A Reason for Faith in Jesus Christ

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Originally posted by AnkhMorpork
I don't mean to rain on your big man in the sky thing, but it's a phenomenon called Pareidolia resulting from the tendency of the human mind towards pattern recognition out of fractal-like structures or from randomly distributed dots or points, like stars.

I’m glad you brought that up first…because I’m actually familiar with the phenomenon… But here’s the thing, how do we know when something is genuinely there and when its just down to Pareidolia…

And the funny thing is, is that it doesn’t just stop at structures and dots etc…but extends out into other fields. I mean, the human mind has a habit of connecting things together that might not even be connected….

Like for example, you connecting up the seven planets, with the seven lampstands and seven churches; could just be the mind seeing and putting together obvious patterns. There might be something to it, but then again, there might not be…

Originally posted by AnkhMorpork
Yes, God signed the universe here, and came here and sent his only begotten son here, of all places,…
…
…

But why would God go to all that trouble, to line up an eclipse on the day of crucifixion…A Resurrection on it’s own is a pretty big deal…so why the need for an eclipse. Adding to which there have been many recent exoplanet discoveries; many of these planets have no moons, and some even have 2 moons…

Also, it’s not clear if the eclipse took place on the day of Jesus crucifixion. The biblical accounts only state the sky was darkened, which could just as easily be a storm or bad weather etc…

God going to all that trouble, and no one even recording it accurately, doesn’t quite make much sense…IMO

Originally posted by AnkhMorpork
Why here?

Maybe it has something to do with the "phylos" of the human being..

Perhaps we are, in truth, so close to God, that we are also in grave peril of a rebellious principal which would otherwise run the risk of placing us all forever at enmity with God,…
…
…

The rebellious principal that you speak of, was always dealt with in the past by people repenting for sins and asking for Gods forgiveness…Which incidentally, is exactly what Jesus taught us to do, throughout many parts of the New Testament.

Originally posted by AnkhMorpork
Then again, wouldn't it be ironic if a starship filled with atheists were to arrive at the world of an inhabited, advanced civilization, only to be told, "don't you know that Jesus Christ is Lord?" and sent back home.

Many of these Aliens don’t even look human; We’ve got the praying mantis types, The greys and there various offshoots, and the Reptilians etc… The Nordiks are the closest thing, but not even they are Human by all accounts…

Why would all these different types of beings, from other advanced civilizations, be worshiping one human figure that looks like us…?


- JC

originally posted by: Joecroft
a reply to: AnkhMorpork

But why would God go to all that trouble, to line up an eclipse on the day of crucifixion…

First, I think you'd need to see the whole presentation as to the cosmological frame

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I think it was a way of signalling Jesus and it would aid in the hoodwink.

The darkening of the sky cannot be a reference to the lunar eclipse that rose in the evening, but instead could be either confusion by the writers reporting events or perhaps something like smoke from a fire in a nearby field or very thick cloud cover.

But consider this regarding the sign of a blood moon on Passover.

The cross itself represents the divided middle and the twin pillars of Justice and Mercy, so it's like the frame of a door.

In Exodus, for the first Passover, the way the Israelites avoided the angel of death, was to take a blemish free lamb into their house for inspection, upon which it was slayed and it's blood painted above the door of their house.

This is a foreshadowing of the day of the cross.

It's also like a trail or a fingerprint left behind (for posterity), the idea being that it ought to be unmistakable as to what really took place, like a signature, another reason that John of Patmos referenced the same cosmological configuration surrounding the birth and the crucifixion of Jesus.

Jesus said "pick up your cross and follow me", and there again, and call it speculation on my part, fine, but the Northern Cross constellation (albeit not a perfect cross) it appears to lay down in winter and rise up in the spring and summer, another sign?

I'm just asking you to consider that imbedded in the divine order was contained the setup and the symbolism.

