Skip to main content

The IDP of IDPs


He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 

According to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, internally displaced persons (also known as "IDPs") are "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border." (The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

See if the person above fits that definition:

He was often homeless in the later part of his life.

He was despised and rejected.

As a teacher of the things of God, he was hated by the religious establishment leaders.

He was told he was demon possessed.

He had so many followers that the religious leaders, out of envy and jealousy, delivered him up for a sham trial.

False witness testified against him during the trial.

During his trial, some of the governing authorities treated him with contempt and even subjected him to beatings.

While he was innocent, he was given the death sentence.

On an annual day of amnesty, given an opportunity to have him released, the religious leaders asked for a known criminal to be released instead of this innocent man.

The manner of his execution was very public and very humiliating.

During his execution, many of his own people scoffed at him and hurled insults at him.

Sure seems like a possible good fit to the definition!  But, he did cross some borders and, as such, he actually does not fully meet it.  Yet, it still could be argued that he was one of the most Internally Displaced Persons in the history of the world, if not the most!   And most interestingly, this man voluntarily submitted himself to all those obvious violations of human rights.

What about the borders that he crossed?

He left heaven to walk this earth.  The One who dwelt in eternity entered our dimension of time.  The infinite God put on the constraints of human flesh. 

Ironically, He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him (John 1:10).  And yet, his displacement while on this earth put him exactly where we needed him most. 

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (John 1:11).   But to those who do receive him, who believed in his name (this Jesus, this IDP) he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Excel Still More!

To excel, according to some of the meanings from a few dictionaries, is to surpass others, do extremely well, outdo, do something better than anyone else. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, we find the phrase “excel still more”.   It prompts the question:  if we are already doing something better than anyone else, why would we be encouraged to do even more? Perhaps it would be helpful to see the wording that other translations use for “excel still more” to see why we would be encouraged to do so.  Here is a sampling: • abound more and more • to keep doing so more and more • but try even harder • live that way more and more. • that you progress even more. • that you increase more and more in how you ought to walk Maybe it would also be helpful to see some other verses where the word “excel” is used: “Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means Dorcas); this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.”...

New Year Trash or Treasure?

You probably know the old saying:  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.  I am not going to try to prove or disprove it, just look at it from a different angle. Cheryl and I were recently walking on a beach in Florida .  A man was walking along with a bag and was picking up trash and putting it in the bag.  Was he picking up things of value? We also saw a different man walking along the same beach with a metal detector.  He would swing it back and forth and would occasionally stop and dig in the sand.  Was he looking for things of value? Both were intent.  Both were focused.  Both were diligent. I’m guessing that the one picking up trash was not looking for things of value.  I’m also guessing that, by picking up trash, he was valuing the beauty of the beach and didn’t want the trash to mar it.  The one with the metal detector, I’m guessing that he was not looking for metallic items of trash but was looking for...

Value Proposition

Value proposition:  it’s a marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.  It should clearly and concisely communicate what customers can gain from selecting a particular brand over that of its competitors. In a value proposition, you don’t want your product to be viewed as being worth less than what your competitors offer.   But even worse, in a bit of a quirk of how letters and spaces can fall, if you take out the space between “worth” and “less”, you get “worthless”, which means something of no value.   If that word is used in conjunction with how your product is viewed by customers, it’s a word that will likely kill your brand. In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul, in a sense, communicated some value propositions. In chapter three, he starts off with describing the value of some things that many considered as extremely valuable in that day and age.   They had to do with status and achievement in the reli...