Back by popular demand
Due to two people saying I should update, I am updating.
And already this is shaping up to be a Stacey post.
So should I have the rest of this post become just a huge lonely drone of personal issues? An update of my life?
What I really wanted, for a long time, was something big to say. Some huge personal revelation that I could spread to others, to help them come closer to God or whatever.
But then all this talk about God (being understandable because of me believing He is my Universe) could put off my non-christian mates. (Christian: tree-hugging, happy people who sit around in huddled in unobtrusive corners)
So...
Well, I asked a question to Mr Robert Miles the other day as we were riding in the back seat of Sam's car late at night. I asked him "So what would happen if we died driving home now?". Rob's face drained of colour and nervously laughed. "That's not exactly polite car-conversation" He said, shifting in his seat and fiddling with the door handle. Well, he wasn't that bad, but I did get thinking.
And I asked myself another question: "Would I be happy with my life if I was to die tonight?" Did I have any regrets? And I came up with one: that I had not loved people enough. Sure, there might have been other things, but they grew hazey in the light of my first thought.
I mean, in all reality, what is more important than to love?
Everything else fades away, is temporary.
And I decided that I had been doing a pretty 'C' job at it. I'm sorry to those who suffered.
We like to throw out our concerns and our heartfelt cries for an audience to observe our wounds, hoping that we would somehow be cured through our being heard. But in doing this, I for one, have not truely been listening to my friends cries. Have I done what I could to help them, to sympathise with them through their griefs? Instead I am caught up in my own selfish bubble, convincing myself that I could only help another (of course having a less important issue than myself) after someone reaching down to pick me up.
ME first. I deserve this.
What a selfish wretch I am! Is there hope for us?
And also...
And how do we escape materialism? It seems to be such a comfotable and deadly prison. A mate told me that the only cure for it is giving, which I always procrastinate from.
But is there more to life than just having a 'means to an end' lifestyle? I've probably moaned about this to one hundred people around the world, but I'm still short on an answer. And I'm still deathly short on living examples. Do I have no choice but to conform and become just another nameless face or a faceless name or...
Life just seems so cheap in this west.
And thats me.
posted by Jakes @ 2:16 AM
21 comments
21 Comments:
Pie...you said...
'I mean what if there is no God, and this is the only life you had? And you spent it averagely while awaiting heaven. Then surely it would matter how you used it.'
Me having God as my world, I believe there is heaven.
But having that sense of happiness, content and fulfillment of God means you have lived this life to it's fullest. You can only say you've lived your life to it's fullest when you're happy...or in a jokey happy way...but the key factor is you're happy. So you believe yourself that your life is fulfilled. And if you believe in God and heaven that much, then you wouldn't have spent it averagly awaiting, you'd be getting out doing stuff, helping people, following the word and guess what?...living your life to the fullest!!
But then I could say to you in response to your first question...But what if there is a God and you've lived the life that he's given you, with freewill, the way that's gonna give you the worst eternal life possible?
Jakes,
So nice to see you back again after such a long absence --and discussing something of eternal value and earthly relevance. I miss the discussions over the meal table, the insightful ( or inciteful?) comments made by you. The healthy discussions etc, etc.
I always think that the best people to judge our loving acts (or otherwise) are those that are closest to us. (especially siblings!) - they don't have any trouble calling a spade a spade!
Only checked your blog on the off chance so was amazingly surprised! I shall read the other responses later and hopefully join the fray / debate.
Cheers - UK Boss!
Jakes,
So nice to see you back again after such a long absence --and discussing something of eternal value and earthly relevance. I miss the discussions over the meal table, the insightful ( or inciteful?) comments made by you. The healthy discussions etc, etc.
I always think that the best people to judge our loving acts (or otherwise) are those that are closest to us. (especially siblings!) - they don't have any trouble calling a spade a spade!
Only checked your blog on the off chance so was amazingly surprised! I shall read the other responses later and hopefully join the fray / debate.
Cheers - UK Boss!
Thanks Claire. Good to hear from you.
You too Hat, sorry for snobbing you on MSN a while back.
And thanks for making your best efforts Brian, I totally agree that its only your close family that really know you and they are best for advice.
Hey Pie, yeah sorry for late reply:
"I mean what if there is no God, and this is the only life you had? And you spent it averagely while awaiting heaven. Then surely it would matter how you used it."