If this is taken a little further in an evaluation of the sacred geometrical design properties of the Earth-Moon-Sun configuration, then again we can recognize aspects of a symbolic allegory, where the moon perfectly reflects the sun as the son of man does the first father of all creation, and operates like a midnight sun - for more on that, you'd need to read a book called "Who Built the Moon?" to fully appreciate the design elements involved, while perhaps ignoring some of the wild speculation as to the cause or what's implied in the question of the title of the book.

I'll post more later regarding the idea of universal principals and truth, observation and information exchange that lead to my speculation that "the heavens knew why he was there", as well as to offer some sort of supporting argument to try to explain the apparent solipsistic nature of such a thing as being formative and functional, and applicable, when rendered here by the son of man as the cause of God in relation to mankind as a starting point of a new creation for which the whole of all creation groans in travail to see come about in the fullness of time and history.

As above so below. What is loosed on Earth is loosed in Heaven and what is bound on Earth is bound in Heaven also.

My faith is this:



Tablet of Stone: 10 Commandment

Exodus 24:12
Now the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction."

It's the only known source not written by man.

It's a doorway framed by the twin pillars of Jutice and Mercy that stands as tall as the heavens are long.

Were you embarrassed by his eloquence, his quick wit, his great truth, his goodness, his confidence, his seeming comfort meeting with world leaders and poor people?

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Well said.

originally posted by: AnkhMorpork

Until they are tamed, a horse may be wild and even crazy eyed with a bit of an identity crisis, until it acquiesces to the bit and the saddle, but when horse and rider work together, they both experience the exhilaration and joy of a fast gallop both united as one yet as two, together.

It takes a lot of courage to take on Christ and the Spirit as a rider, so we may run away or try to buck him off, but when the reigns are in the right "hands", then they are no longer needed, which I think is the reason why in the Revelation of John, the rider has the name of the Lord on his thighs because all it takes is the slightest pressure from the thighs to direct the horse towards new destinations, even at speed.

I think that God is actually quite wild and perhaps even crazy in just the right way, who alone can be crazy enough to be trusted to ride the horse the way it was meant to be ridden (both in control and out of control, with abandon and in complete surrender).

To this wildness and craziness, I would like to add that since God's true passion is our liberation, to accept the bit of true followership, is to be set free for the sake of freedom to freely love as we are loved, not excluding ourselves. He rides us lightly, and preferably as lightly as possible, but blessed are those also who God disciplines for his cause of goodness and righteousness and upon who's reigns they ought to be pulled in one direction and away from another.

To the one who accepts the Spirit, be prepared to run like the wind!

Perhaps like me you'll flee far afield and buck like crazy, but it's to no avail if this horse was meant to be in partnership with the rider and at the deepest level wants nothing more than a place and a part and a role to play.

Be careful what you pray for.

In the end, It's efficacy is of a purely psychological and thus, spiritual nature. It can only be known from the POV of the unique personal "qualia" of each one's own unique personal spiritual experience, but, because once known something cannot be unknown it's like the yeast in the dough that becomes leavened all through.

You're also free to spit it out if you can't fathom the taste of your own forgiveness.

It's not for the already preoccupied and the attached, even though they get first dibs on the tickets to the party and the celebration in their own honor (as it turns out), so into the streets and the hedgerows goes the invitation yet again, and partly to the chagrin of the one who extended it in the first place, for the failure on the part of so many not to recognize it for what it was and to drop everything they were doing and were so preoccupied with, amid all the worries of the world and whatnot, and to AT ONCE, in recognizing it's true nature and authenticity, GO, and receive God's hand of true friendship and love. So, out the invitation must go, yet again (sighs God). [that's humorous you see, up to a certain point]

We are nothing less than the Bride of Christ. We are the very one for whom the celebration was waiting all along. Who woulda thunk it?

You are the guest of honor and I am but a lowly doorman.

The living water that's freely available to all who thirst is by it's very nature both non-coercive and non-dualistic. It's free. Come one and all who are thirsty to the fountain of God's unending love in the person of Jesus. Come.

