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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:37am PT
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Another time, I read the passage in Matthew 13:4, where the Bible says, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field".
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:37am PT
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As I began to meditate on this passage, and become the "hero" as the man who finds the hidden treasure. I have heard it preached as a soulwinning sermon. We are to go out searching for hidden treasure. But God, again, gave me insight.
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:38am PT
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In this parable, Jesus told the man sold everything he had to buy the field so that he could have the treasure. We certainly can't pay anything to receive Jesus Christ, or to help someone else receive Jesus Christ.
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:39am PT
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Quite the opposite is happening here! He, Jesus Christ, paid everything so that He could have us. Again, it is Jesus who is the hero in the story. He did not just see a waste land, a deserted, left for ruin fallen human race. No! He saw, amidst the snakes, and spiders, weeds, thorns, thistles, and ruin, a people he wanted to redeem. Praise God he saw us worthy enough to die for!
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:39am PT
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I cannot think of better news for the alcoholic, the drug addict, and even self-righteous church member! God looked on us as sinners, and thought it a worthy cause to "buy" or "redeem" us back to Him. I love that old song even more, "Redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb...
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:40am PT
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Most recently, I read about the pearl of great price described in Matthew 13:45-46,"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:40am PT
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How many times have you heard Jesus described as the Pearl of great price? But, no, He's not the pearl in this story - you are! The Hero here is the One who paid everything so that He could "purchase [us] with His own blood" (Acts 20:28). He is the One Who gave everything. He is the Hero!
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:41am PT
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I've said before, "It's not about you" and me. It never has been and it never will be. It's all about Him!
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:42am PT
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However, since we always look for the "hero" in the story, let's consider this - may the resurrected power of Christ enable us to stop making ourselves the main character in the "divine drama"!
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:42am PT
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Babies think everything is all about them, but with maturity comes a true understanding.
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:43am PT
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The story is "His" story and He has the leading role. We are simply the recipients or beneficiaries of His wonderful love and grace.
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:44am PT
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Is He your Hero?? Have you told Him so?? Jesus....did You ever know that You're my Hero??
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illusiondweller
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:44am PT
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Have a wonderful day IN the Lord!
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Jun 10, 2010 - 04:27am PT
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"so largo--i take it you know yourself and are empowered? that would make you the one person on this thread?"
I've said all along that God is not a thing. Neither are we. When you mistake your conditioned, evolved ego for who you are, or think when you know your ego, you know yourself, you are suffering from a case of mistaken identity. Your true self is unborn.
The reason this makes little to no sense to some here is that it doesn't fit into the any of the existing boxes they have in their head, and perhaps they are not willing to think outside of said boxes.
That much said, none of this stuff is easy - at least not for me. I work on it all the time and it's still very illusive.
JL
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 07:55am PT
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ID gets the cigar for most-posts-in-a-row, but i generally stop reading after #2. he's a compulsive soul-saver and a little scary.
this is just an incipient thread. we've got a long way to go to "why are those republicans so wrong on everything?" (22,080) and even "what song are you listening to right now?" (4,269). wonder if this subject has real legs.
bookworm: mother theresa was a bit of a phony in my book. it'll be interesting to see what the devil's advocate comes up with if they try to make a saint out of her. somehow, she just didn't have the warmth about her that you'd expect of something called love. neither, for that matter, does ID up there.
i wrote a little poem about ms. theresa some years back when she visited los angeles and roger mahoney was still just an archbishop:
mother theresa the living saint,
came to town, to those who ain't,
mugged with the archbishop and told the boys in the barrio:
jesus loves the children.
too innocent to see how she is used,
saints after all aren't supposed to be shrewd,
mother theresa opens the door:
we couldn't have saints if we didn't have poor.
the faithful kneel in eternal hope
try, try again, but never to cope
they all know birth control is a sin
life isn't a game you're supposed to win
after all, jesus didn't.
out of the yard and into the street
faces grow longer, growing punk beards,
looking like children less and i guess
that jesus must love them less and less
as they get laid, get high, get knifed.
mother theresa, when some god
comes down from heaven and takes off his pants
and f*#ks like the rest of us, then i'll believe
that god really became a man.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 07:57am PT
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haha--ST doesn't let the f-word come through there, even for literary purposes. i tried!
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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Jun 10, 2010 - 08:09am PT
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observation of and inclusion within your sustaining environment requires no leap of faith.
the jesus story, though, puts a noose around your neck and then beckons you off the precipice of earned wisdom.
jump. jump. you can do it.
because your's requires nothin of substance or significance.
it only requires stupidity and an unwillingness to see.
as ya'll dangle over there where foolishness abounds, and hope is pretend,
it is no wonder you scream back across the threshold of treason, begging for followers.
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rrrADAM
climber
LBMF
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Jun 10, 2010 - 10:44am PT
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How to talk to complete idiots / Three basic options. Choose wisely, lest you go totally insane
September 25, 2009|By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
There are three basic ways to talk to complete idiots.
The first is to assail them with facts, truths, scientific data, the commonsensical obviousness of it all. You do this in the very reasonable expectation that it will nudge them away from the ledge of their more ridiculous and paranoid misconceptions because, well, they're facts, after all, and who can dispute those?
Why, idiots can, that's who. It is exactly this sort of logical, levelheaded appeal to reason and mental acuity that's doomed to fail, simply because in the idiotosphere, facts are lies and truth is always dubious, whereas hysteria and alarmism resulting in mysterious undercarriage rashes are the only things to be relied upon.
. . . http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-09-25/entertainment/17118073_1_fundamentalist-health-care-complete-idiots
Again...
"Those that have convictions that are not arrived at by reason can not be unconvinced by reason."
~Unknown
"In situations that matter, mythologies are immensely powerful things, and sometimes we humans go to enormous lengths to see the world as we think it should be, even when the evidence says we are mistaken."
~Robert Laughlin
Or...
"Faith is antithetical to reason."
~Ayn Rand
"...the truth emerges only when all ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside."
~Johannes Kepler
"Even Newton and Einstein were profoundly wrong about things they felt strongly about."
~Lee Smolin
See the theme here? Beliefs that appeal to emotion and desire ("woo") can profoundly affect one's reason. It's leads to confirmation bias.
Confidence should be directly proportional to reason and evidence, not inversely proportional as it is in many of the faithful. (I.e., profoundly believe in things that aren't supported by the evidence and/or reason, and at the same time confidently believe that things that are supported by mountains of evidence and reason are wrong.)
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jun 10, 2010 - 11:22am PT
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In the end, if someone is determined to jump off the cliff with all the others, and your arguments regarding the consequences are rejected, you just have to stand back and let them jump...
I understand that statement works equally well from both points of view.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Jun 10, 2010 - 12:24pm PT
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That much said, none of this stuff is easy - at least not for me. I work on it all the time and it's still very illusive.
Largo, is that really what you meant? Or did you mean elusive?... in which case it's kind of a funny Freudian slip.
--
No, Dell, I mean that the whole thing can very easily take the course of an illusion unless you keep boring in and detaching from the content, moving from foreground to field, as they say, from facts and figures to context. Our brains have evolved to lock onto stuff and grind on it. Not easy to step away from this process - and unless you can step away from the noisy room once in a while, you'll never know there's more outside, and will swear it's all inside the room (Plato's Cave), or doesn't "exist."
JL
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