I'm sorry that you have seen from Christians around you that they are 'wasting their lives' in boring mediocrity. This is something that I am desperately determined not to do.
Christians are called to radical obedience, and we are called to live our lives for others (the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:36-40) are to love God and love others). And Jesus said several times that if we did not, Heaven wasn't going to be waiting for us:
See Matthew 25:14-46. In fact, all Christians should take special note of this - make a point to read this.
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 7:21
It's as hard as nails really, and in terms of wasting lives, we are wasting it from the perspective that we are to be giving our lives away to God and forsaking our own carnal desires to do God's work.
Ideally of course, and we can't do this without the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
In just referring to your first comment, I guess this is one of the points at which the Bible is completely counter-cultural - it is not primarily about us, Jesus calls us to 'take up our cross' - to kill off our own desires and give everything to God and live for Him instead of ourselves.
But as far as why I had the priviledge of being born into a Christian home and raised up in the church, I have no idea. I'm completely confused about this and it seems incredibly unfair that I have a huge advantage. But then again,
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." - Luke 12:48
And I guess there could be some attempt to explain it in terms of that it was not God's original plan and that through the original sin of Adam our lines of relationship have been cut with God. So the reason for a lot not being born into Christian homes is because of humanity's rebellion from God.
But then again, I just do not understand. God still allowed it.
And what do you mean by economic materialism? Is this things, money, widescreen TVs? Because that is what I was talking about.
What is philisophical materialism?
I think that economic materialism distracts Christians (and most other 'religious' people I think) from God. It starves us of dependance on God and entices us into independance and seeking pleasure in stuff that is so temporary and fleeting.
"we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." - 1 Timothy 6
(notice it is the LOVE of money that is the root of all kinds of evil)
I don't know Pie.
I guess we like to believe in a merciful God and are comfortable with that, but in terms of the words 'judgement', 'Hell' - we block out of our minds.
I do not understand and I get terribly frustrated with myself. It is probably my biggest problem, and it is the biggest issue of self-assesment that I deal with. It frustrates me.
Yes, I agree with Nietzsche. But one cannot measure up the likelihood of Christianity with solely the dedication of the average western Christian. If you want a real example, travel to the slums of India, or to communist China, or Indonesia, where Christians are brutally tortured and killed for what they believe.
According to Jesus, it is 'harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle', which is where my concerns about materialism come in.
But we have hope, because after Jesus said that:
"When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." "
- Matthew 19
Quote by a christian band:
"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians
Who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
Then walk out the door
and deny him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable"
Check out http://www.biblegateway.com/
to reference the Bible real quick
Pinky:
Yes, Christians are commanded to love God first, and then love others.
Jesus also said:
"You are my friends if you do what I command" - John 15:14
So we serve the will of God as an act of love to Him.
I gather from what you are saying that you believe all Christians love God because they first love themselves, and decide that in order for them to save their lives and have the most fulfilling life possible, they choose to love God.
And yeah, I agree that a lot of Christians start out like that. But the Bible clearly tells us this:
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple."
- Luke 14:26
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."
- Mark 8
It is by my own personal experience that I decided that I would be a Christian as it saved me from Hell. I decided to love God in order to save my life and to live it abundantly (as Jesus claims a life following Him is).
But as I have grown in my relationship with God I have been in the process of knowing Him and coming into a realisation of who He is, and so now I love God more than my own life.
Well, at least I like to say I do, and I would like to truely believe that I do. But there are times when I do not. But this is a hard thing to monitor...
Does this make sense?
Pie:
Well, I would obviously disagree with Philosophical materialism, but its good that I can now put a name to the idea. Is it like Naturalism? 'There are no such things as miracles, just things we don't understand yet'?
"If I was to be a christian, it is not just a small sacrifice - there is no point going into it half-hearted, you would really need to give up a lot."
-You're right. Luke-warm Christians are despised by God (see Revelation 3:16).And it is a lot, but it depends on your point of view. When one's worldview is rearranged to have 'the Christian' God in it, it doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice:
'He has given me everything, all that I know. The only real thing I can give back to God is what He has given me - my life'
And you are very right there when you say that there are many Christians who don't 'take the big step' of completely giving their lives over to God. But that is often because of the abundance of temporal pleasures around them.