Have mercy on us oh Lord, and by receiving this immense gift of Grace (what else could we do?!) let us carry it with us always, and be a light to the world as you taught us with your own lips that we really and truly are particularly when we are with you (in person or in spirit it makes no difference).


Therefore, I would like to hereby declare that I do embrace the friendship of the Lord my God in Jesus Christ, and furthermore, that I wish to convey or extend His same hand to you also, dear reader, because if He loves me, He certainly loves you too, and we are all in need of God's love and his grace and tender mercy and loving-kindness, and consolation, that He really is with us in our struggles, trials and tribulations, as well as in our triumphs and our greatest joys and upmost delights, even when they can only be found in our deepest sadness and our sorrows, and the willingness to suffer for the cause of love ie: to grow.

Once found, once received, and once received, He will surely never leave us or forsake us. We can't undo the grace of God, nor get out of the double bind that Jesus placed us in, intentionally and without equivocation. That Jesus. He doesn't mess around.

So it's not only a loving and kind hand of friendship but also an admonition to GROW UP, and once again if I am preaching here I'm preaching as much to myself as to anyone in particular! lol

"Every sinner has a future, and every saint, a past."
~ Oscar Wilde

I think to really understand and "grok" this stuff, you have to be willing to really get a chuckle out of it even if it's at your own expense.

It has to really satisfy, and restore the basis of your knowledge, true knowledge, as the knowledge of the humor of true understanding.

And then all we know is that we didn't have the first clue, even if what we're facing in the domain of absolute freedom and love resides in a space that was, previously, in an unknown unknown or what we didn't even know we didn't know until we did, and thank God for that, that we don't have anything to boast about and of what little value that would be by comparison anyway?

It's the greatest thing and I tell you it's protected, because nothing can take it away from you or break in and steal it. The treasure is where the heart is.

That's something.

What a marvel.

If fills and satisfies a place deep within us that was made for a higher purpose and one that God is wanting to build with us, in partnership, together.

It's also a wellspring of mental health and well being.

Funny that.

God is as playfully humorous as He is loving, I tell you, and if this has even the least meaning or significance, then by extension it means everything and is of the farthest reaching significance. Oh what a joy!

He won our repentance, in more ways than one and it's not like the church led us to believe.


With love,

Ankh

God is and has been very good to us, too good even, and even in spite of ourselves.

It's a great honor and a privilege to be punk'd by God.

Thank you Jesus for the double bind of reason and logic and love that either binds us or sets us free.

Thank you for being so uncompromising and yet so accommodating.

It's a very "heavy hand" that's strong enough to open the door and hold it opened to us, while on the other hand holding at bay and discarding everything that makes no sense in the light of truth when we were meant to be happy and riding with the Spirit which by it's very nature is radically free and blows like the wind, yet, like the wind, you can never pin it down with any absolute precision precisely because it is Spirit, and Truth, the only place worthy of any true worship or admiration or petition and prayer and meditation.

Join us (me) and become an untouchable, standing as it were relative to the whole of it all, but without any more fear or inconsolable remorse and bitterness.

Think about it. Play with the idea, and listen to your heart and how it's moved.

This is a real marvel, imho, the marvel of recognizing that in a cause of love and truth and goodness and uprightness is held in reserve the whole treasure for those with the simple capacity to love by first receiving that love from God, who, (God is a type of person) is also Love itself (among many other things), which does carry with it it's own set of priorities and rationale that leaves in it's wake gales of laughter in the recognition of our own prior absurdity and ridiculous nonsense, pathetic garbage and rages that we once held dear when God intends to build with us a spiritual Palace, which was made by design to contain this comingling, this koinonia, between Bride (you and me) and Spirit. This can only take place as a present moment felt experience.

This way of considering faith, as an unreasonably reasonable proposition, when founded on the rock of reason and logic and the Spirit of Wisdom or the logos, renders everything else little more than the brunt of ridicule and comedic material, some of which isn't even funny at all, as we faithfully mourn over the ignorance of a fallen world ("Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted!").

