This has a good message

[glass man]

NEITHER HAVE YOU CORDO AND NEITHER HAVE YOU!

LORD ONLY KNOWS HOW MANY HAVE GONE THROUGH WATCHING THIER FAMILY DIE JUST FOR TALKING ABOUT THE LOVE OF GOD AND YET KEEP THE FAITH! I HAVE SEEN SOME PRETTY TOUGH THINGS,BUT NO WHERE AS MUCH AS MANY ,MANY HAVE BEEN THROUGH!

IT SAYS IN ROMANS "WE ARE AS SHEEP LED ALL THE DAY TO THE SLAUGHTER",BUT WE KEEP ON!

IT ALSO SAYS IF WE ARE WRONG IN WHAT WE BELIEVE THEN WE AMONG ALL MEN ARE MOST MISERABLE"! I AM CONVINCED IN WHOM I BELIEVE LIVES. I ALSO AM CONVINCED THIS PLACE AIN'T NOTHING BUT A SMALL BUMP IN THE ROAD TO WHERE YOU AND I AND SO MANY OTHERS ARE GOING!

I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF DEATH OF MY LOVED ONES OVER THE LAST 15 YEARS AND KNOW IT COMES FOR ME,BUT LIKE DAVID SAID"O DEATH WHERE IS YOUR STING? O GRAVE WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?"

DEATH IS LIKE A "LIVING ENTITY"[OXMORON?] ,BUT IT SAYS DEATH IS THE LAST ENEMY JESUS WILL PUT DOWN!THANK GOD FOR ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! [&:] JAMIE

 

[Plumbata]

Some may claim that the Good Book is the inspired opus of God transcribed by the hands of faithful humans, and if it helps you lead a better life then so be it. In reality, the Bible was tweaked and pruned by men with positions of authority in what was to become the Roman Catholic church, many years after much of what was originally associated with various Christian belief systems was recorded. The teachings which opposed the authority and control of a centralized church were specifically removed from the Canonical Bible, and ordered to be destroyed. This fact led me to question the veracity of the Book itself, despite the many good teachings contained within. No one present during the canonical reforms of the 4th century had ever met Jesus, so their decisions regarding what was worthy were based upon the preservation of their power and authority, not the true teachings of Christ.

To digress for a moment, I want to say that you, Glass Man, are an awesome and honest human being, and since what you believe suits you well, I have no right to replace it. I tend to maintain a stance of religious and spiritual relativism, despite my own beliefs, and respect your opinions even if they don't reflect my own. Keep on keepin' on, and don't let me or anyone else cause you to stray from your righteous path.

Included in the body of works which were purged are the Gnostic Gospels, which hold a great deal of wisdom in my mind, moreso than I have seen in much of the Bible. To quote wikipedia (a transgression anyone riding the academic high horse would never allow...):

"The name "Christian gnostics" came to represent a segment of the Early Christian community that believed that salvation lay not in merely worshipping Christ, but in psychic or pneumatic souls learning to free themselves from the material world via the revelation. According to this tradition, the answers to spiritual questions are to be found within not without. Furthermore, the gnostic path does not require the intermediation of a church for salvation."

Now allow me to quote from the Gnostic gospel of Thomas:

Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 3)

This awareness represents exactly what Christianity should preach. Unfortunately, that takes an open mind and an abandonment of the organization and authority claimed by the church. One can not standardize and make orthodox something as subjective as the personal quest for truth and understanding of self and of the essence of the universe when proselytizing dullards who need it stated sweet and simple. According to Thomas, Jesus blatantly says that if you do not know yourself and instead focus on what everyone else thinks and does for knowledge about the nature of the world, then you dwell in poverty and you are that poverty. Look at the way religion works in the present day. People are led by preachers or priests, and by the dogma of their version of Christianity. This ancient saying states that you will not enter the kingdom because you will not know what it is nor where to look, unless you look inwards and discover The Understanding. This resembles Buddhism, as far as I understand it, and carries far more truth than is usually found in Christian teachings, as I understand them. It is believed by some that Jesus traveled around the East during the period of time that is not documented in the Gospels, so it is reasonable to assume that he was influenced by Eastern teachings, if this is true. Perhaps it was through his experiences that "God" spoke to and through him, but after almost 2,000 years of alterations, misappropriations, and intentional skewing I tend to be critical of the absolutist claims in the present manifestation of the Bible.

