Something to use our given INTELLIGENCE to think about - we are not only given Intellectual abilities, but also a CONSCIOUNESS (Awareness), mis-aligned IDENTITY, and misunderstanding of MEMORY! Alas, learn about the 16 Dimensions of the Mind ....
So I was thinking ... in the Chinese traditions (countless, just like other races), we have different dialect groups practicing different traditions. Then in the same dialect groups, there are different practices. Surely we do it differently here in Singapore vs those in Malaysia, and mainland China. So, what your grandfathers and grandmothers taught you are obviously going to be different, based on their own personal experiences. So much more confusions here from the original (when did it happen??), so we just use Wisdom to make all kinds of ASSUMPTIONS!!
- ASSUME; if you do not know, A.S.K. otherwise, you will be an ASS trying to make sense to you and me!!
- If in DOUBT, ASK - so they technical drawing teaches, but do they practice in real life at home and at other time??
... reflection : CC Sng on this day, 2022, July 28th in Singapore
- ASSUME; if you do not know, A.S.K. otherwise, you will be an ASS trying to make sense to you and me!!
- If in DOUBT, ASK - so they technical drawing teaches, but do they practice in real life at home and at other time??
... reflection : CC Sng on this day, 2022, July 28th in Singapore
Shouldn't You Take A Closer Look?
Chuck Crisco via FB 2022 July 26 There is no scripture that says ask Jesus into your heart. (Romans 10 does not say ask Jesus into your heart, besides if God is everywhere that would mean he is already in your heart) There is not one that says confess your sins SO THAT you can go to heaven. (Even in the OT "satan" would go back and forth to heaven so confessing sin has nothing to do with going to heaven) None that say if you believe in Jesus then you will go to heaven when you die. (not even John 3:16, etc explicitly say this) None that I can think of where someone asked God to forgive them in the NT. (not even the guy who said “Have mercy on me a sinner”) Never once do we find Peter, for example, asking Jesus to forgive him. (Nor any apostle I am aware of). In fact, we find Jesus declaring a man forgiven who did not even ask for it (Mat 9:2). My point is three fold: 1. The core teachings of Evangelicalism is just a story created within that sect of the religion. It is not a "biblical" story, it is an imposed story about how Jesus, sin and forgiveness interact regarding heaven. 2. That is not intended to offend, but to point you to do the most basic thing that will lead you to a real spiritual awakening: question. Asking questions about your beliefs is the hardest thing for most of us to do, and it can be challenging, but it is the most rewarding in the long run. 3. If the most fundamental things you were taught are not even in the Bible, then maybe there are other truths "out there" or "in here" (the heart) that may be extremely liberating that you were told was "evil" or "demonic". Maybe you have the right to explore what truths are universal without going through a denominational filter. “Jesus preached about hell more than anyone”.
Simon Yap via FB 2022 July 28 So they say. No he didn’t. So Christians quote you this. Mark 9:47-48 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Then they will say that your souls will be tortured forever. Guess the verse Jesus quoted is from here. Isaiah 66:24 “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” Notice. This is about dead bodies. Not souls. Not spirits. Bodies. This is what hell is really about. Isaiah 66:20 And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. The Holy Mountain here is the Temple on Mount Jerusalem. So the place where these bodies are consumed is the graveyard outside it’s walls. It’s a place called Gehenna. So this is actually what Jesus was talking about when it came to hell. Matthew 23:37 - 24:2 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate…. Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” It’s about the temple of Jerusalem. This was how they are supposed to be saved. Luke 21:20-24 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. This is hell. It’s Jerusalem AD70. |
Let's Talk About Faith/Believing
Chuck Crisco via FB 2022 July 23 George Michael said, “you gotta have faith, faith, faith!” Christians in particular say this too. But this word is so misused and misunderstood and misapplied! Does faith mean believe something for which there is no evidence? Does it mean trust or reliance on someone/something? Depends on who you talk to actually. In fact, what a crazy contradiction we live in: when we believe something that isn’t true about ourselves and we only see the evidence that proves its true. (If you believe you are inferior, you will continue to find evidence for it because it becomes your filter.) But ironically in a “relationship” with God we are told to believe things about God for which we have no evidence and never verify it based on the most basic forms of evidence such as logic, history, archeology, science or personal experience that we use for everything else in our lives. The Bible itself doesn’t even often say what we think it does. On the testimony of two or three witnesses every truth is established (a biblical principle) but nowhere in the same book does the Bible explicitly say to believe in Jesus so one can go to heaven when we die. Furthermore, many passages are translated purposely wrong. There are dozens of passages particularly in Paul’s writings where the Greek word pistis/faith is translated as if it is something the reader is supposed to do (a verb) when in fact the word itself is a NOUN. A noun is not an action to be taken. For example: “For by grace you have been saved by THE FAITH and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast” Ephesians 2:8,9 We might point to prayers being answered as evidence from which we can derive a sense of faith, and to be sure when I prayed I often received what I asked for in seemingly miraculous ways. But so do people of other religions. So do people who use the Law of Attraction. In the Placebo Effect, Dr. Joe Dispenza shows how a belief can affect the human body’s natural healing when we believe something is medicine even when it is just a sugar pill! The “miracle” is just how the body operates based on beliefs. So am I saying that faith is pointless? Not at all! God forbid! lol! I just want to suggest we learn to shift from an exteriorized faith to one that is internally verifiable and reasonable and knowable! It is a shift from placing our trust outside ourselves to finding the nature of our true selves within and trusting that. It is moving from having a one sided relationship to a being for which we have no proof, to an internal relationship with the only thing we will ever have any knowledge of: ourselves. In fact, how can we know anything unless we understand the “me” that knows? Wouldn’t we need to start there? Who is this one who is aware of our thoughts? We must be something greater than them if we can watch them pass through while we remain unchanged. If we are our thoughts then we could would be completely unstable. Who is this one that is not the body? Obviously if we are the body then not only would there be constant change but if we lose a finger or limb do we cease to be? No. In fact, the body is made of trillions of independent microbes. Does that mean you die when a microbe dies? Which part of the body is “you” if “you” get a transplant or since much of the body contains independent living beings? What about feelings/emotions? These come and go as well, yet “you” remain and “you” are the one aware of them. What about this awareness, this consciousness, this knowingness that seems to be your essence? Do you remember it’s birth? Does it have a shape, a color, a size? Have you ever experienced it’s death? The things you are aware of have changed but the awareness/knowingness itself is the same no matter your age. So “you” in the essence of your beingness are aware, call yourself I am, have not ever experienced a beginning or end, are invisible and unchanging. Of this you can verify, trust, and know from personal experience yet are told you are to find these qualities in a being outside yourself for which we can never really prove. Hmmmm. |
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