I became a believer at 27 . I shared the gospel with my sister who raised me. I told her she could avoid everlasting hell fire, by believing Jesus died in her place. She laughed. It amused her to see her kid brother preaching, thumping a bible.
It also made no sense to her. The loving God who gave His Son to die in my place is also the God who allows eternal torment in hell? A loving God would give opportunities to be rewarded, but for those who decided not to make an effort, because after counting the cost and deciding the task was too difficult or take too much out of one's life, God would allow them to drop out.
Today she lives a retired life. Her children are all professionals.
Retired people lose their faculties very fast. To avoid this, doctors recommend involvement in light activities. That's why you see retirement home taking their residents to bingo halls, malls, zoos and plays. The activity keeps their minds and bodies working, delaying the onset of atrophy to both. Recently, social media like Facebook, Twitter and even Gmail has been found to be good at keeping dementia and ALZ at bay.
Since they could afford it, her children kept sending their parents on world tours, cruises and weekend resort stays for quite a while, after they retired quite young. Where they stay, retired people are often on the net, trawling the virtual space for holiday offers. Airlines offer one dollar fares that make a holiday in the golden triangle a great alternative to staying at home. It's more expensive to stay home and pay heating bills than to holiday in low living cost Asian countries.
After a while, age made travel difficult. Activities have perforce been restricted to more sedate outlets, local trips and social media. Being medical professionals, it distressed their children that they can't delay the onset of senility any more. I keep getting calls about how they are trying different things to keep their parents with them, even as their minds slowly fade away.
However, before senility sets in, regret does. As I pass my fifties I find more and more of my contemporaries express their sadness at not finding and fulfilling their life purpose. It's been happening more lately and I'm working to reach out to them before they too become senile. It's pointless to reach out to them at later phases in their lives.
Read up THE MASLOW PYRAMID for insights into regret.
If only I had become more mature in my knowledge of God when my relatives and friends were younger.
Is it possible that God made possible the internet, at these end times, to prepare us for Christ's second coming? It's the modern equivalent to the interaction available to the first century church where violent men forced their way into the kingdom of God. I understand that attending the councils were dangerous affairs, often leading to people drawing swords to settle doctrinal issues!
Anyhow, the fault isn't only in the church, but in lack in setting aside time for prayer, study and discussion.
Here's a great article by Tercel on the Client Patron Relationship:
http://theogeek.blogspot.in/2006/03/...brews-111.html
Quote
Anyway, the take home lesson is:
Next time you're reading the bible and you see the words "faith" or "belief" read "faithfulness" instead and think "Patron-Client system = faithfulness repaid with favours". (Of course the result won't make much sense because it won't fit with how the translators have translated the rest of the sentence)
A great rule to keep in mind is this: Faithfulness is targeted at people, belief is targeted at ideas. You can be committed to a person, or committed to an idea. But talking about faithfulness to an idea, or belief in a person is nonsense.
Another example: Jesus says "believe in me". [which is a mis-translation of course, breaking the above rule] Jesus is asking for people to become his clients. ie he's saying "follow me". He's not saying "believe that I am God". There are other examples in classical literature of people saying "believe in me", and guess what, they were wanting clients, not claiming divinity.
I can only hope that over the next couple of decades that these developments can start filtering through to mainstream bible translations.
It also made no sense to her. The loving God who gave His Son to die in my place is also the God who allows eternal torment in hell? A loving God would give opportunities to be rewarded, but for those who decided not to make an effort, because after counting the cost and deciding the task was too difficult or take too much out of one's life, God would allow them to drop out.
Today she lives a retired life. Her children are all professionals.
Retired people lose their faculties very fast. To avoid this, doctors recommend involvement in light activities. That's why you see retirement home taking their residents to bingo halls, malls, zoos and plays. The activity keeps their minds and bodies working, delaying the onset of atrophy to both. Recently, social media like Facebook, Twitter and even Gmail has been found to be good at keeping dementia and ALZ at bay.
Since they could afford it, her children kept sending their parents on world tours, cruises and weekend resort stays for quite a while, after they retired quite young. Where they stay, retired people are often on the net, trawling the virtual space for holiday offers. Airlines offer one dollar fares that make a holiday in the golden triangle a great alternative to staying at home. It's more expensive to stay home and pay heating bills than to holiday in low living cost Asian countries.
After a while, age made travel difficult. Activities have perforce been restricted to more sedate outlets, local trips and social media. Being medical professionals, it distressed their children that they can't delay the onset of senility any more. I keep getting calls about how they are trying different things to keep their parents with them, even as their minds slowly fade away.
However, before senility sets in, regret does. As I pass my fifties I find more and more of my contemporaries express their sadness at not finding and fulfilling their life purpose. It's been happening more lately and I'm working to reach out to them before they too become senile. It's pointless to reach out to them at later phases in their lives.
Read up THE MASLOW PYRAMID for insights into regret.
If only I had become more mature in my knowledge of God when my relatives and friends were younger.
Is it possible that God made possible the internet, at these end times, to prepare us for Christ's second coming? It's the modern equivalent to the interaction available to the first century church where violent men forced their way into the kingdom of God. I understand that attending the councils were dangerous affairs, often leading to people drawing swords to settle doctrinal issues!
Anyhow, the fault isn't only in the church, but in lack in setting aside time for prayer, study and discussion.
Here's a great article by Tercel on the Client Patron Relationship:
http://theogeek.blogspot.in/2006/03/...brews-111.html
Quote
Anyway, the take home lesson is:
Next time you're reading the bible and you see the words "faith" or "belief" read "faithfulness" instead and think "Patron-Client system = faithfulness repaid with favours". (Of course the result won't make much sense because it won't fit with how the translators have translated the rest of the sentence)
A great rule to keep in mind is this: Faithfulness is targeted at people, belief is targeted at ideas. You can be committed to a person, or committed to an idea. But talking about faithfulness to an idea, or belief in a person is nonsense.
Another example: Jesus says "believe in me". [which is a mis-translation of course, breaking the above rule] Jesus is asking for people to become his clients. ie he's saying "follow me". He's not saying "believe that I am God". There are other examples in classical literature of people saying "believe in me", and guess what, they were wanting clients, not claiming divinity.
I can only hope that over the next couple of decades that these developments can start filtering through to mainstream bible translations.
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