Logion 5, here in translations from 2 different ancient texts, demonstrates what occurs when one understands the reality behind what one sees and what one is told:

Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face and what has been hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made clear and nothing buried that will not be raised."

Coptic version:

Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 5)

If you recognize reality, then you recognize the foundations and laws that make reality appear the way it does to the senses. That is how you will see the unseen framework of universal organization, and the unseen forces which guide human thought and belief (that which is hidden from you). Nothing hidden from you that won’t be seen with the minds eye, nothing buried beneath the visible surface that you won’t recognize exists despite the fact that it is invisible. You bottle diggers should be able to appreciate the practical implications of this logion, if not the spiritual aspects as well.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like.â€

Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger.â€

Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."

Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."

Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."

And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 13)

You must think about what this episode says between the lines. Here is my interpretation, though it can be interpreted many ways: Jesus' 3 sayings were what Jesus' opinions were of the 3 apostles. Jesus said that Peter and Matthew were wrong, stupid, or blind to the fact that Jesus and his wisdom were indeed incomprehensible by normal means and inexplicable with human language. In other associated ancient non-canonical scriptures, there are several references to becoming like a child when one finds the kingdom. Childlike in ones openness to everything, childlike in the appreciation of the beautiful scheme behind what is seen. Peter and Matthew both have had their minds closed to the reality of Jesus and the universe; they had the filters between them and reality, between their mind and the kingdom within themselves. They were analytical and absolutist, whereas Thomas knew that he couldn't put Jesus through filters and into the categories and stereotypes that Matthew and Peter did, and related his inability to categorize he who could not be categorized. Like a child, Thomas called him teacher, and to a child’s perspective with the strength and understanding to endure it, Jesus directed the reprimand, intentionally doing so with the audience of Peter and Matthew. Then Jesus took Thomas aside and told him three secret sayings, which Thomas could both understand in terms of true reality and emotionally handle, whereas merely one saying spoken to Matthew or Peter would stir them into such a resentful rage that they would stone to death their good friend and fellow apostle. I imagine that the fire is a metaphor for damnation, but I am human and may be wrong. Jesus could not entrust such information to the lesser two of the three, and thus gave it to he who understood what Jesus’ teachings truly were.

Do you understand what this means? It is incredible. The legitimate writings of the other apostles were purged during the canonical reforms of the 4th century. These sayings actually predate much of what is included in the New Testament. "Doubting" Thomas was smart, and he understood the nature and essence of Christ and his teachings rather than blindly mimicking Jesus' externals and formulae for grace like the bulk of his flock. The plentiful sheep aren't particularly intelligent or insightful (see logion 3), which is why Christianity after 300 years was formatted to be clear-cut and simple, in order to cater to the lowest common denominator (which is its present manifestation). Many people don't have all that much to observe when they look inwards, so the teachings that the kingdom is nowhere, but it is inside you and it is outside you would thoroughly baffle such people. We have brains, and they are to be used for thinking, introspection and self improvement, not for perpetuating our animalistic mediocrities and then expecting forgiveness because we believe in God because society told us to, and because we go to church on Sundays. Many people simply don't have the fortitude to look at things as they are in reality. It's not necessarily their fault that they are blind, but what is their fault is that they don't try to gain sight, and that they are wasting their life by neglecting the manifestation of their self which would be possible through the search for non-dogmatic wisdom. You can't gain the grace of the kingdom by blindly following a formula handed down over the generations, you need to look for it consciously with your mind's eye.

His disciples questioned him and said, "How should we fast and how should we pray, and how should we do charitable deeds and what food law should we observe?"
Jesus said, "Do not lie, and that which you hate, do not do because everything is evident before the truth. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made clear."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 6)

Jesus says that it doesn't matter what you do, what matters is what you understand and what you do with it. If you go to church every Sunday but do it for the wrong reason, then it is worse than not going at all. If you take communion along with everyone else, but are doing so with an impure spirit then you will be damned. If you love God because you want to go to heaven, then you will get nothing. Think about it.

