It's like the way fisherman can have fun. The biggest fish that's ever lived in the lake could be at most thirty inches long, yet a fisherman will say he caught a thirty-five inch fish last week in that very lake.
The next fisherman said he caught a fish that was forty-eight inches long ...in that same spot.
The third fisherman says, "First liar doesn't stand a chance."
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Who was the first liar??
On record, the first liar was Lucifer. We don't know what he told the other angels ...we just have record of what he first told Eve.
Of course, Eve told Adam ...and ever since there have been attempts to reconcile all that.
Jesus going to the cross, did reconcile all of that ...yet, we still try so hard to rationalize so many aspects of our lives. And we attempt to redeem ourselves on how we view our relationship with Him ...and convince ourselves that He is not disappointed in us.
Of course, there are those who don't consider this at all ...and His love is abundantly accepted, with not much in the way of accountability on our part for appreciating such depth of love. Accepting Him has a degree of understanding that tends to evidence itself in growth.
This goes along with what I've mentioned before about spiritual growth not just being personal to the degree that it's as if no others exist.
I recall the Monastic Orders that have developed as a result of efforts to become closer to God. If Jesus said to go out into all the world to share the gospel ...it would seem to me that living within a walled community may be a nice retreat and help someone refresh or refocus, but eventually the need to be out in the community would be like Jesus going among the people after He prayed in communion with the Father.
There seems to be nothing wrong with working to improve ourselves ...yet, this does not mean fully isolating ourselves from those we feel may affect our personal purity. We may decide not to attend certain events, but not to avoid conversing with the people when outside of those things we may disagree with.
Of course, isolating ourselves would be better than joining a neighborhood uprising, or a gang ...but, there are different ways to approach the difficult challenges in our lives.
And personal purity does not mean we force it upon others ...like the movements towards ethnic cleansing, affecting many others, often in very violent fashion.
We are unable to cleanse ourselves ...so the only way we can make ourselves acceptable to God is through a simple choice, in accepting Jesus. If we want to help others become cleansed ...tell them about Jesus.
Of course, Eve told Adam ...and ever since there have been attempts to reconcile all that.
Jesus going to the cross, did reconcile all of that ...yet, we still try so hard to rationalize so many aspects of our lives. And we attempt to redeem ourselves on how we view our relationship with Him ...and convince ourselves that He is not disappointed in us.
Of course, there are those who don't consider this at all ...and His love is abundantly accepted, with not much in the way of accountability on our part for appreciating such depth of love. Accepting Him has a degree of understanding that tends to evidence itself in growth.
This goes along with what I've mentioned before about spiritual growth not just being personal to the degree that it's as if no others exist.
I recall the Monastic Orders that have developed as a result of efforts to become closer to God. If Jesus said to go out into all the world to share the gospel ...it would seem to me that living within a walled community may be a nice retreat and help someone refresh or refocus, but eventually the need to be out in the community would be like Jesus going among the people after He prayed in communion with the Father.
There seems to be nothing wrong with working to improve ourselves ...yet, this does not mean fully isolating ourselves from those we feel may affect our personal purity. We may decide not to attend certain events, but not to avoid conversing with the people when outside of those things we may disagree with.
Of course, isolating ourselves would be better than joining a neighborhood uprising, or a gang ...but, there are different ways to approach the difficult challenges in our lives.
And personal purity does not mean we force it upon others ...like the movements towards ethnic cleansing, affecting many others, often in very violent fashion.
We are unable to cleanse ourselves ...so the only way we can make ourselves acceptable to God is through a simple choice, in accepting Jesus. If we want to help others become cleansed ...tell them about Jesus.
Of course, believing in God has to be the beginning ...yet, many struggle with the genuineness of that also. What authority is used and believed??
Gilbert K. Chesterton was born in the mid-1800's. We think we have so much advanced knowledge today, yet back then, he realized this in reference to those promoting evolutionary concepts instead of the Bible: "It is one thing to describe what doesn't exist, it is another to discover a rhinoceros (I say platypus) does exist, then take pleasure in the fact that it looks as if it doesn't."
Don't let the biggest lie ...be the one you tell yourself. Though, even you cannot claim the lie to be your own. It is just a part of the lie that always tries to discount the truth about God.
Discount has more than one meaning. It can mean a great deal, as it cost less ...and we readily accept that. Or we can have an opposite response, of rejecting it ...as in, discounting or rejecting something as true. So, if we discount the truth about Jesus, perhaps it is because we don't realize the cost of what happened at Calvary.
He also said, in the book Orthodoxy, "If a man says that extinction is better than existence or that blank existence is better than variety and adventure, then he is not one of the ordinary people to whom I am talking ...If a man prefers nothing, I can give him nothing."
And it was God's Creation which shows variety and adventure to him ...not the billions of years where others profess there was nothing but (cellular) division. Yet, if anyone should propose there was a rapid increase in division ...I would be inclined to believe that to be true today, as so many are dividing on this thought.
And it was God's Creation which shows variety and adventure to him ...not the billions of years where others profess there was nothing but (cellular) division. Yet, if anyone should propose there was a rapid increase in division ...I would be inclined to believe that to be true today, as so many are dividing on this thought.
Don't let the biggest lie ...be the one you tell yourself. Though, even you cannot claim the lie to be your own. It is just a part of the lie that always tries to discount the truth about God.
Discount has more than one meaning. It can mean a great deal, as it cost less ...and we readily accept that. Or we can have an opposite response, of rejecting it ...as in, discounting or rejecting something as true. So, if we discount the truth about Jesus, perhaps it is because we don't realize the cost of what happened at Calvary.
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