Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? -T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)
- It takes a lifetime to figure this out! : ) but satisfying to know you know some of the differences.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Why cruelty?
It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)
Our Sunday School has gone over the history of the church and the cruelty that man put upon his fellow human being if they don't believe the same way. I'm trying to understand the cruelty and maybe the above quote has truth in it? Better watch ourselves!
Our Sunday School has gone over the history of the church and the cruelty that man put upon his fellow human being if they don't believe the same way. I'm trying to understand the cruelty and maybe the above quote has truth in it? Better watch ourselves!
More Ayn Rand
BY Xion 06.17.11 AT 7:51 PM
Rand thought she came up with a new philosophy and people often attribute her with creating something new. It wasn’t new at all. Objectivism is quite simply existentialism with a purpose. The purpose is to “be all you can be” as the Army slogan goes. If you love architecture or making steel, then build the best buildings and make the best steel and ascend to the highest heights of your potential.
It is amusing to see how wrong Rand was about Christianity and yet to see her espousing principles which aren’t far off. A Christian would say “be all God would have you to be”. Fulfill your God given purpose.
Rand’s arch-enemy was collectivism which is contrary to individualism. One’s purpose is to serve the state and not ascend to the heights of your potential, but the state’s. The state is run by moochers, lawyers and politicians who produce nothing but feed off of the productivity of others. In the name of fairness and equity they destroy prosperity.
Rand viewed Christianity as a tool of the state, as the opiate of the people, which demands self-sacrifice and service of others. This was the greatest evil in Rand’s view. She got it wrong.
Serving God is a personal, individual aspiration. Service of others is not an end in itself. Service of God is the fulfillment of one’s maximum potential and it goes far beyond concrete and steel, the stuff of this life.
Existentialists are not wrong. The problem is their view is too narrow. Solomon, the wisest man in history aside from Christ spoke of things under the sun. Vanity of vanities.
If the secular world is all there is, then existentialism is the truest philosophy around. It accurately captures the vanity of existence and proposes no hope other than to burn brightly before your light is snuffed out.
Solomon went on to explain that there is another dimension to life above the sun, i.e. a spiritual dimension which gives life meaning even beyond the grave. I pity Rand for never having embraced this wisdom. Her philosophy, i.e. plain old existentialism, is quite good for materialists. But reality is more than the rudiments of this world and its vain philosophies.
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world,and not after Christ.” (Col 2:8 KJV)
(She missed the cross, but freed my thought to reject the collective view of the church to the individual love of Christ for me. Yes,"God so loved the world...", but "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Rand thought she came up with a new philosophy and people often attribute her with creating something new. It wasn’t new at all. Objectivism is quite simply existentialism with a purpose. The purpose is to “be all you can be” as the Army slogan goes. If you love architecture or making steel, then build the best buildings and make the best steel and ascend to the highest heights of your potential.
It is amusing to see how wrong Rand was about Christianity and yet to see her espousing principles which aren’t far off. A Christian would say “be all God would have you to be”. Fulfill your God given purpose.
Rand’s arch-enemy was collectivism which is contrary to individualism. One’s purpose is to serve the state and not ascend to the heights of your potential, but the state’s. The state is run by moochers, lawyers and politicians who produce nothing but feed off of the productivity of others. In the name of fairness and equity they destroy prosperity.
Rand viewed Christianity as a tool of the state, as the opiate of the people, which demands self-sacrifice and service of others. This was the greatest evil in Rand’s view. She got it wrong.
Serving God is a personal, individual aspiration. Service of others is not an end in itself. Service of God is the fulfillment of one’s maximum potential and it goes far beyond concrete and steel, the stuff of this life.
Existentialists are not wrong. The problem is their view is too narrow. Solomon, the wisest man in history aside from Christ spoke of things under the sun. Vanity of vanities.
If the secular world is all there is, then existentialism is the truest philosophy around. It accurately captures the vanity of existence and proposes no hope other than to burn brightly before your light is snuffed out.
Solomon went on to explain that there is another dimension to life above the sun, i.e. a spiritual dimension which gives life meaning even beyond the grave. I pity Rand for never having embraced this wisdom. Her philosophy, i.e. plain old existentialism, is quite good for materialists. But reality is more than the rudiments of this world and its vain philosophies.
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world,and not after Christ.” (Col 2:8 KJV)
(She missed the cross, but freed my thought to reject the collective view of the church to the individual love of Christ for me. Yes,"God so loved the world...", but "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Amy Carmichael
Amy Carmichael was commissioned by the Church of England Zenana Mission. Hindu temple children were young girls dedicated to the gods and forced into prostitution to earn money for the priests i.e Devadasi. Much of her work was with young ladies, some of whom were saved from forced prostitution. The organization she founded was known as the Dohnavur Fellowship. Dohnavur is situated in Tamil Nadu, thirty miles from the southern tip of India. The fellowship would become a sanctuary for over one thousand children who would otherwise have faced a bleak future.
In an effort to respect Indian culture, members of the organization wore Indian dress and the children were given Indian names. She herself dressed in Indian clothes, dyed her skin with dark coffee, and often travelled long distances on India's hot, dusty roads to save just one child from suffering.
While serving in India, Amy received a letter from a young lady who was considering life as a missionary. She asked Amy, "What is missionary life like?" Amy wrote back saying simply,
"Missionary life is simply a chance to die."
In 1931, Carmichael was badly injured in a fall, which left her bedridden much of the time until her death. She died in India in 1951 at the age of 83. She asked that no stone be put over her grave; instead, the children she had cared for put a bird bath over it with the single inscription "Amma", which means mother in the Tamil.
Her biography quotes her as saying:
"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving.
Amy Carmichael - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
No Scar? is one of my favorite of Amy's poems first heard read by Elizabeth Elliot on her radio program.
NO SCAR?
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? no scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has nor wound nor scar?
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Lying
Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist (1821-1881)
The first step to trust Jesus Christ as our Redeemer is to realize that we are helpless and need to be rescued. Satan "hath blinded the minds of those which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" II Corinthians 4:4).
It is a miracle that our spirit will listen to God's Spirit that we might be saved, but God has made it possible and reasonable to those who seek. Praise God!
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist (1821-1881)
The first step to trust Jesus Christ as our Redeemer is to realize that we are helpless and need to be rescued. Satan "hath blinded the minds of those which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" II Corinthians 4:4).
It is a miracle that our spirit will listen to God's Spirit that we might be saved, but God has made it possible and reasonable to those who seek. Praise God!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Differences in Christianity?
Solomon writes in Proverbs: “Only by pride cometh contention.” There’s a certain amount of pride.
Pride, in religion per se, it just runs the show. This is what Jesus dealt with, with regard to the Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, Sadducees and so on.
(I often wonder how the differences in denominations are possible...but, could it be as simple as pride? We are certainly a self-aggrandizing bunch of humanity, aren't we? Lord, guard our heart from our own deception of ourself. Amen. - Linda)
Does the Bible Mention Denominations? | thebereancall.org
Pride, in religion per se, it just runs the show. This is what Jesus dealt with, with regard to the Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees, Sadducees and so on.
(I often wonder how the differences in denominations are possible...but, could it be as simple as pride? We are certainly a self-aggrandizing bunch of humanity, aren't we? Lord, guard our heart from our own deception of ourself. Amen. - Linda)
Does the Bible Mention Denominations? | thebereancall.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)