I believe in Jesus, and I believe that he was an incredible human being, but I do not believe that he was the direct progeny of God. He had deep insights which I can scarcely grasp, and taught a way of engaging the world and one's spirit which excluded nobody, regardless of lifestyle or ethnicity. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian, and to for modern Christians to claim the afterlife for themselves is an exercise in ignorance. I have no desire to live forever as a conscious entity, as that makes no sense, but I do believe in living a good life. If there is indeed a heaven, then a just God will not refuse the admittance of good people due to their socially constructed beliefs, or lack thereof.

Now to address other matters...

Cordillerian, you would be the absolute last person I would expect to admonish someone for supposedly riding the high academic horse. You remind me of a friend who is majoring in English/Journalism, and thinks that the verbal complexity of his statements denote an intellectual capacity far greater than it is in reality. Not to say that you aren't brilliant, but such verbal facades do not blind me to the underlying truth; my friend is insecure and nowhere near the level of intellectual capacity which he claims, but since big words, intricate statments, and obscure references are construed as evidence of a great mind in this society, that is his focus, and perhaps yours as well. How self-edifying. When it comes to common sense, however, he is a complete idiot. I can see right through what you write, directly into the mind which created the complex fabrications, and I see nothing as profound as the abstruse rhetoric would lead one to believe. Perhaps you see the same in me, but keep in mind that I don't feel the need to utilize the full extent of my vocabulary here, and I am more than 30 years younger and less educated than you anyway. Plenty of time to learn and internalize fancy new words, idiomatic phrases, and uncommon references to be used at coctail parties and during battles-of-wits. Despite my criticisms, know that i still respect you, and honestly I like you, despite the fact I am not fooled by you.

I, like antiquenut, learn far more from the experience of life than through the reading of someone's subjective opinion. This holds true for the Bible, as well. When the experience of life has taught you how the human mind develops, as influenced by one's social environment, you become skeptcal of everything, even your own beliefs.

 

[ancientdigger69]

HOLY COW!!!! no pun intended.

 

[glass man]

ORIGINAL: Plumbata

Some may claim that the Good Book is the inspired opus of God transcribed by the hands of faithful humans, and if it helps you lead a better life then so be it. In reality, the Bible was tweaked and pruned by men with positions of authority in what was to become the Roman Catholic church, many years after much of what was originally associated with various Christian belief systems was recorded. The teachings which opposed the authority and control of a centralized church were specifically removed from the Canonical Bible, and ordered to be destroyed. This fact led me to question the veracity of the Book itself, despite the many good teachings contained within. No one present during the canonical reforms of the 4th century had ever met Jesus, so their decisions regarding what was worthy were based upon the preservation of their power and authority, not the true teachings of Christ.

To digress for a moment, I want to say that you, Glass Man, are an awesome and honest human being, and since what you believe suits you well, I have no right to replace it. I tend to maintain a stance of religious and spiritual relativism, despite my own beliefs, and respect your opinions even if they don't reflect my own. Keep on keepin' on, and don't let me or anyone else cause you to stray from your righteous path.

Included in the body of works which were purged are the Gnostic Gospels, which hold a great deal of wisdom in my mind, moreso than I have seen in much of the Bible. To quote wikipedia (a transgression anyone riding the academic high horse would never allow...):

"The name "Christian gnostics" came to represent a segment of the Early Christian community that believed that salvation lay not in merely worshipping Christ, but in psychic or pneumatic souls learning to free themselves from the material world via the revelation. According to this tradition, the answers to spiritual questions are to be found within not without. Furthermore, the gnostic path does not require the intermediation of a church for salvation."

Now allow me to quote from the Gnostic gospel of Thomas:

Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 3)

This awareness represents exactly what Christianity should preach. Unfortunately, that takes an open mind and an abandonment of the organization and authority claimed by the church. One can not standardize and make orthodox something as subjective as the personal quest for truth and understanding of self and of the essence of the universe when proselytizing dullards who need it stated sweet and simple. According to Thomas, Jesus blatantly says that if you do not know yourself and instead focus on what everyone else thinks and does for knowledge about the nature of the world, then you dwell in poverty and you are that poverty. Look at the way religion works in the present day. People are led by preachers or priests, and by the dogma of their version of Christianity. This ancient saying states that you will not enter the kingdom because you will not know what it is nor where to look, unless you look inwards and discover The Understanding. This resembles Buddhism, as far as I understand it, and carries far more truth than is usually found in Christian teachings, as I understand them. It is believed by some that Jesus traveled around the East during the period of time that is not documented in the Gospels, so it is reasonable to assume that he was influenced by Eastern teachings, if this is true. Perhaps it was through his experiences that "God" spoke to and through him, but after almost 2,000 years of alterations, misappropriations, and intentional skewing I tend to be critical of the absolutist claims in the present manifestation of the Bible.

