Paint me in the Shadows

Roth Poetry

When my time has come and I am gone

Take my ashes and paint me in the shadows

Under the oak tree where memories were made…

In the shadows with the fungi and let me watch it grow

And feel the coolness of the wind floating through the leaves

*

When my time has come and I am gone

Brush me smoothly under rocks of overhanging cliffs.

Paint me in the shadows where cool water

Trickles its way gurgling neath the trees

And deer quench their thirst on hot summer days

*

When my time has come and gone

Blend my ashes onto boardwalk pilings.

Paint me in the shadows where I can hear

Excited children walking as the waves roll in

Splashing in the shadows and rolling out again

*

When my time has come and gone

Take me to the farm I loved so long ago

Paint me…

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Where The Lost Things Are

Poetry from John Looker

.
Where The Lost Things Are

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At the back of the west wind,
where the evening sun wakens a bird-rich isle:
that’s where the lost things are.

Where the hummingbird
quivers at a trumpet dripping with nectar
and clouds of scent rise over a turquoise sea,
that’s where they are, the things that can’t be found.

The golden sovereign that slipped between
the boards in the Tudor Hall; the Hall itself lost at cards
in Venice on the long Grand Tour;
they’re here; this is the spot.

Even the daughter, forswearing carriages and
pianoforte, who was carried away in steam and smoke
for love; and the son gone surfing in foreign lands;
they too are here. They all come here.

And therefore you.
You’ve raced across the foot-burning sand
to float like a starfish in the clear lagoon,
your tequila-on-ice waiting you back in the shade.

If only mine…

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Martin Heidegger Quotes

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Preceding

Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

Existence in the non-existent and non-existence in the existence

Our existence, the world showing up for us and holding up a mirror

I and Thou

In your own heart or outside of it

Modern Living

There is no human being on earth capable of declaring with certitude who he is.

Quoteliv

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.

Everyone is the other and no one is himself.

Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?

The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy.

If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself.

Martin Heidegger

Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be predetermined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set…

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Our existence, the world showing up for us and holding up a mirror

The world doesn’t just exist, it shows up for us. It appears as the pure experience of the present moment. And one of the most amazing things about the world is that it changes – from age to age, generation to generation, over the course of a human lifetime.

We can not ignore the world. We live in it, and we have to face those things that happen in that world. Today it would even be very difficult to live on a desert island just to live on our own without any interruption or interference from other human beings.

We are here and though others can ignore us, we can not ignore them nor deny our own existence. We have our fleshy bodies within it our brains which enable us to think and reason. From the moment we are born we are confronted with the world and shall have to learn to live in that world. From that first step on earth, time does not let us on our own but however we want, time binds us to itself. It makes hours, days, months and years go by while we have to hold in it and come to the realisation that we are getting older. However, we turn it or turn it and look for the ‘why’ we are here and the ‘how’ we can make it true here, we are pulled in all directions to do this or that or to be here and there.

Sometimes we even wonder not only why we exist, but also why this world and this universe exist. Lots of people also wonder what there would be in outer space. In the darkness behind the horizon, stars and planets get us dreaming of other planets and perhaps also about other living beings. Why should we be the only intellectual beings?

When we see time passing, we often feel as if we are running out of time. Looking at how glaciers melt and how waters rise, but so many in the world do not want to believe climate change is a serious business and that we are heading for an unseen natural disaster if we do not act quickly to combat global warming.

If nothing existed there would be nothing to contemplate existence and no existence to contemplate. Now we have to think about a lot of things. In fact, it happens that our brains don’t let us rest easy and get our heads spinning with all sorts of (sometimes foolish) thoughts.

Why did anything happen?

Why didn’t nothing happen?

Why did all those planets came into existence?

Why does anything at all exist?

What does it mean to exist?

Why did man came into existence and why does he thinks he is superior to all other beings?

Why are we here?

What is life all about? or What is the purpose of existence?

Is that what we think to see realy there? Or is it just an illusion?

