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CHAPTER SIX
LIFE IS FOR LIVING
What it is, what it isn't, what human life provides,
the instructions given
See also
PHYSICAL LIFE AND BEYOND IN MAN
WHAT IT IS
Physical life is not least a matter of
order, orders,
meaningful interpretation,
organised activation,
individuality
commanding conception and obedient reception,
composite control and coherent co-operation,
overall levels of data distribution,
signal types and interpretation,
symbolic speech income proceeding to significant reading outcome.
It is normally allied to mind,
itself with power to read the above symbols
and see the meaningful results,
analyse and create systems
and move in mini-ways
not without some sophistication,
that partly paralleling the conceptual cover
implicit and at times explicit in the organisation of its own bodily constituents, modes or means.
This, man's mental dower and power, however,
though substantial,
yet in composition
compared with the vision, means and outcomes that his life constitutes,
is as an amble compared to a gallop,
and a child to an adult.
In man, all this is equipped with overview, but not total control, by a spirit,
for which the mind is utility
and the body an instrument.
The cause of mind, matter and spirit needs to be superior to its results;
for to be may be difficult,
but to be made and SO be, is far more so -
the one originating, the other given origin,
the one conferring conspectus,
the other receiving.
The capacity to refuse perspective is the domain of spirit,
as also to will, imagine and assess, rightly or wrongly,
as logic is used or abused, and imagination is controlled or flighty.
Program construction is pre-eminently a matter of mentality and vision,
for symbol-signification-activation is no known talent or capacity of matter,
but of conceptual realisation
and mental manipulation,
with spiritual disposition, as when one agrees or not,
and grants licence to this or that, or not;
for these or those principles, and with this or that zest, quest or indolence.
WHAT IT ISN'T
Attempting to fit the ways of one species of functional power (such as mind)
into another (such as matter), without verification and capacities of display,
co-ordinate logic, but with inordinate and undisciplined imagination,
can readily become simple reductionism.
That is, a prejudicial and at times pathological ignoring of data in the interests of desire.
This is an aspect of human life, because of the freedom facilities provided for it.
It is available for use, as is a fountain pen as a writing instrument;
as for misuse, as a
fountain pen pushed instead as an eye jabber,
contrary to the call of its construction.
Such abuse is a path for imagination of a dispersive type,
scattering significance with abandon and esprit,
and using will as a substitute for thought, or rage as an option instead of
the potentials of life on the constructed stage, that is apt for displays...
Such antics, such as mental reductionism, are not in the domain
as providing for recursive observation,
they do not supply experimental attestation of their facility to invent
the gamut of human function, but rather to render it ruined.
It is not this which gives an illustration of the coherent implications of life,
except as observable evidence of a damaging dereliction of truth,
for other interests (cf.
Romans 1:17ff., Proverbs 1, Ephesians 4:17-19,
and the preceding Chapter in this volume).
Ignoring a need in accounting for life, and even in defining it, does not bespeak
either competence or acceptable theory. It is like someone who cannot even
be bothered finishing a match, who changes the rule, and rules over changes.
WHAT HUMAN LIFE PROVIDES
Physical life gives not only the exhibit of the assembly of disparates in one over-riding unity,
but the programmatic control that reaches the involuntary aspects, and enables them,
including the entire,
massive multiplicity of mini-programs, inter-cellular communication,
hormone and enzyme interference and direction, with multiple results
in the interweaving of systems sensitively with the help of mutually impactive
activators,
builders and adjustment initiators. All these things are in type and in no small given attention
in the volume,
In
His Image, by Dr Paul Brand, especially in Chs. 9, 16, 17 for example.
Dr Brand's extensive researches adorn the script!
At the mental level, there is provided for man the cognate power to conceptualise
and implement, giving practical illustration of program construction,
and its parameters, originality components and imaginative thrust.
In man the product, turned man the producer, there is seen the functional progression
from vision to purpose to articulation, choice of language and other expressive media,
modes of semantic indication and grammatical conformation,
with engineering repositories that respond as desired to information and
consecutively construable commands,
internal modes of deployment and interaction at the subtlest levels,
with power correlative to concept and command.
In this, man is given both the illustrative view of the type of his own construction, with harmonious principles, concerning his place and meaning. He is also given a multi-partite conception-crammed book of significance and review, not in what might be called machine code, but readily readable language, so that in one language, he is constructed as a child, and in another instructed as a grown person. This Book of the Lord (Isaiah 34:16), intensively verified and validated*1, and on all sides unique in its testimony to divine basis, may at option be ignored, with apt results, while the DNA requirements may not be, though man can fiddle with his normal courageous outings to what is beyond him, in that HE never could do such a thing, since from nullity comes matter, with matter comes mind, with mind comes spirit and with all comes the everlasting Being without whose power and eternity the entire result, as shown, would be what it is not the actual result: what would it then be ? It would be nothing.
THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN
While these instructions are very pointed, they are not programmed; for the body, mind and spirit trilogy called man, each one under one personification that is palpable, though here given a closed combination of concepts and an authoritative overview of meaning, is left open in its ultimate grasp of performance criteria. A person may agree or bne most disagreeable, acting whether , to concur or disavow, at many levels, so confirming the nature of this signification, this definition, this exposition of man, his origin, meaning and power, liberties and responsibility (cf. Licence for Liberty)..
The misuse of power through the inventive spirit of man can reach to the point of insanity or inanity, or crafty aspirations for the top position in the universe, for a man or movement, these ceaselessly sought in fulfilment by many, with many dreams, philosophies and political onrushes, one of which recently threatened and nearly overturned freedom of speech in this country, at least in the punitive aspect*2.
Freedom, though robustly defended, can be a fragile plant when it is put in the shade by human mountains of disorderly imagination, and lust for power, importance, to take over and own gear such as God created and the like.
Author of holocausts, deletion of millions of bodies of mankind repetitively, cunning and strategies unworthy even of contempt, appalling ineptitudes from rage, ambition and pride, mankind is becoming a resource for madmen, betrayers of their own nature and the Maker of Nature (which one cannot too often repeat, did not make itself before it was there to do it, and is running down, not up in terms of all evidence and law).
Highly significant is man's need for salvation, for just as his nature is often manipulable, so there are as in this country for example, sometimes amazing relics of goodness, kindness, thoughtfulness and courage, so that the role of subordination to God-haters needs to be changed. The call for this has been from the first, and the need remains to the last, for there is an end (Matthew 24:35,13-14). It is coincident to a large degree with the completion of the presentation of the Gospel to nations and races (Matthew 24:14). Thus rushes near the flurry of fulfilments, as does the rioting in the world, approaching the Falls of frenzy: first stop removal of Christians, second stop removal of rebellion (cf. Isaiah 11, 66, Micah 7, Psalm 2, Habakkuk 3, 2:14, Zechariah 12, Ezekiel 37-39, Department of Bible ... Vol. 2, Chs. 1, 10).
As time probes further into the mind and heart of man, investigating his spirit, an unrelieved, reactionary spirit of rebellion continues to undermine any perception of reality, just as it did with the French in their former fascinatingly facile trust in their human wall, their Maginot Line. It was only by calling on Almighty God, as in the Dunkirk near to terminal calamity, that Britain escaped. It was a warning. Nature did not make itself and what makes a fuss about believing in the God who made both that entity, and man's nature, the God of Creation (cf. Volume 3, of Department of Bible Affairs, Vol. 3, Chapter 6) is not lampooned in vain.
It does have results, as it would if you INSISTED on holding on to a high amperage, 1 million volt enabled, electrical wire. No unbelieving attitude alters the result, let alone one of mordant vanity and irrationality. As in other topics, elaborate means of confusion (cf. Ch. 4 above) do not lead to paths of peace, or indeed to life at all. The continual warning in the constant verification of the message from God to man about these terminal times (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5, SMR Chs. 8-9), like a red light in the oil gauge, may be ignored; but not wisely.
According to this never-rebutted and always verified Bible, there are things to be done, each by the individual. Man must
repent of his condition,
address this to his Maker,
receive the salvation offered in the direct language Book of the Lord (Isaiah 34:16),
avoid squirming for supposedly better deals (Galatians 1:6-10),
and hence become a subject of the Saviour,
delightful since He is
God, sent, saving, breaking death, offering freedom freely
(no charge FOR it, or to GET it! - Isaiah 55, 48:15ff., Ephesians 2, Romans 3,
5),
in the kingdom of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21).
With the Lord, comes the incoming provision of vast new conception, understanding,
and added to the original OFFER of continuing life, the confirmation of
the GIFT of it (Romans 6:23, John 5:24, Ephesians 2, Romans 4, I John 5).
With this, and in turn, is the coming completion (Romans 8:23, II Cor. 5:1ff., I Cor. 15) of the body
in the resurrection mode, fit for eternity,
mirroring that of the Saviour, who broke death, and met the claims of death
to confer life without end (Revelation 1:18).
RESULTS AVAILABLE
Faith finds and receives the Saviour, salvation, repentance, redemption and release. God's provision of all these things from body to belief, is entirely free (Ephesians 2, Romans 5), involves surrender (Luke 14), and leads to a merciful sovereignty, granting significance to man's preference, with fidelity foreknown and in whom the Lord might find acceptance, this divinely known (Ephesians 1:4), before sin so much as entered to 'queer the pitch'. Responsibility results*3, and is part of the construction of man as a type of being.
NOTES
On this topic, see the following.
TMR 5, 7 , It Bubbles ... Ch. 9, esp. *1A,
The Bright Light ... 7,
Repent or Perish, Ch. 7, pp. 152ff.; Ch. 2;
Christ, the Wisdom ... Ch. 6; BAB 29, 19;
A Spiritual Potpourri Chs. 1-3; SMR 3,
Little Things Ch. 5,Wake Up World! ... Ch. 5, End-Note 1A,
Tender Times ... Ch. 11;
TMR 9, Grand Biblical Perspectives Ch. 7,
What is the Chaff to the Wheat! Chs. 3, 4, 10, 11,
See the following.