Logion 5, here in translations from 2 different ancient texts, demonstrates what occurs when one understands the reality behind what one sees and what one is told:

Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face and what has been hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made clear and nothing buried that will not be raised."

Coptic version:

Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 5)

If you recognize reality, then you recognize the foundations and laws that make reality appear the way it does to the senses. That is how you will see the unseen framework of universal organization, and the unseen forces which guide human thought and belief (that which is hidden from you). Nothing hidden from you that won’t be seen with the minds eye, nothing buried beneath the visible surface that you won’t recognize exists despite the fact that it is invisible. You bottle diggers should be able to appreciate the practical implications of this logion, if not the spiritual aspects as well.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like.â€

Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger.â€

Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."

Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."

Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."

And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 13)

You must think about what this episode says between the lines. Here is my interpretation, though it can be interpreted many ways: Jesus' 3 sayings were what Jesus' opinions were of the 3 apostles. Jesus said that Peter and Matthew were wrong, stupid, or blind to the fact that Jesus and his wisdom were indeed incomprehensible by normal means and inexplicable with human language. In other associated ancient non-canonical scriptures, there are several references to becoming like a child when one finds the kingdom. Childlike in ones openness to everything, childlike in the appreciation of the beautiful scheme behind what is seen. Peter and Matthew both have had their minds closed to the reality of Jesus and the universe; they had the filters between them and reality, between their mind and the kingdom within themselves. They were analytical and absolutist, whereas Thomas knew that he couldn't put Jesus through filters and into the categories and stereotypes that Matthew and Peter did, and related his inability to categorize he who could not be categorized. Like a child, Thomas called him teacher, and to a child’s perspective with the strength and understanding to endure it, Jesus directed the reprimand, intentionally doing so with the audience of Peter and Matthew. Then Jesus took Thomas aside and told him three secret sayings, which Thomas could both understand in terms of true reality and emotionally handle, whereas merely one saying spoken to Matthew or Peter would stir them into such a resentful rage that they would stone to death their good friend and fellow apostle. I imagine that the fire is a metaphor for damnation, but I am human and may be wrong. Jesus could not entrust such information to the lesser two of the three, and thus gave it to he who understood what Jesus’ teachings truly were.

Do you understand what this means? It is incredible. The legitimate writings of the other apostles were purged during the canonical reforms of the 4th century. These sayings actually predate much of what is included in the New Testament. "Doubting" Thomas was smart, and he understood the nature and essence of Christ and his teachings rather than blindly mimicking Jesus' externals and formulae for grace like the bulk of his flock. The plentiful sheep aren't particularly intelligent or insightful (see logion 3), which is why Christianity after 300 years was formatted to be clear-cut and simple, in order to cater to the lowest common denominator (which is its present manifestation). Many people don't have all that much to observe when they look inwards, so the teachings that the kingdom is nowhere, but it is inside you and it is outside you would thoroughly baffle such people. We have brains, and they are to be used for thinking, introspection and self improvement, not for perpetuating our animalistic mediocrities and then expecting forgiveness because we believe in God because society told us to, and because we go to church on Sundays. Many people simply don't have the fortitude to look at things as they are in reality. It's not necessarily their fault that they are blind, but what is their fault is that they don't try to gain sight, and that they are wasting their life by neglecting the manifestation of their self which would be possible through the search for non-dogmatic wisdom. You can't gain the grace of the kingdom by blindly following a formula handed down over the generations, you need to look for it consciously with your mind's eye.

His disciples questioned him and said, "How should we fast and how should we pray, and how should we do charitable deeds and what food law should we observe?"
Jesus said, "Do not lie, and that which you hate, do not do because everything is evident before the truth. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made clear."
- The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas (logion 6)

Jesus says that it doesn't matter what you do, what matters is what you understand and what you do with it. If you go to church every Sunday but do it for the wrong reason, then it is worse than not going at all. If you take communion along with everyone else, but are doing so with an impure spirit then you will be damned. If you love God because you want to go to heaven, then you will get nothing. Think about it.