Consider the opportunity inherent in an invitation extended through all ages to become an active participant in it, like a light that shines for all In the house and the light of the world, even the light of life in Christ Himself.

It's like it's almost too much to take, until you consider the alternative, the field of awareness now lit and turning like a lighthouse within..

Know thyself.

If you're anything like me, you were absurd, and you ran away from the light that you are, felt it best to just go along to get along, while hiding it under a bushel basket, when all the while it was meant to shine out on the lampstand for all in the house.

It's who and what we really are and it's also our birthright and our destiny in the fullness of time and history. I know, crazy! but TRUE.

It's inevitable, unless the absurd and unreasonable ought to prevail for reasons both absurd and unreasonable, which leads only to hatred and to violence, even for no good reason, as was the case with Jesus (although he saw them coming from more than a mile away).

It's an authentic suffering for the cause of love, and of life and new life even from life to life everlasting and eternal.

It's an evolutionary principal and the simplicity on the far side of complexity that some men would give their own right arm to find and to know.

I want us, you, and me, to go forth as untouchables in a fallen world, and even as the light unto it's darkness, and you can't tell me that that's not both humorous and one heck of an opportunity to be and to become the change we seek in others and the world around us..

I've gone astray, forgotten God. We all have and do it, but it's time here for a knowingness and a remembrance, so that you will carry it with you, anything that you might have learned about your own true nature and the very basis for your charm and seemingly unfounded (in the eyes of the ignorant) boundless sense of mirth and happiness, joy, love, hope and optimism but one which, because it carries the whole load of suffering, is entirely balanced with the utmost grace and integrity ie: it's rational, even supra-rational and ultra-reasonable.

A rational and psychological and philosophical basis for faith in and knowledge of, Jesus Christ son of God and God in Spirit and in Truth.

Thing is, if left to the blindness and darkness of our own ignorance long enough, and if we seek and search hard enough and thirst ("Stay thirsty my friends"), eventually we find (and drink), and so we return to a certain place where we once knew while knowing it as if for the first time in the light of adult awareness, the child within and the kingdom of heaven within now fully integrated and the true exploration begun at last in the domain of freedom and limitless possibility, starting within or an involution on the leading edge of an evolution of human experience and understanding. (although the student can't and ought not need to be, greater than the teacher).

"The fully individuated person (Carl Jung) must have a working theological framework by which to enter the fray" (an untouchable, like Neo) with his/her whole being - and there's the true life and the path of happiness on the other side of all the sorrow, the suffering and the strife that's capable of restoring that inner giggle of lost childhood. And then you know for sure and with real certainty. Ha HA!

And all that remains then, on this ground of all possibility, is the opportunity to play and to enjoy the table fellowship, and well, just get to know each other and enjoy one another's company, there's always plenty of laughter and love to be had. Blessed are we who bring it, and who by enjoying it, also give others the power and the opportunity to enjoy it with us and us with them. And again, wasn't that precisely Jesus' MO?

His frame of reference was just superior, and he won the day for us. He did it. It too cannot be undone, and what it really means and represents can be explored forever like an indestructible, multifaceted diamond.

But anyone who might try to say that Jesus just didn't know what he was talking about or what he was doing or why, they are a liar, but it's only because they are afraid of the implications, which might hurt their brain, and their heart, necessarily.

"Neurosis is always the substitute for legitimate suffering."
~ Carl Jung

"A perfect gentleman never hurts another person's feelings, unintentionally."
~ Oscar Wilde


Join with me in getting the last laugh at ignorance's expense, even when it's our own also?

It's worth it, even if it might make you cry a little bit at first for any reason or no particular reason that you can think of.

It's hard work and it takes courage.

But thankfully, He is worthy and worthy of our reconsideration. The Spirit does the rest working with us, and then we know the Spirit as well, that it's with us and not entirely of we ourselves alone.

When you seek Jesus, eventually you'll discover that you're never really alone.




