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Yahoo September 21
Cited
'Model Tries to Extort $2,000 From Jaromir Jagr With Post-Sex Selfie, Fails'
Cited
'Recently, 43-year-old NHL legend Jaromir Jagr slept with an 18-year-old model. And while that's really NBD—and none of our business—the story took a weird twist and became public knowledge after the girl that Jagr slept with took a picture of him sleeping after the deed was done. The woman—or someone associated with the woman—then threatened to sell it to the media unless he paid $2,000. She was prepared to do what other women have done to pro athletes in the past (hi, Julian Edelman and James Harden!) if he didn't pay up.
'Just one problem...he's single so he didn't have to try to hide the post-sex selfie from his wife or girlfriend. As a result, he had just one response for the blackmailer when she said she was going to put the photo up on the Internet for all to see: "I don't care."'
End Citations
This led to a photo of the affair being published online.
I provide the link for proper reference, but I am not at all interested in sorted affair photos on my blogs; I am interested in theological and philosophical lessons perhaps with a satirical angle for this website.
Biblically commandments of God were broken, adultery took place or more specifically and accurately for our 21st century context, fornication. Biblically, fornication would be under the umbrella of adultery as adults were most often married within Biblical era cultures.
The woman was also coveting money from the older man.
There was obviously no love for neighbour as self. (Matthew 22, Mark 12).
National Hockey League great, Jaromir Jagr will be commended by many for not yielding to a blackmailer, but he also demonstrates as does the younger woman, no shame or remorse in the fornication and in particular fornication outside of loving, committed relationship.
It is typical in this modern age for people to be commended for doing sinful things, because at the same time they stood up to something else sinful.
This blog therefore has material...
I will not stand on a soapbox here regarding the commandments and sexual sin (Exodus 20. Matthew 5, 1 Corinthians 7) as I have commented on my sin with thought issues although I seek God's perfect will, but will stay consistent as I do acknowledge fornication as sin without judging human motives as that is up to God.
For those who dwell on the 25-year difference in the story, I would comment that it is not the main problem. Yes, she is now with someone closer to her own age in a relationship. according to the source. My research demonstrates that most people relate better to persons their own age.
Some exceptions being highly intelligent, intellectual types with a wider social range. So, for example, a 60-year-old male scientist in basically, good physical condition and youthful, may relate with a 20 (+) years old female science student, who finds many, not necessarily all, men closer to her age, immature and difficult to relate too. The same could be stated for those interested in religious studies.
Having a shared worldview would often be essential for successful relationships.
An older man (youthful man) seeking his first family is also a consideration.
A secular relationship coach and Facebook friend that I emailed with, he was never my coach, agreed with my reasoning that for committed religious people having the same worldview was often essential. This can make a large age difference reasonable and workable in actuality, even with societal and social norms pointing elsewhere.
I would also add that even though the younger woman in this story had perhaps, if she was indeed involved in the blackmailing, as it seems likely as she posed for a photo, wrong motives in the affair, the two of them even though 25 years apart still had enough significantly in common, perhaps worldview, to have a type of romantic relationship, even though short term.
In other words, if the age difference was such a huge difference why did they even get together at all?
Would not at least one person, reject the other?
Yes, the younger woman can fake a relationship for potential financial gain.
Yes, the older man can fake a relationship for sexual benefits.
The classic story for millennia...
It is also more societally and socially acceptable to be in a relationship with someone close to her age. This point should not be underestimated with regard to actions.
The age issue would not be a Biblical command or significant issue, however.
But it is also reasonably possible the couple in this story connected to some degree because as the saying goes..
'Birds of a feather, flock together'.
The real issues of concern in this article are those regarding sin, blackmail, fornication and lack of significant love.
But many will twist and spin this story as per usual.
This website, therefore, has material...
Ivan Bramlett
ReplyDeleteJudgement day: Oops! no more choices
Hebrews 9:23-28New American Standard Bible (NASB)
ReplyDelete23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin [a]by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is [b]appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
Eph 1:4
ReplyDeleteEnglish Standard Version
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
1 Pet 1:20
English Standard Version
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
Revelation 13:8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been [a]written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.
