God said this to Pharaoh; would he say it to you?
But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Exodus 9:16
Category Archives: quotes
Thought for the Weekend
It’s justice and mercy the old dichotomies,
All along the front lines of my heart in both doubt and belief
The sinner and saint, the old arch enemies,
All at war, in me
From “All at War” — Downhere
Thought for the Weekend
Should God Tell You Anything?
Genesis 18:17 The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do…
19 For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
Either God and Ethics Exist, or Atheism is Our Way of Pretending That Any Rationality is Negative
Religion exists, in part, precisely because humans aren’t at home amid these cruel rhythms. We stand half inside the natural world and half outside it. We’re beasts with self-consciousness, predators with ethics, mortal creatures who yearn for immortality.
This is an agonized position, and if there’s no escape upward — or no God to take on flesh and come among us, as the Christmas story has it — a deeply tragic one.
Pantheism offers a different sort of solution: a downward exit, an abandonment of our tragic self-consciousness, a re-merger with the natural world our ancestors half-escaped millennia ago.
But except as dust and ashes, Nature cannot take us back.
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/opinion/21douthat1.html
On Avatar; and put better than I could.
Love yourself
“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha
However absurd this may sound, Tiger Woods was doing what he thought was right. He loved himself. He loved himself so much he found it perfectly rational to have a wife yet have a number of other sexual partners.
As much as he felt pretty terrible after he had been discovered, that doesn’t mean he has any need to apologise because the faith he follows gives him every right to act the way he did.
He loved himself.
Love of self gives a philosophy that can he summarised thus:
“If you build your life on your success, you must also build your life on your failures.”
It’s not particularly helpful. Celebrate your wins. Keep hold of them. But any fails, just move on from them. But it’s not allowed. If you built a life on yourself you have to take your whole self into account. Otherwise you end up with a lopsided existence. A denial of truth.
So what should we do instead? Or is Tiger Woods on the right track?
The Beetle King on the Coconut Estate
As the moon rose and the hour grew late
The day-help on the coconut estate
Raked up the dried leaves that fell dead from the trees
Which they burned in a pile by the lake
The beetle king summoned his men
And from the top of the rhododendron stem,
“Calling all volunteers who can carry back here
The Great Mystery has been lit once again”
One beetle emerged from the crowd
In a fashionable abdomen shroud
Said, “I’m a professor, you see, that’s no mystery to me
I’ll be back soon, successful and proud”
But when the beetle professor returned,
He crawled on all six, as his wings had been burned
And described to the finest detail all he’d learned
There was neither a light, nor a heat, in his words
The deeply dissatisfied king
Climbed the same stem to announce the same thing
But in his second appeal sought to sweeten the deal
With a silver padparadscha ring
The lieutenant stepped out from the line
As he lassoed his thorax with twine
Thinking, “I’m stronger and braver and I’ll earn the king’s favor
One day all he has will be mine”
But for all the lieutenant’s conceit
He too returned singed and admitting defeat
“I had no choice, please believe, but retreat
It was bright as the sun, but with ten times the heat
And it cracked like the thunder and bloodshot my eyes
Though smothered with sticks, it advanced undeterred
Carelessly cast an ash cloud to the sky, my lord
Like a flock of dark vanishing birds”
The beetle king slammed down his fist
“Your flowery description’s no better than his!
We sent for the great light and you bring us this?
We didn’t ask what it seems like, we asked what it is!”
His majesty’s hour at last is drawn nigh
The elegant queen took her leave from his side
Without understanding, but without asking why
She gathered their kids to come bid their goodbyes
And the father explained, “You’ve been somewhat deceived
You’ve all called me your dad, but your true Dad’s not me
I lay next to your mom and your forms were conceived
Your Father’s the light within all that you see
He fills up the ponds as He empties the clouds
Holds without hands and He speaks without sounds
He provides us with the cow’s waste and coconuts to eat
Giving one that nice salt taste, and the other its sweet
Sends the black carriage the day death shows its face
Thinning our numbers with kindness and grace
And just as a flower and its fragrance are one
So must each of you and your Father become
Now distribute my scepter, my crown, and my throne
And all we’ve known as wealth to the poor and alone”
Without further hesitation, without looking back home
The king flew headlong into the blazing unknown
And as the smoke ring hurled higher and higher
The troops flying loops around the telephone wires
They said, “Our beloved’s not dead, but his highness instead
Has been utterly changed into fire”
Why not be utterly changed into fire?
Why not be utterly changed into fire?
Why not be utterly changed into fire?
Why not be utterly changed into fire?
Gift or Industry?
John Calvin commented that the increasing number of hotels and pubs was a clear sign of total depravity. Hospitality is no longer a gift. It’s an industry.
Think about that in light of <a href="Thursday’s post.
Toby
