Jesus Christ is where God’s feet touch the ground…
The soil is human;the sky, divine…
September 18, 2009
Back to Identity
“We derive our identity from relationships.” Ravi Zacharias in The Grand Weaver.
Previously I had mentioned something that I picked up from Jean Calvin, viz. we cannot know who we are, if we do not know God. So self-knowledge is not possible if we do not know God.
That said… to know someone is to be involved in a relationship with that person. No?
At least two forms of knowledge – prop and aquaintance – the latter is what I am talking about.
September 17, 2009
From soil to flesh – just doodle
What is incarnational living?
To put on flesh
To put on clothes
To wear a house
To put on land
To put on dust . . . flesh . . . clay … soil … land … earth.
I was birthed in a clay oven . . .
To put on flesh… this we cannot do.
To put on clothes… this we can.
To put on a house … ” Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling” ~2 Cor 5:2
To put on land… is to move from our place to another. It is for us to move from little heavens to the slums.
To deny the self is to say No to all.
The Son of God puts on flesh.
We clothe ourselves in Christ.
To be clothed in Christ is to be naked in the eyes of the world.
What is sarx?
soil and soul
In soil is found one’s soul.
body and sand
September 3, 2009
Tentative thought
This is highly speculative… I need to think it through and sort it out… later.
No command of God can be observed because it is a command.
If you have done so – i.e. observed a command because it is God’s command – then you have not observed it.
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God’s commands flow from His Being (who He is).
Our observance flows from our being.
August 22, 2009
Self-Love
But first love…
Three aspects to love as I see it…
1. Love is directed at someone.
- You love Sanju. You love Manju.
2. Love comes in different types.
~ The kind of love that you exercise towards your child will be different from the kind you exercise towards a friend at the workplace.
3. Love comes in differing ease of uses.
It may be easier to love your friend than your enemy.
Then there is self-love.
Everyone loves themselves:
“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” ~Matthew 22:39
God has created us so that self-love is a part of who we are. Otherwise we would self-destruct. (Of course there is proper self-love and improper (sinful) self-love, but I digress.)
(Aristotle : A friend is another self.)
If you love your friend you will do good to him.
If you love yourself, you will do good to yourself.
~>If you love your friend, you are doing good to yourself.
So …
If you love yourself, you will do good to others.
So here we self-love as at least one of the building blocks for Ethics. A foundation.
The thing is that you have to love yourself in a sanctified way. So, you must be regenerated, by the Holy Spirit.
Fallen people love in fallen ways.
God also loves Himself. Divine self-love is a model for us. Sort this out later…
Add to this also self-knowledge. You cannot love someone without knowing them. Your love grows in proportion to the knowledge you have of them. A lot of people “fall in love” with someone they do not know. I think that they mistake infatuation for love. {Mistake in my thinking. Think this through later.}
In order for us to know ourselves, it is not enough to simply introspect ourselves. In order to truly know ourselves, we need to know God. And we need to know the right God, other wise we will have a false knowledge of ourselves. Idolatry…
This is not simply head knowledge. It is head, heart and hand knowledge. Like that old song, “He walks with me, He talks with me…”
August 15, 2009
Prayer …
Apart from prayer, I am blind, deaf, mute, and senseless.
Without prayer I have neither arm, nor leg.
However through, prayer, I have universal reach.
August 14, 2009
Silence …
Silence to some is the sound of nonexistence. {?work on? doesn’t seem right}
August 13, 2009
Solitude
True solitude can only be experienced in the presence of God.
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To find solitude is to be located.(?)