A lot of us Christians in the West are cursed because we are blessed, too many distractions. And this is why I am distressed by materialism (economic). Go to Sri Lanka and you will find Muslims who accept Jesus as their Lord and saviour (they accept His authority over them and how He saved them through the cross), and are completely aware that they will be excommunicated from their family and likely killed for what they believe.
sounds fair.
I've got a surfboard and board bag if you want it.
But you have to come to my church for 3 weeks in a row to get it.
Promise.
BUT we are not saved through works, only by faith in Jesus Christ.
What about the Surfboard? It's in pretty good nick.
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
- James 2
It is my opinion that THE truth is that Jesus is the only way to Heaven:
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6
Truth is objective fact, so I don't understand what you are saying.
I think that Jakes is confused about what is meant by subjective/objective.
"It is my opinion that THE truth is that Jesus is the only way to Heaven:"
This is subjective because you presented it as 'your' opinion as such. If you had presented it without attributing it to yourself or another person it would be considered as objective, although this would need conclusive evidence to be regarded as 'true'.
Pie:
It is the beleif of most mainstream churches (with the exception of a few, eg:Catholic) that works play no part in an individuals salvation.
A person earns their salvation/justification through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
(Faith here means to put ones entire trust in Jesus Christ)
This does not imply, however, that Christians are free to run amok. When someone places their faith in Christ, they are transformed into a state of being in Christ, which brings his spirit into them. Thus one is still obligated to the appropriate moral boundaries etc (but occasionally may slip up due to our nature).
Good morality and works play absolutely no role in our salvation, but should occur once one has faith.
(A basic exposition of Paul's argument for salvation in Romans & Galatians.)
Yeah, I know that that statement I gave was subjective.
But what I was trying to say is this:
That 'truth' is what it is - true, regardless of individuals opinions or beliefs.
And Christianity is true (autonomous to opinion), and it is exclusively true.
But that, of course, is my belief.
Pie, I would (of course) like to say that everyone is right in their own way and that we are all going to a 'better place' when we die. But I follow Jesus' teachings, and He told humanity that the only way to God is through His sacrifice. So don't blame me, I'm just the messenger.
Sometimes I do get confused with the whole objective/subjective thing, but hopefully that makes sense. And hopefully I put 'autonomous' in the right place.
lol cognitive brain functions. How's the sceptic essay going?
How come they spelled it s'c'eptic in the question and the suggested literature, when MS Word want's to keep changing it to skeptic?
I manually went through my entire essay changing it back to the way Arne and Weintra... Ruth spelt it to keep them happy.
how are you doing over in New Zealand? its still cold over hear!lol!
clarex
Hey.
Yeah Claire, its cold and depressing. So grey... I have no motivation.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to Bible College. I dunno how hard out its gonna be, but I can't imagine I'd have more time than I have now.
I work all day and I'm busy with music stuff and church stuff and SOCIALISING. Its quite fun, you should try it sometime.
Ok, and with all that cognative function stuff, you're right, my mind is imperfect, so I just have to go by what information I've been given.
But the truth exists outside of my mind.
And so I believe I have found what this truth is, and others have not.
This is a difficult subject, but I guess my point is that truth is truth, regardless of interpretation or opinion or whatever.
Can we know anything for certain?
Ok, I'm determined to get the last word in for this.
We seem to be going around in circles.
Yes, I understand what you are saying. But please understand me:
Truth is outside of opinion. It is immune from interpretation. It is what it is.
Ok.
I have already acknowledged that I do not have a perfect and unhindered ability to reason.
What I am saying is that this doesnt matter - truth is truth.
Where it gets hairy is when I say:
"And I believe this truth to be..."
So I guess we have to make do with what we've got. We've each been given our own imperfect mind, and each been given evidence and potential experience, and it's up to us to find truth with what we've got.
And so, if the 'Christian' God is Truth, and we are searching for it with all we have been provided with, then I believe the Truth will reveal itself.
God: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
- Jeremiah 29
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=57857868
If anyones interested...
Matthew 21:17
"And he left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there."
Think about it.
Whats Zew Zealand?
If you want to challenge all that you think you know, and understand about the spiritual essence of this place we call 'The World' then read 'Christi- Arnarcy' By Dave Andrews. I dare you!
Why did i just read all 43 of these posts?
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein
Imagination: The formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses.
Knowledge: The state or fact of knowing.
Put your hand up if you agree with Einsteins statement. *hand goes up*
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