Matthew Lyons
ReplyDeleteJESUS: the Light at the end of the tunnel
Mike Barrett
ReplyDeleteIs faith important? You’d better believe it!
Awakening to Biblical Relevance
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about Awakening for some time and much is getting clearer. I want to pass on now things that have come to be for me very precious insights, that I honor as the Lord’s kindness to me to give to his church.
A. Joseph Haroutunian’s Piety Versus Moralism has been long on my mind, along with Wheaton President Edman’s startling endorsement of Pelagian Charles Finney. Calvinism in 19th century New England--why was it this way? Either it gave a casual description-only of the gospel, or in order to make room for a gospel offer denied inability, imputation of sin and substitutionary atonement! Why tell people what has to happen in their hearts before they can believe, in ‘preparation for grace?’ It could come down to: you can’t believe so try harder! No wonder radical Enlightenment assertion of human ‘freedom’ seemed necessary. Those alternatives are ridiculous. Beeke and Smalley’s readings in Prepared for Grace by Grace are helpful but I just don’t find a final answer there.
ReplyDeleteB. II Corinthians in depth is becoming more important to me as the extended explanation of Paul’s delayed visit. The theme I believe is at the beginning: I share my comfort with you for your comfort but you need to know of my weakness first. Since when I am weak then am I strong in Jesus, joint sharing brings us closer to him, as stated here: 6: 1-13 Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
ReplyDelete7: 11-13 And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you’ve come out of this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for in the first place when I wrote the letter. My primary concern was not for the one who did the wrong or even the one wronged, but for you—that you would realize and act upon the deep, deep ties between us before God. That’s what happened—and we felt just great. The Message.
Now there is a challenging and eye-opening look at what being a believer is like or should be, the Lord’s own alternative to our seeking identity in petty blame-shifting. In Awakening new life begins with the believers, giving credibility to their testimony to others. Is it enough to say, follow Jesus and avoid hell? Isn’t it better to speak of living openly and expansively? Or being more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible? Wouldn’t that help us take our flagging attention from some vague undefined grace to a vibrant look at our Savior?
ReplyDeleteI see that very close to Jack Miller’s understanding Paul through the lens of Luke, how God brings us his truth to us personally and in love. It does remind us that our identity and calling is to love the Lord and each other, much more than escaping hell, and that sin is in our exalting our feeble godlets in the face of the Lord who is there and never silent. There is a trust in Jesus Christ that we seek for ourselves and others, larger than what can be explained but must be lived.
ReplyDeleteI think also of recent work in ‘transcendental’ apologetics. Why should we be content merely with a god who is first cause when the real Lord gives reality and meaning to our lives in every way? This is especially true with the John Frame Triad that opens up for us the many dimensions of meaning in our lives in Jesus Christ. Then that goes immediately to David Powlison and his counseling colleagues, building upon the nouthetic breakthrough of Jay Adams but also Frame. Include our clearer understanding of the ordo salutis as we now see ‘union with Christ’ not as a distant mystery but as the source of all our blessings, now and then. Compare the Westminster Confession 8:8 on ‘Christ the Mediator’: To all those for whom Christ hath purchased redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same; making intercession for them, and revealing unto them, in and by the Word, the mysteries of salvation; effectually persuading them by his Spirit to believe and obey, and governing their hearts by his Word and Spirit; overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner, and ways, as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation.
ReplyDeleteThe biblical gospel is so rich and deep and personal. Why have we offered it in such a puny ‘New England’ way?
ReplyDelete(‘Preparation’ seems misleading to me. I find it makes much more sense to come to recognize retrospectively and comparatively the depths of our degradation, as in Berkouwer’s Sin, ‘knowledge of sin through the gospel.’)
C. ‘Applying’ God’s word describes what happens when Scripture is experienced as life-changing, when events or sayings thousands of years old become vividly timely and relevant. Before the Awakening that was not at all true; the best that could be said for preaching was that it was informative and interesting. Then the Awakening restored the reality that God was speaking to and for you and me, pro me. When God did that before, it challenged and changed the lives of those who heard it and that is what happens today—when we rely on it and pray for it.