I believe in Jesus, and I believe that he was an incredible human being, but I do not believe that he was the direct progeny of God. He had deep insights which I can scarcely grasp, and taught a way of engaging the world and one's spirit which excluded nobody, regardless of lifestyle or ethnicity. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian, and to for modern Christians to claim the afterlife for themselves is an exercise in ignorance. I have no desire to live forever as a conscious entity, as that makes no sense, but I do believe in living a good life. If there is indeed a heaven, then a just God will not refuse the admittance of good people due to their socially constructed beliefs, or lack thereof.

Now to address other matters...

Cordillerian, you would be the absolute last person I would expect to admonish someone for supposedly riding the high academic horse. You remind me of a friend who is majoring in English/Journalism, and thinks that the verbal complexity of his statements denote an intellectual capacity far greater than it is in reality. Not to say that you aren't brilliant, but such verbal facades do not blind me to the underlying truth; my friend is insecure and nowhere near the level of intellectual capacity which he claims, but since big words, intricate statments, and obscure references are construed as evidence of a great mind in this society, that is his focus, and perhaps yours as well. How self-edifying. When it comes to common sense, however, he is a complete idiot. I can see right through what you write, directly into the mind which created the complex fabrications, and I see nothing as profound as the abstruse rhetoric would lead one to believe. Perhaps you see the same in me, but keep in mind that I don't feel the need to utilize the full extent of my vocabulary here, and I am more than 30 years younger and less educated than you anyway. Plenty of time to learn and internalize fancy new words, idiomatic phrases, and uncommon references to be used at coctail parties and during battles-of-wits. Despite my criticisms, know that i still respect you, and honestly I like you, despite the fact I am not fooled by you.

I, like antiquenut, learn far more from the experience of life than through the reading of someone's subjective opinion. This holds true for the Bible, as well. When the experience of life has taught you how the human mind develops, as influenced by one's social environment, you become skeptcal of everything, even your own beliefs.

TALK TO THE LORD ABOUT IT! I AM TOO SIMPLE A PERSON TO KEEP UP WITH WHAT YOU ARE SAYING,BUT HE AIN'T! [&:] JAMIE

 

[Plumbata]

To be perfectly honest, I probably need all the prayers you can offer! [] You amaze me with your goodness Glass Man, and I suppose that is a greater testament to the value of the Bible than anything else. Also, don't say that you are too "simple" to keep up with it. You have your own style of wisdom, and it is probably far more complex than anything I have written. You have your reasons to believe what you believe, so please don't assume such self-deprecating things. As a fellow human being, I have love for you, and everyone else too. I just hope that one day I will possess the strength of conviction in *something* that you now hold. Oh the tribulations of relativism, now they make all which seems certain uncertain. Take care man, my secular prayers will be with you too, for what it's worth.

 

[cordilleran]

'Inter' and 'legere.' The marriage of these Latin words gives us the concept of choosing between options. Intelligence. One of the functions of intelligence is the consideration of the dangers that come from trusting solely in intelligence. Wisdom stems from experience and imagination grows by exercise. Unfortunately, ignorance of ignorance is the death of collective knowledge and there is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action. Now my point.

Thinkers are iconoclasts. Iconoclasts are non-conformers. Conformity in a society pulling its corset of control ever tighter cannot suffer free thinkers. Options narrow, ideology usurps intellectual inquiry, wisdom is derived from state-sponsored mouthpieces and imagination follows the path of least resistance to wallow in the shallow pool of solecism, lolspeak and bald-faced mendacity heralded as unassailable truth. Behold the epoch of the Neo-Medieval age. In the final tally, every government serves as an exact symbol and representation of its people, with their wisdom and unwisdom. Our species highlights great leaps of insight owing to a scant few who were allowed to flex their freedom of thought. From the few benefit comes to the many. When the ligature tightens, however, intelligence and wisdom (the greatest of life's bedpartners) succumb to asphixiation; it seems these two virtual iconoclasts need room to breathe and yes, breed.

