the presence of God. Your eternity will be spent in his presence. If you form your soul to love godliness and seek after it, while you are here on earth, your eternity will be glorious.  But if you spend your time seeking temporal pleasure and fulfilling your passions and desires, your eternity will be wretched, as you will be immersed in the holy presence of God, inescapably.

Our responsibility

Many of us have many things that come under our umbrella of responsibility,  and some of us take on additional responsibilities, often out of a feeling of love for God and for neighbor.  But the one great responsibility that we have, and cas odd as it sounds, it really is the most important, is that of our own holiness.
Saint Seraphim of Sarov, a monk in 18th century Russia, once said, "Acquire the Holy Spirit and a thousand around you will be saved."  In short, this pithy saying is saying, work on your own holiness, i.e., be filled with the Holy Spirit and in doing so, everyone around you will be affected as well. 
As someone once said, "You can't communicate what you do not know."  So despite all the best intentions and love for neighbor, if you do not know and love the love of God, you will never be able to communicate that to your neighbor. And even more so, the closer you are to God, the better you will know him, the more you will understand who God is and the better you will reflect and communicate that love to those around you, usually in more effective ways than you could even devise yourself.
"Acquire the Holy Spirit and a thousand around you will be saved."

Emulating Christ

Our emulation of Jesus Christ is not in merely copying what he did, for this would be foolishness. For Jesus lived in the period of the old covenant, with all of its cleanliness laws, it's food laws and it's separation laws. Jesus lived as a faithful old covenant Jew. We, on the other hand, live in the new covenant. We are not forbidden pork, nor mixing our fabrics. We are permitted to eat dinner with gentiles. We are permitted to shave the sides of our heads, if we wish.

So what does it mean to emulate Jesus Christ? We are to do so by practicing his summation of the law, which is, to love God and to love neighbor. If we do this, we are fulfilling every aspect of the law, in total.

We should love those people in our circle of influence. We are to love where we live.

Purpose and Direction

Early this morning it occurred to me.  From 0 to 20, I had no direction in life. I graduated from high school, didn't go to college, got a job unloading semi-trailers of bales of alfalfa on local farms and played my guitar.  That was it.  Within a year of unloading alfalfa, I got another job, at a local factory, entry level.
It wasn't until I was introduced to the Reformed (Calvinist) version of Christianity that direction began to take form.  I immersed myself into the study of my faith and "understanding" was my goal.  So from that point (around 20 years old) to the time I was 40, "understanding" was my be all and end all.
I eventually went to seminary and earned my Masters degree in Divinity, with the goal of becoming a pastor.  God led me into teaching Bible and Koine Greek at a private Christian school, and I loved it. So why did I just share this brief biography?  As I was thinking about that, it occurred to me that direction and purpose is foundational to a person's well being.  As the old saying goes, "Idle hands are the devil's playground."  If someone has no specific direction in life, one of two things takes place. They either distract themselves with pointless and inane entertainment.  Or they immerse themselves in making money. 
I began to wonder what would happen if a person only worked "because they had to" and their vocation was merely a means to provide for themselves.  It seems that this sort of approach to vocation will probably result in vocational mediocrity. If you don't love and immerse yourself in your job, your work will (at least) be adequate at best. 
And then the spiritual side of things.  How do we tie all of this into a life that is focused on pursuing holiness and eternal life?  If we are totally focusing on making money, being comfortable and having a good size retirement plan, how can we say we are focused on eternity?

Issues

Issues are an interesting thing.  When I say "issues" I am talking about the internal/psychological struggles that everyone seems to go through at some time in their life.  These can range from small, short term struggles to deep, even neurotic, debilitating psychoses.  The thoughts that are plaguing me in this regard are "how"?
When we do a wide, brief survey of modern man, we see a wide range of people.  Rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, talented, awkward, gifted, average, educated and ignorant.  But all of these have issues, some more, some less and most in people that one would not expect.  The great modern lie of America is that having lots of money, power, fame and external beauty will make one happy.  But it simply does not work that way. In all honesty, it seems that the wealthier or powerful one becomes, the more issues surface.
In my semi educated, semi informed opinion, the foundation for all of this is family.  I would argue that the more solid and loving a family in which one grows up, the higher quality of life one will have.  A loving family will provide for the basic needs of life, will instill a sense of value, will provide a healthy self esteem and will provide a sense of importance of loving others.
If one does not have a stable, loving childhood, these things will not have been instilled and the person will have to find these things later in life, which, without a solid foundation, is increasingly difficult and will possibly lead to wrong choices and later issues.