I think it's more like a fine wine that we need to try or to taste, at the party of the ages.

Just for the record I don't mean to make light of it all too much, since there's also an awesome reverence involved, like with Isaiah, who said, when he encountered the vision of the throne of God, "Lord I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips!"

It's still funny though, no matter how grave and serious it might be at the same time.

This was the purpose of this thread, to share with you something of the mirth and joy of the Lord underpinning the twin pillars of Justice and Mercy, and contained and preserved as everlasting joy, and even life, true life, creative life, through the doorway and past the veil into the holy of holies where God lives and wherein all things are made new, and possible; whereby at some level we can walk again, hand in hand with God in the Garden of Eden (paradise), even in the midst of chaos and a word gone mad. There is living water freely available and accessible to all who thirst.

Jesus reserved not only everything that's worthwhile, but also the last laugh for his own and those who hear his voice and the voice of the Bride, and in recognition, do the work of love that he gave us to do, which doesn't seek to overthrow the state, but instead to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

It's a very humorous and mirthful place to stand particularly these days, but isn't it the only way?

If it is "at cause" in the very process of Civilization (the adverb), and the true standard of Civil Liberty in the greatest sense of the word, then to pick up your cross and follow him is to also have a share in the triumph on the other side of the ordeal by anticipation, and we get to do it without being crucified for real, to die, and be reborn by the Spirit from above that like the wind is radically free and although you can feel it and notice its effects, is invisible.

I am very grateful to Jesus for what he did, and I'm also grateful that true Christianity, properly understood and accepted, is even moreso about the resurrected life than the cross itself.

Thank you God for Jesus, who is still alive, and that's also very interesting as a possibility worthy of consideration and contemplation.

He lives within us (both immanent and transcendent), in good times and in bad, and he will never leave us or forsake us, nor is there any power above or below that's capable of taking us out of his hand.

This is very powerful, in an age where the blind still lead the blind and where the "elite" do not know what they are doing, may they also find mercy when the double bind of Christ comes upon them when they least expect it.

Best to remain ahead or the curve and ride the wave of authentic transformation both within and without, then to be taken by surprise when it's too late and in realizing that you missed the invitation when it was presented, sadly, to have one's own capacity for repentance (change of mind and heart) and one's own sense of humor, mirth and charm, to be forever lost (Can you imagine?! I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!).

But as to the willfully and eternally bitter or evil, ignorant and blind, what else is there to do ultimately, once every effort has been made, than to leave the dead to bury their dead and close the door on the sound of all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? F 'em if they can't take a good joke at their own expense. What else can be done?

We win. The little man stands triumphant, untouchable and fearless in the midst of a fallen world, thanks be to the "little" man who blazed the trail before us, in order so that we would not be lost to all that is good and true, and just, loving and joyful.

For many of us, when the time comes we may realize that it was a very close call, which God of course had superdeterministically anticipated from the very origin of his creation because of his love for all His children.

Ezekiel 37New King James Version (NKJV)

The Dry Bones Live

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’”

www.biblegateway.com...

Thank you, for your time and your consideration.

You are beloved, as I am, even in spite of myself.

May you be doubly blessed and be touched by the Spirit, just don't freak out and "pop" when it happens, and if you do (as I did), know that it's for your own good as the necessary and worthwhile cost of discipleship, and hey what's a few tears by a broken man (that God is seeking) when he discovers that he's consoled and accepted by none other than God's love.

Thank you God for loving me, and for providing me with the gift of communication, to share this with my fellow man who you also love immensely and by far more than they presently know.


Best wishes and with much love, and mirthful ironic humor,

AnkhMorpork aka Bob

Jesus is just some faux cultural thing, like Harley or John Deere or whatever else.

No one takes it seriously or they'd call him by a real name that actual exists in his language or yours. Yehoshuah, Yeshuah, Joshua? Nah, let's go with G-Zues

a reply to: BigBangWasAnEcho

I don't think the distinction really matters all that much. A rose is still a rose by any other name.

originally posted by: BigBangWasAnEcho
Jesus is just some faux cultural thing, like Harley or John Deere

If he were to ride in on a Harley, even the Hell Angels would have to part and make way for him in absolute deference and submission.

