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Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

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Counting time in the womb which I always do because God does, I almost turned 60 a few days ago.

With time remaining not as much as already spent, I'm becoming increasingly obsessed with trying/praying to distinguish the important from the incidental.

I'm becoming less and less and less interested in the academic and more and more and more interested in the practical proofs of showing I'm related to Jesus by deed to prove creed.

I'm with my favorite poet John David Burton: "Years of school prompt my distrust of and disinterest in the academic."

Paul was/remains right (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) with Clarence Jordan's paraphrase to the point: "I will tear to bits the dissertations of the Ph.D.s; I will pull the rug from under those who have all the answers...God's weakness is stronger than..."

Galatians 3:28 has become the big theme/text/test of my spirit's phylactery.

I don't want to read any more about Jesus.

I'm tired of secondary sources.

I want to read Jesus.

I want to immerse my totality in Him.

I want to be so intimate with Him alone through what He alone said/says that Paul's personal experience becomes the description of my discipleship: "It is no longer I who live but Jesus who lives in and through me."

I want to be so close to Him that Rembrandt's "Inspiration of Saint Matthew" is more than a painting hanging in the Louvre to illustrate 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20-21.

I'm tired of learning more about Jesus.

I want to know Jesus better.

Faith grows/deepens by direct familiarity with the Founder so much more than through thoroughly tainted human filters to Him.

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Brother Daniel comes to mind.

I met him at Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri.

It's a Trappist monastery where I spent a lot of time back in the 80s.

Anyway, I remember watching him with his Bible opened to Psalm 91 while packaging incense.

Having studied the Psalm in Hebrew under some of America's and Germany's greatest Bible professors as well as capturing a sense of its traditio-historical context during several trips to Israel, I thought I would help him to understand it; especially because I knew his education ended shortly after 8th grade.

He seemed completely underwhelmed as I tried to enlighten him.

So I asked him to share what he had learned about it with me; and as he spoke, the heavens seemed to open as revelation poured through Brother Daniel in ways that I'd never...

When you're certified as an ecclesiastical egghead by many of the world's most notorious seminaries and universities, you assume greater, uh, evolution and...

You know what I mean; and if you don't, praise God!

Well, I was overwhelmed by what Brother Daniel knew about Psalm 91 without the benefits extended to me; so I asked, "How do you know so much more about it than I do? I mean, let's be honest here, I've studied this under some of the greatest Biblical scholars of all time and been to..."

He said, "I asked God what it means."

Now go to the last sentence of the previous section.

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Everything's unraveling before our eyes today.

Right, wrong, good, bad, nations, religions, economies, families, and all of the rest have become talking points for mediaheads with no real answers beyond their cynicism, condescending pseudo-intellectualism, and polarizing commentaries exposing them as slightly more coherent than Charlie Sheen.

Everybody's an expert; reminding me of the infidel who slipped into leadership in a church that I served long ago who said, "I know that's what Jesus and the Bible say but I think..."

Whoa.

Of course, that's the problem.

With no standard of truth, there's no, uh, standard of truth; and anybody's word has become as good/authoritative as anybody's else word on any subject.

Am I the only one who thinks that's a big part of why everything's unraveling before our eyes today?

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Surely, I'm not suggesting there's no place for secondary sources.

I'm just convinced they're, uh, secondary sources.

While I may be wrong on this, I don't think what Jesus said/says is that hard to figure out.

My guess is some really smart people, like the infidel who slipped into leadership in a church that I served long ago to make that preposterously arrogant comment recorded in the previous section, just don't like what Jesus and Holy Scripture said/says and try to come up with something that they'd rather...

Let me put it another way.

I think everybody/we would be a lot better off if they/we just got in touch with Lord Jesus as Savior and followed His example as we relate to everybody about everything.

Of course, considering that's not been the popular opinion/conviction in our world or even Christendom, everything continues to unravel before our eyes.

If you think that's depressing, it's because you're still looking through the wrong filter(s).

It's only human.

That's the problem.

We've been looking at Jesus through our humanity: "So humanity created God in its own image."

We've got to stop smoking filtered religions masquerading as...

We've got to open our eyes/minds/hearts/spirits to the obvious problem demanding the only solution.

Nothing's working anymore.

No one's got the answer.

Everything's getting worse and worse and worse and...

Before it's too late, we need the answer.

Jesus.

Specifically, the answer to what's killing all of us is loving Him by loving like Him: sacrificially, selflessly, mercifully, tolerantly, inclusively, and redemptively with unconditional favor to all.

Let me put it another way.

When I arrived in Heidelberg in the 70s and gushed to Professors Ficker, Leibrecht, Lowe, and Westermann about how great it was to study in Germany with all of the great theologians, Dr. Ficker admitted, "They're dead."

Jesus is alive.

Let me put it another way.

I used to scoff at those sporting lapel pins that urged "Try Jesus."

Not anymore.

We better try/do something/Someone different from what we're trying/doing now 'cause what we're trying/doing now ain't workin' for nobody no how.

Yeah, let's try Jesus for a, uh, change.

Let me put it another way.

Uh, sorry, uh, I mean really, there is no other way.

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Blessings and Love!