Brother Michael Sky
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Posts posted by Brother Michael Sky
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Yes, I can relate to that.
I can as well. But it is only a problem for a mind which has not been exercised. I can hold a conversation while meditating nowadays... I have meditated in Grand Central Station - on the floor with my back against the wall. I have meditated in a full amusement park.... The mind is like a muscle - use it or wonder where it has gone....
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Experiences are experiences.
Is it so, that Grace is a benediction to those who are empty?
When the most beautiful spiritual experiences come,
they come without being the result of a personal effort,
but more from leaving the windows & doors open
to the house in which the spirit lives...
No fair - how am I to sully such beautiful words with questions - or alternate perceptions of awareness? You do not play fair, Hex....
( yes, that question was rhetorical...)
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..as compared to Bonnie???...in a word.."no"
Bonnie could really reach into your soul when she was young, am I right? Made you wanna protect her...
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I agreed with that statement but now I will readjust my position.
If I understand correctly member Hexalpa pointed out he associates with a Christian group that does not subscribe to this, they do not even use the OT.
There is a difference between Actively practicing Old Testament principles, and recognizing where they fit in MAN's understanding of God.
There are not many Christians who use Old Testament practices, but the unbroken line of history revealing Yahweh, is indeed the foundation of their belief - as I said, even if they do not realize it.
The difference between Jews and Christians is The Christ...... not the texts leading to him....
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First we need some history:
Abraham -2,000 B.C. – Mesopotamia -> Canaan ( by way of Shechem )
Isaac - (we know who Isaac was)
Jacob – after a Famine went to Egypt – eventually enslaved.
Moses – 1,300 B.C. – solidified into a single religious and social entity.
Joshua – Attacked Canaan and claimed it as their own, fighting near constantly to keep it.
Saul – Pressure from outside sources forced the formation of a monarchy under Saul.
Israelite Empire – 1,000-922 B.C. – Kings David and Soloman.
Ephraim (Israel) and Judah – Death of Solomon sees the United Kingdom split.
The Northern Kingdoms were conquered by the Assyrians in 721 B.C.
The Southern Kingdoms were conquered by Babylon after almost a hundred years of vassalage to Assyria, as Babylon wrestled worldly control away from Assyria. Jerusalem falls to Babylon in 587, and the people are carried into captivity.
Persia comes on the scene and allows exiles to return to their homeland. Jerusalem is rebuilt and life is resumed. The restoration occurs around 450 B.C. in the times of Nehemia and Ezra.
Alexander the Great – 332 B.C – brings the Greeks to the scene – The policy of imposing Hellenistic cultural uniformity upon conquered lands is eventually – 168 B.C. – the cause of the rebellion fomented by the House of the Maccabees
Rome arrives and things go downhill for Hebrews….
But this is not simply history – in this record can be witnessed God’s activity, in the playing out of events, guiding the fate of Israel. God’s actions being so much greater than man, the perspective of history must be used to see them.
Both Jews and Christians use this view of God as the foundation upon which to rest their present understanding. What differs is the perspective of meaning, on certain historical events… It is the unique character of the Old Testament, which both the Jew and Christian agree upon. It is an historical document of unique importance.
The entire history of Israel before us, it is not the migration of Abraham that is mentioned as the central event in Israel’s memory, but Exodus and the time in the wilderness. The prophets mention Exodus as the formative moment. The words of Amos (3:1-2 & 2:9-11), Hosea (11:1), Micah (6:4), Jeremiah (2:2-7), and many psalms mention Exodus as the pivotal point. Keeping this in mind, the book of Genesis must be regarded as a sort of Prologue to the beginning of the story of Israel.
Hidden within Deuteronomy is a very telling little piece of liturgy – Deuteronomy 26:5-10. It is, in actuality, a profession of faith that one makes when he presents the first fruits of his harvest. This ritual could possibly date back to the time of Joshua, Moses successor. Since the themes of this liturgy are greatly elaborated upon in the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua, we can think of this passage as the Pentateuch, or Hexateuch in miniature (An idea I borrowed from German Scholar Gerhard von Rad). And again, we see all the emphasis being placed upon the exodus, as the founding moment of Israel.
It has been noted that the God of the Bible is the “God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob”, not the God of philosophers and sages. This is true in the sense that Biblical faith, to the bewilderment of many philosophers, is essentially historical in character. Its doctrines and events are historical realities, not abstract values and ideas existing in a timeless realm. One cannot take single moments in history to define God. It is essential that the entire known history of God’s revealed will is required for appropriate understanding.
It is the historical playing out of the Will of God towards Israel which colors the facts relayed by Moses, as he relayed the “Ways” of God which were “made known” to him (Psalm 103:7). In some senses we must study backwards, from Exodus to genesis, to understand the story more thoroughly.