I think that Jesus Christ (or Yeheshua Messiah) is just great. He's alright. More than alright, so alright that he's capable of saving us from ourselves and our own illusions and inviting us into a new possibility for ourselves and through us the world at large.

None of us really qualify, but he makes us into active historical participants anyway, and so we simply must, because He is so compelling ("come, follow me" said with a smile) break with all our attachments and preoccupations and prejudices and drop our nets or whatever we are doing and go with him or at the very least, while hemorrhaging, to reach out to touch so much as his cloak that we might be healed of whatever afflicts or ails us, both physically and emotionally.

He's the good Doctor that's not beholden to the special interests of Big Pharma.

He's the real deal and his rationale, it's rather difficult to effectively argue with, and why would you want to?

And how blessed am I and are we, who know Him in spite of never getting to see his smiling face in person? He said we would be twice blessed, and so we are.

It's very humorous from the POV of all our prior ignorance and there in the twinkling of an eye is the hand that, alone, is capable of wiping away the tears from our eyes and giving us also the opportunity to cry out to God as Abba, in the familiar and familial.

This, is extraordinary, when framed within a purely psychological and spiritual bases in the domain of felt experience or real knowledge.

It's very funny, even if at times, the humor is rather grave and serious.

Blessed are you who understands perfectly well with comprehension. How could you forget this stuff, once known and once the Spirit comes to inform you at the level of the heart and the mind and the Spirit within?

It's koinonia. It's an intimate, participatory fellowship.

What's there, in the space of unconditioned beingness, together?

If there's nothing better to do and if this is as good as it gets, I'd much rather love and be loved, than to hate and start up some bitter rivalry more often than not formed on the basis of a misunderstanding and a lack of communication.

In this way, it could even be said that there's a place at this table or framework, for atheists, who, once informed it doesn't really matter any more what they hold as a set of firm beliefs or lack thereof on the basis of materialist monist imperial evidence.

There's no use picking a fight for no good reason when we've already come to the place of love and have tasted it, together.

Cheers,

He overcame the world.

It's hilarious and awesome, but oh to be invited into it, yet without coercion, but via a compelling and well reasoned argument, now that would really be something.


So I've decided that somehow I'm going to become a Christian Spiritual Humorist, facing a crowd who might either bury me in tomatos or, join me in the resolution to the predicament that we can only resolve by carrying it together whereby all the real heaving lifting has already been done for us, leaving nothing but the Stone and the Spirit to guide us into all knowledge and wisdom, which would surely require that we retain something of our own sense of humor and playfulness, lest we make the fatal mistake of other would be Godmen (both human and divine) of taking our selves too seriously and spoiling the fun for everyone in the process.

It's a dangerous sword to be wielding around over people's heads like the sword of Damocles and neither can the Bible be used as a blunt instrument by which to repel all who might approach even out of curiosity lest they be knocked out and turned into a zombie and a Jesus-freak.

We've got to figure it out together to the sound of lots of love and laughter and shared experiences and story telling.

There's nothing else to do in the space of unfettered freedom but to be ourselves and enjoy one another's company, even if the best that we can do is to be authentically inauthentic, which is actually authentic and thus, charming.

Someone's got to do it, be willing to stand up and take the stage and be a proper fool for Christ, but in such a way that the only thing we make a mockery of, is everything that deserves scorn and ridicule, starting with ourselves, and that's funny too, and endearing, self-deprecating humor.

I'd love to take that on, and so risky, but absolutely worth it!


We were absurd. Let's talk about that and share some laughs, what do you say?