In a culture of mediocrity an intellectual maverick cannot be tolerated. Excellence is reviled as casting negative aspersions on comrades who cannot or will not aspire for the best performance available. Those perceiving themselves as conceptual rebels are nothing more than mawkish stereotypical parodies of subjective self-loathing available on CD and coming to a big screen inescapably near all of us. Advise your aspiring journalist friend that the newsroom has now devolved into the center for mindless indoctrination. Pay is low and opportunities for free thinkers nonexistant. Dropping out of school early and becoming a pornographer or crack dealer apparently have greater remunerative rewards. After all, we recognize those societally with the fattest plums who either feed our fantasies or provide the vehicle of amnesia for failures.

As for you, Plumbata, I too have a respect for you, my fledgling intellectual. I suspect that you've already experienced alienation from your peers growing up. Likely you have been buffeted by indifference from family who may think some of your lofty ideas fall short of practicality and may call question upon your very sanity. Rest assured that as you add wisdom to your curriculum vitae, when your infallible gumline recedes along with your hair, your short-term memory grows shorter and remembrances of things long past grow all-the-fonder, you will be faced with two options: blissful forgiveness of dreams unrealized due not to your own failings but owing to your culture of mind, or the descent into a jade-lined hell; a bitter curmudgeon's paradise -- your only solace a vast reservoir of stifled potential that pools at your feet reflective of all the like-minded souls that fell from grace before your day.

 

[RedGinger]

Wow! I think my brain just had a short circuit! [][]

 

[glass man]

ORIGINAL: Plumbata

To be perfectly honest, I probably need all the prayers you can offer! [] You amaze me with your goodness Glass Man, and I suppose that is a greater testament to the value of the Bible than anything else. Also, don't say that you are too "simple" to keep up with it. You have your own style of wisdom, and it is probably far more complex than anything I have written. You have your reasons to believe what you believe, so please don't assume such self-deprecating things. As a fellow human being, I have love for you, and everyone else too. I just hope that one day I will possess the strength of conviction in *something* that you now hold. Oh the tribulations of relativism, now they make all which seems certain uncertain. Take care man, my secular prayers will be with you too, for what it's worth.

YES I DID SAY I WOULD PRAY FOR YOU AND THEN EDITED IT OUT CAUSE I THOUGHT "WELL WHY TELL HIM,JUSTDO IT!",BUT I GUESS YOU SAW THAT. MAN I NEED ALL THE PRAYERS I CAN GET TOO! IT IS EASY TO SEEM "GOODY,GOODY" WHEN I WRITE ON HERE! TRUST ME I AM NOT,BUT DO BELIEVE EVERYTHING I SAY WITH ALL MY HEART! NO BRO. I AIN'T GOOD! WANT TO BE,STRIVE TO BE,BUT ALWAYS COME UP SHORT. THAT IS WHERE FORGIVENESS COMES IN.II DON'T EVEN ALWAYS KNOW WHAT GOOD IS! EVEN JESUS SAID HE WASN'T GOOD ONLY THE FATHER. I SURE DON'T KNOW IT ALL,THAT ONE CONFUSES ME! THATS WHERE FAITH COMES IN,NO WAY TO UNDERSTAND ALL THE BIBLE. I FEEL HE GIVES ME THE WISDOM I NEED.IN FACT IN 1ST JOHN IT SAYS IF ANY ONE SAYS THEY HAVE [NOTICE PRESENT HAVE NOT HAD AND JOHN IS TALKING TO THE "LITTLE CHILDREN"IE-THE CHRISTIANS] NO SIN THEN THEY ARE LIERS AND THE TRUTH IS NOT IN THEM! SO IF ANY ONE TELLS YOU THEY DO NOT SIN YOU CAN CALL THEM A LIER ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE! I LOVE YOU STEPHEN. I'M ONLY A SLOB ON THE BUS TRYING TO MAKE HIS WAY HOME! I KNOW THAT LINE IN THE SONG WAS BOUT GOD BUT WELL HE IS HOME TO ME! PEACE! JAMIE

 

[glass man]