ReplyDeleteDispensationalists have helped us with our eschatological perspective, as the grand story brings us to its climax. But when they told us again and again, that is not for you but for the Jews, they also did us harm. They intended to safeguard us from historical relativism but at the too great price of robbing us of biblical relevance. (That seems similar to recent developments at Westminster Seminary, when OT scholars focussing on the historical relevance of the text are no longer welcome).
For whatever reasons biblical application is rare today. We have streamlined dispensationalism and no longer need to talk about the Jews; it is more than enough just to avoid any relevance for us today. I do not really understand why, but am sure this underlines our deep need for application and relevance, and indeed Awakening, right now. Without it where is our gospel at all? This is where seminaries need to be, and preachers and all of us as we open God’s word. Then the Lord’s blessing of his strong presence in our hearts and lives will be so much clearer, I am positive.
D. ’Someone must have prayed’—in my teens I heard that again and again from my mentor Dave as another unplanned and unexpected rich blessing came to us. Any look at Awakening reveals the Lord’s people in vigorous and persistent prayer before it happened. Today as we look at the increasingly godless world all around us, it’s easy to get stuck in thinking that so much will have to change before the gospel of Jesus Christ can make any difference again. Is that how we should be praying now, for all those things to happen first, in the next century or so? Since Awakening couldn’t possibly come right now?
ReplyDeleteDoes the Lord hear our prayers like now and then and definitely not now? Since though Christ is risen indeed and the Holy Spirit has been given, indeed too, we are sure that the fields are so dry that there can be no harvest? I believe the Lord has given us so much needed wisdom in the remarkable little book Prayer by Norwegian O. Hallesby. Here it is, read it right now!
http://www.prayermeetings.org/files/P_Prayer_O_Hallesby.pdf
This is how the Lord and Hallesby opened my eyes: our Father is not sulking away from us until we get right the sincerity quotient level in our prayers. No, he is the one whose idea it is, that we not be alone while Jesus is away. He keeps knocking on the door, eager for us to come out to talk. He takes note of all we say—that he gives us more than we ask for doesn’t mean he tunes out. Don’t settle with him like how you treat your old best friends by calling up once a year, keep in touch throughout the day. Sure, bring up your sins too, he wants to hear your take on them too. Tell him about how discouraged you are, he has a plan. Oh, ask for Application and Awakening too, a lot—if that’s too hard ask for help.
I got couple things from others. From Jack Miller, pray for your praying. From Paul Miller’s Praying Life, especially the cynicism chapter to see what the exact opposite of prayer looks like.
II Corinthians opened up the Lord’s much bigger plan and vision for us and for those still outside, so what should we be doing with that bigger picture? Talk with him about it, thanking him and asking him to show you and all of us the next step to take and how to do it.
I’m thinking we know enough about it by now, so let’s just get with it. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full.
D. Clair Davis
What is life but a Spectrum and what is music but life itself.
ReplyDeleteBilly Cobham
Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/35754-Billy_Cobham
I think it's really important to be able to be honest with yourself and to know philosophically speaking what you've done wrong and when you've made a mistake, and acknowledge that, because you only learn from it.
ReplyDeleteBilly Cobham
Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/35754-Billy_Cobham
Very much enjoying my Mahavishnu Orchestra (1) complete albums remastered series.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteKeep on writing, great job!
thanks...
ReplyDeleteThe last few days, a co-worker named Frank, Mom's Station Nurse and Mom's social worker [I rep. for my Mom] have told me I work too many hrs. True enough but the blogging is not going to go as I need it for sanity and work related, Mom helps me with meals but she still needs overall help and I live upstairs, plus I am always looking for better work...with PhD would be nice. And I still socialize more than when I was a student. Just the way w. society is today...I have told work NO 12 hr shifts and others that are getting called often are beginning to follow my lead. A company needs to cover with new employees.
ReplyDelete