NATURE VERSUS NURTURE

Hello all of you Human Beans...that's right...beans. There are many types of beans and many ways to cook those beans...but the bottom line...they are beans.
According to the World Population Clock...as of 04/06/09...the world population of human beans is...6,771,519,545...give or take a bean or two.

"For God so loved the 6,771,519,545...that He gave His only begotten Son...that whosoever of those 6,771,519,545 believes in Him...should NOT PERISH but have everlasting/eternal life." (John 3:16 RSV...Ruminator Standard Version) How 'bout dem odds.....................6,771,519,545 to ONE.

I've been thinking about how everyone in the world...has their own personal lives and experiences....but they all have something in common.

"The rich and the poor have this in common...the Lord is the maker of them all." (Proverbs 22:2)

Another thing that we have in common is the fact that we are spirit, soul, and body. "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your (1) spirit (2) soul (3) body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thessalonians 5:23)

In human bean development...there is much continued debate about HOW we develop as humans....in the areas of (1) personality (2) socially (3) emotional behaviour (4) intelligence (5) language. The great debate is:

NATURE versus NURTURE.

Nature (innate, nativism, innatism) is the expression of genetics...the basis for development. NATURE proponents declare that we are born with everything we need for our entire life. The DNA (Deoxyribonucleicacid) is the blueprint...code...for life. This includes how we look to how we speak. If you were born and then placed on an island...the naturist state that your language will develop naturally.

Nurture (personal experience, empiricism, behaviorism) is the expression of everything you experience...the good, the bad and the ugly. John Locke calls this tabula rasa (Latin) for BLANK SLATE. NURTURE proponents states that everyone is born with a CLEAN/BLANK SLATE and our sensory/environmental experiences is where we develop our (1) personality (2) social lifestyle (3) emotional behavior (3) intelligence (4) language (5) and everything else

The nature versus nurture joke is....two ducks talking to each other. One duck says...well...you walk like a duck, you quack like a duck...may I ask who brought you up. The Saturday Evening Post picture is one of a scrawny young boy...trying to break free from the slate that he was given at birth...with hopes of developing into a muscle man. NOTE: This picture...literally looks like me as a young boy facial features and all.


Man (male) and Wo-man (female)...were made in the IMAGE of God. He gave them BOTH authority...blessed them BOTH...He provided for BOTH...and He saw that BOTH were VERY GOOD. (Genesis 1:26-31) Most likely...neither Adam or Eve had belly buttons...since they were NOT born in the traditional sense...but were created out of nothing and developed out of a rib.

We are born as individuals. Each one of the 6,771,519,545 individual human beans have another thing in common....FINGERPRINTS. Each one as individual as a snowflake falling softly to the ground...but collectively as a snowflake becomes combined with snow on the earth...the individual collectively become the WORLD.

I personally believe that just like we have DNA that is the blueprint for everything we need....BUT...our individual experiences shapes who we are.

Remember that we have a body/soma (flesh, blood, bones, etc.). We have a soul/psyche (mind, volition/free will/choices, and emotions). We are a spirit/pneuma (the core of who we are...the lamp of the Lord).

When Adam/Eve choose to disobey God...aka original sin...this sin affected all of our spiritual genetic makeup. "Therefore, just as through one man sin (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death through sin...and so death spread to all men/women (you and me)...because ALL SINNED." (Romans 5:12)

"For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this...that ONE (Jesus) died for ALL (you and me)...therefore ALL died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." (II Corinthians 5:14,15)

"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit." (I Peter 3:18)

The phrase "soul"..."soul man"..."soul food"..."soul music"... etc...has roots in the African American community...that extends from Africa...to the cotton fields...through racist America...through the 60's into this new millennium. It speaks of the personal and collective experience (good, bad, and ugly)...and how these experiences shapes what and how we think...the choices that we make... and the expression of our emotions.

This shaping of our SOULS...as individual human beans is not necessarily exclusive to the African American community. The things that we experience (the good, bad, and ugly) as individuals in the sea of 6,771,519,545 people...touch and affect who and what we are and do.

JESUS THE CHRIST (Anointed One...anointed with yoke destroying, burden lifting, oppression removing, healing power of the Holy Ghost)...came to RESTORE our lost spiritual DNA. The spiritual DNA helix was split...and there was separation between us and God...Jesus came to restore our relationship with the Father.

Now...what got me to ruminating about this Rambling...is how I view individuals. If...the LOVE OF CHRIST controls me...and I have concluded that ONE DIED FOR ALL...and that if I truly believe that....He died and rose again on the behalf of those who He died for...then that should affect the way I view individual people. (II Corinthians 5:15). The next verse starts of with THEREFORE. This means that what follows next is connected by what we just read.

"Therefore...FROM NOW ON (from this point until He returns)...we recognize NO MAN...according to the FLESH...even though we have known Christ according to the flesh...yet now we know Him thus no longer." (II Corinthians 5:16) If I am ever going to truly be a minister of reconciliation and ambassador for Christ (II Corinthians 5:18-20)...I have to break from how I VIEW people...individuals...the world... the 6,771,519,545 people in the world.

This does not mean that you overlook sins...but you do not...COUNT THEIR TRESPASSES AGAINST THEM. (II Corinthians 5:19) This is how we can become ambassadors for Christ...as though God were entreating THROUGH US...and we BEG THEM on behalf of Christ to BE RECONCILED TO GOD. (II Corinthians 5:20). NOTE: It is hard to love someone....when you hate them...or as we Christianize it... "Oh I love the sinner...but hate the sin."

When you read..."As it is written...THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS...NO NOT ONE." (Romans 3:10)...and then read Paul's view..."The RIGHTEOUS shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)...there must be something that happened between those two points. What happened is JESUS. "He (the Father)...made Him (Jesus)...who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf (propitiation, substitute, satisfaction for the Father)...that we MIGHT BECOME...the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM."

This is a spiritual fact...that we are to present to a lost and dying world...so they can make a choice of their free will to accept what He did. This will change the very nature of their NATURE versus their NURTURE. A relationship with Jesus will change the core of who they are...to what they have become in this worldly environment that shapes who we are and what we do.

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY.

"I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God...to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable/well-pleasing to God...which is your reasonable/spiritual service of worship. And do not be CONFORMED (shaped to the environmental things) to this world...BUT be TRANSFORMED (metamorphosed like a butterfly)...by the renewing of your mind (what you think shaped by what God thinks)...that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1,2)

Love and Transformed Kisses
Rodney "A Renewed Soul Man" Boyd