Best regards,

Ankh

The very best defense, by which to preserve everything that's worthwhile. is a really good offense that is offensive to the ego, and the will and "intellectual" pride of man, but oh the potential for humor and joy, laughter and love in that distinction and paradigm shifting demarcation threshold beyond which there can be no turning back, and why would anyone want to, when the new frame of reference is entirely congruent with our own newfound rational faculty having at last come to our senses (with our face in a pig trough), and set off to make our journey back home in the mere hope of being accepted, if not worthy to be called a son, a servant of the father - and what does the father do? He doesn't wait behind a desk toe tapping, but instead, upon seeing us making the journey, He runs to greet us from a long way off (and here we couldn't even SEE home yet) and envelopes us in a big hug, throws a magnificent cloak on our shoulders, great clean shoes on our feet and a ring on our finger, with the family emblem, and then slays the fatted calf to throw a party in our own honor.
Meanwhile, the elder brother who stayed back and worked the farm the whole time the other son was off spending his inheritance on "riotous living", he hears the revelry of the celebration going on at the return of the lost son, and, moved to anger and even hatred towards his newfound, long-lost brother, calls a servant to ask him what all the hub bub is about, only to be told that it's a party being thrown at the return of the lost son and his brother (just as he suspected).
He refuses to go in to say hi and join in the celebration - so out comes the father to plead with him..

It's not unreasonable, none of it is, however crazy and wild it might appear.

Faith and trust in Jesus Christ is a sword of reason and logic that cuts away everything that makes no sense, but it can cut many ways and even to the heart at the fulcrum of the place where we are moved.

Jesus understood all this perfectly. He was a logician, but one who listened to his heart and the whole field of awareness in the light of truth.

It's the very thing we always sought, and here He is coming to embrace us by anticipation from the very origin of the creation.

God is built right into the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus got this, at the most intimate level and then he proceeded to set a table (a frame) for us to come together to enjoy his and one another's company in a spirit of koinonia, with each person bringing to that same table, their own unique set of passions and desires and capabilities, for a level of performance enough to entertain the rest of us, and hey can't we all relate?!

Who will barge in on this, and try to make a case from the POV of the dark world without, which in no small measure is the very comedic material that we're working with - "hey do you remember the time..."

Everyone would burst out in laughter at such a heckler from within this context, believing himself to be asserting his right to protest, not unlike the elder brother, or the rebel without a cause and then again at the leading edge, a compassionate case must be made that doesn't toss anyone out, as the laughter drains away, within.

It's as risky as it is a compelling proposition, but in the taking responsibility for it, we become our brother's keeper for better and often for worse, but that's just the way God rolls, one person at a time in search of the lost sheep who more often than not may be a very angry and bitter sheep at that, but one of God's own nonetheless.

He's got our back, so we have to be prepared to take a stand and have each other's back. He washed our feet. Therefore, we have to do the same.

And what did he say to the lawyer and his Pharisee cohorts who he wished to impress by tripping Jesus up on the highest nature of the law after Jesus used them as a foil by making a Samaritan the hero of the ensuing parable?

Go, and do likewise.

So it's not without it's practical or tabletop application of a philosophical principal founded on a first cause and a rock of reason and logic.

It carries the whole weight of it all, while making an appeal directly to our own better nature as children of a loving God who share the same ground of being, even one where blessings are imparted to the good and the bad alike.

This is true rightness or righteousness that doesn't seek to judge and to condemn to be right.

And it's belief as a knowing, not merely an article of faith.

It's a reason for faith in Jesus Christ.

And it's funny! that's the strange and unexpected part of it.

It restores the smile to our face. It doesn't wipe it off our face, and if there's a face that does lose it's "charm" at the prospect, then it wasn't our true face to begin with and it deserved to be wiped away, and so come the tears that are also wiped away with the new authentic smile.

It was all for you, you see.

You, dear reader, you were the one that we've been waiting on and waiting for a long time to get this party started because it just wouldn't be the same without you.

And as for me, I can't go in all by myself and then close the door on anyone or everyone.

No man is an island and therein resides the predicament that we've all been placed in, both individually and together, but without Jesus, and his great work and teaching, at some point the possibility for fun and enjoyment would just drain out of it.