Throughout the generations, Israel’s God has been known and worshiped as the Lord who brought his people out of Egypt.
So HERE we have our Yahweh – Same being as He was when He led Abraham to Canaan. Yes, they had different names for Him. But they all refer to the very same God; they were merely trying to understand Him better when they called Him by multiple names, or when His name morphed from earlier understandings. A name is a descriptor, and as the description becomes clearer, the Name will be defined further.
For the Christian, it is a basic foundation of faith that the God of Israel was Jesus’ father. It is what makes them a Christian, even if they do not understand this.
edit: I'm probably the last one who should have done this - not a Jewish bone in my body - and I took zero time doing it (
), but no one else was offering.( and maybe someone who knows better will spot a flaw in my thinking... ) -
That dude's a NUT !! My brother and I hung out with him after a concert in Richmond ( or was it Hampton? - it's all fuzzy... ) Whew, the stuff they get up to on busses....
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Hey, You!
Standing in the aisles, with itchy feet and fading smiles, do you Feel Me?
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In case anyone's interested, I found this lil program here : Download dot com That will capture the stream from YouTube and convert it to MP3 on your harddrive.
There's a lot of music I would like to have, but simply cannot afford - and I cannot use the bandwidth to continually stream from the internet...
so i save a dozen or so songs every once in a while - to mix up my random playlists - and keep them in a revolving file... I erase the last dozen to save new ones...
Keeps me from getting tired of music, and I still have reason to purchase cd's when I have the cash....
This lil program is really nice - it captures the link simply by clicking the song - I open a video, open this proggie, and it already has the link...
but I DID deny associations to some of the microsoft suite products as it was setting up.... don't exactly know why it wanted them - maybe connecting to the clipboard i guess...
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The crows are visiting in my yard.... -
Can some one show me something that moves you like these old songs do?
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Thanks for the reminder Raven !!
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This is my dad's band..its what he's doing with his retirement. Hey, I wish him the best. He's a fellow ULC Minister...warning about lyrics. Spoorsack
Pssst, Raven..... your dad's got me to thinking about John Prine...
Thanks man, I enjoyed the music !!
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~ Not a surprise...
Marilyn Manson wouldn't post either.... so what ya gonna do?....
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Sorry but I think your link may be broken. I never heard of a "St Murph's Day", let alone someone named Murph. Is this like that holiday called Festivus? I am not sure what this 'holiday' is about but I am open to learning about new holidays. It is always good to celebrate just for the purpose of celebrating. For this reason, whether or not I have any clue to what this 'holiday' is about, but I do kindly wish you a "very St. Murph's Day" or "very (belated) St Murph's Day"...it seems to be already catching on! Also, please share more information with us about this. Thank you!
.gif)
More info can be had here: St. Murph
not about the holiday, about murph....
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~ What, you couldn't get Eastwood singing too? THAT'S Hell... LOL
comp crashed twice trying - gave it up and went for powerman 5000
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I've said it a thousand times.... there's gems to be had at this place....
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Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus.
What does it mean to me:
A human being, like us, who meant well for the world, who wanted to bring a good message, to all, but in particular to those in need, the sick, the desperate, the poor. He told of a kingdom of God, not some kingdom in the afterlife, no, a kingdom that is here and now.
We all are so used to the material world that sometimes we forget there is more than just matter. I mean the spiritual world, a place, well not really a place, but let's call it a place where we all are one and merge with God, we become God, there we are God.
I know each person has his own ideas about Jesus' death, perhaps to some it is a sacrifice, to others a political question, to yet others the death of a great visionary or philosopher or perhaps for some the death of a cynic.
To me it signifies we can overcome, just like Jesus did, the evils of this world.
My flesh can burn, my soul can be hurt, but never can my spirit be touched.
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Yea when I was younger I was sick of hearing how nice and how good I was, so I became the rascal you guys now know so I wouldn't have to hear that crap any more.
Guess that's why we are to become like little children again, Fawz.....
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Do you think that as people say you are a nice person, that that has an effect on one's working harder on being the "good person" or is it more a confirmation to us of what we already are? I am thinking along the lines of outside positive/negative input into our psyche.
Personally Rev, I feel that we bring into our sphere of influence that which is needful - for whatever reason.
I had much more need of confirmation when I was younger, ( lol - when I was nicer... )
I learned rather quickly that where one person thought I was a nice guy -others saw it as an opportunity to impose their will upon me.
The Bible had a lot of influence on my thoughts, and I pictured Jesus as a man who was able to stand up for what he believed in - to the utmost in steadfast Faith - to his Death.
I wished to emulate the Man I respected so greatly - and I was a rather a large boy... When I had to raise my hands against another, it was rather comical - because a lecture always accompanied the beating...
