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Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Religions & Faiths > Christianity

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  #11  
Old 19-05-2020, 02:48 PM
keepitsimple keepitsimple is offline
Pathfinder
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 51
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ketzer
What I find interesting is that the trap the story was putting Jesus into is the same trap we all face during life. On the one hand the very structure of the life experience is a food web where organisms must struggle to survive.

... This is reminiscent of the advice Krishna gives to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita when he feels he cannot go to war against his own kin ... Life will keep placing these sorts of good vs evil dilemmas in front of us, whatever we end up doing, our state of mind when and why we do them is what is important.

... the fruit of our actions, is not in our control, but our intentions for those actions are.

I cut my favourite parts of the quote, hope you don't mind. And i think this is more important that what i'm looking for at the moment ... I particularly like "the very structure of the life experience is a food web where organisms must struggle to survive." and just think again, how lucky humans are these days, not to have to worry about getting eaten alive ... but that was a such good motive for being aware in the present moment ...

anyway, with a little more research on "the things God has revealed to us" i think this is what I'm looking for.

1 Corinthians 2, 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” —
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

So it follows that what our eyes see and hear and what our minds can conceive, are the things which belong to us, the things we can do, and are responsible for.

Jesus was a poet. And i love him, and i love the simplicity of for example, the greatest commandment. But his books are often confusing and illogical ...
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  #12  
Old 19-05-2020, 04:03 PM
ketzer
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by keepitsimple
I cut my favourite parts of the quote, hope you don't mind. And i think this is more important that what i'm looking for at the moment ... I particularly like "the very structure of the life experience is a food web where organisms must struggle to survive." and just think again, how lucky humans are these days, not to have to worry about getting eaten alive ... but that was a such good motive for being aware in the present moment ...

anyway, with a little more research on "the things God has revealed to us" i think this is what I'm looking for.

1 Corinthians 2, 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” —
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

So it follows that what our eyes see and hear and what our minds can conceive, are the things which belong to us, the things we can do, and are responsible for.

Jesus was a poet. And i love him, and i love the simplicity of for example, the greatest commandment. But his books are often confusing and illogical ...
Yes, most humans are lucky enough to be sitting firmly atop of that food chain. That said, I was using the food web as a metaphor, we humans tend to eat each other, which is often hard to square with loving they neighbor. I like that quote you gave, the material world and experience of it, IMBG, are really just pointers and metaphors for the deeper truths that as you put it, God reveals to us by his Spirit. Things beyond the direct reach of the human eyes, ears, and mind that belong to us during our human experience. Jesus used metaphor and parable to convey that which was not conveyable in the same way if he had used direct exposition. I expect his books are confusing and illogical because he never actually wrote them. They were written by others and the words and teachings attributed to him. In some cases I suspect they are not his words, and in other cases I expect the author did not really understand what Jesus was saying. And of course, sometimes we do not have the ears we need to have to hear them properly. In any case, there seems to be a great deal remaining that I like quite a bit.
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  #13  
Old 19-05-2020, 04:05 PM
Molearner Molearner is offline
Master
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 4,458
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ketzer
Also, Mark 12:17
…16So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they answered. 17Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” And they marveled at Him.

ketzer,

'And they marveled at him'......why ? I would suggest the marvel was that Jesus put into true perspective what is really important. That being to give to God what is God's. And the thing that belongs to God is us. We are the ones made in the image of God. The image of Caesar, especially on a coin, is a vivid representation of the literal material world. Technically the image of Caesar was a graven image. "The love of money is the root of all evil". The words of Jesus was a call to remember what is genuinely important.
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  #14  
Old 19-05-2020, 04:57 PM
ketzer
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Molearner
ketzer,
The words of Jesus was a call to remember what is genuinely important.
Yes, I expect so. Which begs the questions:
What is it that is genuinely important?
What is it that is not genuinely important?
Why?
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  #15  
Old 19-05-2020, 05:06 PM
Molearner Molearner is offline
Master
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 4,458
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ketzer
Yes, I expect so. Which begs the questions:
What is it that is genuinely important?
What is it that is not genuinely important?
Why?

Ketzer,

Better start working on two lists ? That will give us plenty to disagree on...:)
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  #16  
Old 19-05-2020, 05:20 PM
ImthatIm
Posts: n/a
 
I thought all things were God's.

We do have responsibilities of care taking and guarding
the things of God.
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  #17  
Old 20-05-2020, 02:37 AM
ketzer
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Molearner
Ketzer,

Better start working on two lists ? That will give us plenty to disagree on...:)
Thing is, I have been turned off by lists lately. x pillars, n noble truths, 7 helpful tips the please the lord thy God.

I expect anything I could put on the first list is something I could put on the second as well, and then make a case for both.

I think perhaps it is best to stick to the point before where we both agreed. I think we can both agree it is important "to remember what is genuinely important." We can be the ideas guys, the rest is just details and grunt work anyway.

P.S. That quote you gave earlier, "The love of money is the root of all evil". Every time I hear it or something like it I always recall a quote from a play, it was a version A Christmas Carol I attended long ago but it has stuck with me ever since.
“This is the even-handed dealing of the world!” he said. “There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!” Ebenezer Scrooge
Of course in the end ol Ebenezer figures that particular quandary out, but he did have quite a bit of help and had amassed his fortune by then.
"May it be said of us, along with Ebenezer Scrooge, that we know how to keep Christmas well!"
Not always such an easy thing to do in this world.
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