AS FOR WISDOM THERE IS THE WISDOM OF THE "WORLD" AND WISDOM OF GOD. USUALLY WORLDLY WISDOM IS A MIRROR IMAGE OF GODLY WISDOM. GOD WISDOM ,YOU CANNOT SERVE MAMON AND GOD.[MAMON=MONEY] WORLDLY WISDOM WILL OFTEN SAY ENOUGH MONEY IS NEVER ENOUGH. SOME "PREACHERS" EVEN TRY TO JUSTIFY THIS SAYING GOD WANTS ALL HIS CHILDREN TO HAVE IT ALL! MANY PREACHERS HAVE SAID GAYS,LIBERALISM,ON AND ON IS GONNA BRING AMERICA DOWN CAUSE IT IS SIN,EVER HEAR ANY OF THEM MENTION GREED MAY BRING AMERICA DOWN? AS FOR SIN THE VERY PREACHERS TALKING THAT SMACK SIN THEMSELVES!JESUS SAID THE WHORES AND DRUNKARDS WOULD GET INTO HEAVEN BEFORE THE "SELF RIGHTEOUS RELIGIOUS PEOPLE WOULD"[MY PARAPHRASE] IT WAS THE MOST "RELIGIOUS" ONES THAT DEMANDED HIM CRUCIFIED,CAUSE HE WAS TALKING LOVE,PEAVE,MEEKNESS,NOT GETTING RICH OFF GOD [MAN THEY REALLY HATED THAT,SEE ANY COMPARISONS OF THAT TODAY? AIN'T NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING NICE THINGS,MONEY ETC.,BUT IT IS NOT TO BE LOVED! AND NOT TO BE GOTTEN AT THE EXPENCE OF THE POOR OR GOD!]

SORRY WHAT SOME "PREACHERS" SAY REALLY HURTS ALL THAT THOSE THAT LOVE CHRIST[WHAT HE HIMSELF SHOWS US!] AND OTHERS TRY TO SHOW AND SAY! I AM NOW BABBLING! [8D]PEACE ! JAMIE

 

[capsoda]

I have been reading this thread with great curiosity. I have seen a lot of words being thrown around and have learned quite a bit about some of our members. Some of it is about as funny as I have ever seen and some is very saddening.

Stephen, you are a good person. That is too easy to see and you have a lot to say but you are too analytical like my older brother. You are intelligent past your years so I suspect you love to read. I like you because you are a good person and a nice guy. Intelligence is a great thing to have but there are many, many kinds of intelligence and each one takes a certain kind of wisdom. Without wisdom, intelligence is trouble and with out common since there is no wisdom. I know you understand this because in the future you will learn things that will change you and your opinions and shape your understanding which will increase your wisdom and so forth.

I have also seen that you have a thrust for Jesus. You may not realize it but no one reads the sayings of "Judas the Twin of the Twin" who you refer to as The Gospel of Didymos Judas Thomas who doesn't have a thrust. You should also check out the 2nd century Greek letters and writings as well as the Hebrew books and Aramaic writings and letters. The Greek text predates the Coptic text, which is 4th century and was much easier to translate and there is more of it. I don't remember who was credited with the Hebrew writings but the are far more colorful and easier to read as far as I am concerned. The Coptic text puts Judas up there with John and some writings claim he is the twin of Jesus but I never thought so because I have never seen anything to prove it.I would read the Gnostic writings sceptically because they were the kind of folks you mentioned that like to pick and chose what goes in the book instead of putting what the writer meant in there. You see, I have always been wary of the different brands and the church system that is in place but I haven't been the go ahead to disassemble them either.

Jamie is one in a million so you won't be running into folks like him all over the place. I met others like him in Eritrea years ago. He loves Jesus with his whole heart and will never waver. The more doubt that is thrown at him the stronger he will become. He will help you when he can barely help himself. He is what you read about in the Bible and other books. He will always be there. I want you to know that I have never met Jamie but I know him and I know of him helping others and have been told so by some of those he has helped. He doesn't need Einstein like smarts because he can see what others do not. What is right in front of his face.

Everyone that a person meets in their life changes them, even if they meet for a fraction of a moment. You will never know many of the people who will make the greatest impact on your life and probably won't remember when or where you came across most of them. Look with your eyes and you will never see. Listen with your ears and you will never hear. It is up to the individual to seek out the knowledge of God and the love of Jesus or not. I will never try to get anyone to see it my way but I will urge them to search.

Yeah, I know it don't sound like me but I did read all that stuff years back. I had a good mentor.

There are a lot of great people on this forum who will help when the can even though there are bumps and grinds. It is a great place to be no matter what you believe.


James Spainhower.....stop biting your nails. [sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif] How ya hangin dude.