But I always acted out of defense of another - I wouldn't fight when insulted or teased.... it was when someone had hands put on them, I would stand and say -" here's your problem - leave that one alone... "
But it was never pride or meanness which was my motivator - I think it was because I had so many sisters - I was a defender from birth... and I had a very strong opinion of what was wrong... If I had been overly concerned about what others thought, I would never have raised my hands against another... I think it was just something I was born with Reverend, coupled with so many older sisters which made me stand up for what I thought was right....
The trend continues to this day - I will only fight in defense - and I WILL speak my belief... The reactions I get are next to meaningless to me... unless I find them helpful or they point to what I perceive as an issue I must deal with - then it is accepted and I try to work on it...
I think, to a great extent, we come here with feelings about what is right and wrong - it is our surroundings that reinforce or deny our impulses, and our reactions to our surroundings determine how much we trust our instincts...
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I have been told the same, from time to time.
It usually revolves around doing for others. I find that people recognize a good deed that they don't feel they have time for, or don't want to expend the time doing, or just don't bother to do - for whatever reason, that others willingly do...
When I was younger it seemed everyone said it - but it was because I was meek, kind, and helpful, until someone needed defending.... I didn't use a curse word until the age of 18, and I was the one defending helpless students in school - it was actually strange - I fought almost endlessly and got a reputation as a really nice guy...
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In a very interesting article the following was stated:
"In old Kabalistic texts they say that the Messiah was Son of Man, and dwelled not in his fathers house, the Demiurge, but his mothers, the Shekinah, a.k.a. Sophia, a.k.a. Lilith. The one who would first have guided mans genetic ancestry, but Adam was very much the Demiurges creature and would not permit Lilith prominence in sexual union so that failed. Lilith instead being painted as being a whore and evil. Supposedly the whore of Babylon. Babylon being the unity of man."
Now I know next to nothing about the Kabbalah so I wonder if anyone make any sense of this in terms of Kabbalism.
Here is the article: http://dragonintuitive.com/hold-of-the-demiurge/
The understanding I have of the subject matter, from my perspective, does not jibe too well with the understanding of this individual...
and in actuality Hyperreal, I find the explanations given in the Urantia Book to be much more in line with discoveries I have made... These are themes which revolve around the Fall of the Angels...
I don't know if you have ever read any of it - but it has a completely difference take on these happenings... and would be a very solid base for your suspicions about Yahweh - but it puts the responsibility on Caligastia and his " officers "... and explains in detail ( very, very detailed ,) the whole debacle....
The thing is - the language used for the U Book is difficult for some folks to follow....
edit : I will give you a very short summary. ( very short. ) -
Caligastia chose to focus energies in a method which does not acknowledge our Creator. He convinced many of his subordinates to work for him, instead of focusing on Our Creator. He tried to set himself up as OUR GOD.
Now Caligastia, at the time, was our Son of the Creator, and as such it was his responsibility to guide us through our development as Sons of God ourselves... The whole process was disrupted by his betrayal...
We were, for a long time, without a guiding influence.... it was a time when " The Light Went Out " here on earth - we lost our " God " ( which is a title...) .... and mankind almost perished here on earth - we were under the influence of an " EVIL " - which actually reads " selfish " - God during the intervening period until another " Creator Son " stepped forward to " Save " us - and continue our development. That Individual was Jesus.
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Somebody's been reading their haggadah again!
Michael,
I can use all the strength I can get, which is what you wished for me with yasher koach. If you wanted to thank me you could have said "todah" or if you were really really grateful you could have said "todah rabbah." In any event I appreciate the appreciation!
I was of the understanding that wishing someone strength is also a method of congratulating someone for performing a good deed and wishing them the strength to continue... I realize that this is normally used in synagogue - but I tried to stretch it to cover our Forum here....
Todah Rabbah Rabbi, for your instruction... ( it's a bit frustrating to find a subject which resists all your attempts at understanding - and I find that problem with learning Hebrew - throw as much Hebrew into your conversations as you are comfortable with - I will appreciate anything shared... )
Debating theosophical points is a useful intellectual exercise, but when it comes to worshiping the Lord I'm all about rejoicing in the glory. When we're in the Spirit, the differences really don't seem to matter.
I would like to toss in a loud southern AMEN to this statement...
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חג פסח שמח to you as well Rabbi.
And Rabbi - Yasher koach to you ( I am probably using this incorrectly ) for your reminders - It is always a helpful thing to know when our friends are celebrating their holidays... and you have been an inspiration for me to learn the facts behind the celebrations you post. That can only be seen as a GOOD thing...
L'Chayim
Thoughts On The Visitation Of Grace
in Stories & Texts Archive
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well, a definite thanks Hex!