So glad he held firm, all the way down the line and into the beyond forever leading the way back to God and preferably while we are still alive, so that we might have even the smallest taste of ever better things as yet to come both here and in the hereafter.

Our God is a good good God. Worthy are you oh Lord. Worthy is the lamb. Ya done good. Thank you. On behalf of us all and the rest of the arseholes, thank you from the depths of my heart wherein I (we?) know that it's true; that you were Godsent, who said:
"And as my father hath first sent me, even so send I, you."

To Jesus, three cheers!

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I'd just like to enter here to say first of all. That I have no better friend
than Jesus Christ. But a better hero? There is none.

a reply to: randyvs

It's true, but for many they've never really stopped to consider it, willingly and open-mindedly, who take their cues from the way of the world.

There are two worlds, really, and two ways of seeing and of being.

There's a world of those who says "we see" and yet are blind and the blind leading the blind, and another that laughs at all such pretensions, and leads and points the way to authenticity and truth, which is also the happy life, enough to contain all prior sorrows and tribulations and regrets of the past, and that's even capable of mourning over a fallen world or crying over the city of Jerusalem, and further, entering straight into the belly of the beast to appropriate all power and authority from a corrupt power and "ruling elite class" in binding the strong man, where it may be said that the weakness of God was stronger than all the strength of "mighty men of renown", Pharaohs included.

Heroic indeed, none greater.

And all with nothing but love and love's reason, and faith in the goodness and the love of God.

Who among us would slap away that hand of friendship and love, and reason and logic?

It is a new kind of Christian who has a reasonable basis for faith and trust in Jesus Christ, authentically.

Does this mean you or I or we have to go to church?

Church is here and now, as the already always state of being that we were meant to enjoy and to experience, together.

Church is everywhere. It's neither on the mountain or in the temple, but wherever we seek God in Spirit and in Truth.

And just because whole swaths of modern day Christendom including American Christendom and Roman Catholic have failed in the great commission by never becoming the irresistible pearl or point of attraction at the gate, shouldn't make the rest of us shy away from declaring ourselves a Christian and then proceeding to do the work of love that He gave us to do, and oh what a joy that kind of weighty responsibility is, in a world gone mad and astray.

"So do not fear or let your hearts be troubled little one's for it greatly pleased my father in heaven to share His Kingdom with all his children, and be of good cheer for I have overcome the world!" (paraphrased and conjoined scriptures).

This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and don't let any church-going person of mere "belief" try to tell you otherwise.

It's also possible that they may need you the most, to bring your light and life and love to a field of dry bones.

So many are thirsty, and the harvest of the field is ripe, but the workers are so few in number.


Personally, I don't think it's worth trying to put up a shield to defend against it, whether of a purely religious and doctrinal nature, or from an atheist perspective.

This is so much bigger than what I call "Churchianity."

What do you think Randy?

Do you think the genie can be contained in the stained glass bottle of the church?

Perhaps we need to get the world out of the church and move the church into the world one person at a time..

Be blessed.

Best regards,

Ankh

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

It's true, but for many they've never really stopped to consider it, willingly and open-mindedly, who take their cues from the way of the world.

Man I love the way you explain the truth.

a reply to: randyvs

Sometimes I use too many words and go on a little too much..

If there's one reader though, who's mind is not firmly shut and who wishes to make an inquiry into this Jesus business, apart from the traditional Churchianity speel, which for many is a real turnoff ie: "just believe it, or go to hell", then it will have been worth the effort.

The problem is twofold. On the one hand it doesn't sell very well because it impinges on people's comfort level and seeks to get past their defences (to be effective and to move them to a new way of seeing and being), and the other is that it's generally in diametric opposition to prevailing paradigms and all manner of bias.

"There is a principal which serves as a bar against all information and proof against all arguments and one that cannot fail to keep a person in everlasting ignorance.
That principal is called - contempt, prior to investigation."
~ Herbert Spencer, Scientist