Philosophers through all ages have tackled this most fundamental question of existence. Many persons came to practice or investigate the systematised study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. There was and is the searching, the rational, abstract, and methodical consideration of reality as a whole or of fundamental dimensions of human existence and experience. We know of major Eastern philosophers, like Buddha; Confucius; Dai Zhen; Han Feizi; Laozi; Mencius; Mozi; Nichiren; Nishida Kitarō; Wang Yangming; Xunzi; Zhu Xi.

But in the West, they did not have to undercut and could in turn make others think and philosophise with a variety of thoughts. There were many Ancient Greek philosophers, like Aristotle and his followers, who brought a whole movement into being,  Aristotelianism. Epicurus and Epicureanism.
The Western world provided lots of major Western philosophers, like Peter Abelard; St. Anselm; St. Thomas Aquinas; St. Augustine; Noam Chomsky; Jacques Derrida; Duns Scotus; Michel Foucault; Jürgen Habermas; Martin Heidegger; David Hume; William James; Saul Kripke; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; John Locke; John Stuart Mill; Friedrich Nietzsche; Hilary Putnam; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Bertrand Russell; Jean-Paul Sartre; Socrates; Benedict de Spinoza; Bernard Williams; Ludwig Wittgenstein, and so many more who request our attention.

Some of those philosophers from the east and west will tell you that everything that we experience as real is an illusion. Especially in Eastern philosophies, we find ‘masters’ or ‘teachers’ who will say this is all a dream.

Could it be that we are part of a dream or living in some surreal universe?

And is there some Being managing it all?

Is there a Creator or Manipulator? And are we just His toys?

We may see all this physical stuff around us, but in which way is it real, or do we get to know how it really is?

Over the years, mankind had to change its views about so many things. More than once, man had it wrong. More often there were groups of people or organisations, who wanted to have control over people and made it a rule or doctrine that people had to believe. The Roman Catholic Church was (and is still) a master in that.

Many people have high ideas about themselves. Sometimes it happens that they suddenly become confronted with themselves and have to come to see that their thoughts and emotions are ‘nothing’. It is all, they will say, the play of pure consciousness. John Locke considered “the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind” man’s consciousness.

Pure being is all that really is. Everything else is an illusion created in an ungraspable field of consciousness, awareness and sentience. Some philosophers regarded it as a kind of substance, or “mental stuff,” quite different from the material substance of the physical world. From such philosophers’ ideas many started to believe we exist out of more than one element. They managed to have several people believe that when they die that there is a spiritual element (the soul) that will go to other places (like purgatory, hell or heaven) and another physical element that will transform into another body (incarnation and reincarnation). That reincarnation, also called transmigration or metempsychosis, in religion and philosophy, would be a rebirth of the aspect of an individual that persists after bodily death — whether it be consciousness, mind, the soul, or some other entity — in one or more successive existences. Depending upon the tradition, these existences may be human, animal, spiritual, or, in some instances, vegetable, depending on the way one lived before.

The French mathematician, scientist, and philosopher René Descartes for instance as one of the first to abandon Scholastic Aristotelianism, formulated the first modern version of mind-body dualism, from which stems the mind-body problem. Because he promoted the development of a new science grounded in observation and experiment, he is generally regarded as the founder of modern philosophy. We all know his expression

“I think, therefore I am” (best known in its Latin formulation, “Cogito, ergo sum,” though originally written in French, “Je pense, donc je suis”).

The medieval English logician St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033/34–1109), is at the heart of Descartes’s rationalism, the view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge, knowledge about an existing thing solely on the basis of reasoning from innate ideas, with no help from sensory experience. Descartes has an innate idea of Allah Al-Aliyy or Most High God, being The Sublime God as a perfect being. For him, it is clear that God necessarily exists, because, if He did not, He would not be perfect. It is That God Who presides in the great assembly (Psalm 82:1) of human beings, who often think they are greater than others.

Jim Holt, the American journalist, author in popular science and essayist, who often contributed to The New York Times, wrote the nonfiction work and NYTimes bestseller for 2013, Why Does the World Exist?, presented the central question ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’, which lies in the domain between philosophy and scientific cosmology. Also the English cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Rees looked at the big-bang theory of the origins of the universe. By examining the nature of existence itself Holt was following in the path of the philosophy called ‘Existentialism’, which stresses human existence in the world concreteness and its problematic character. for those writers ‘Existence’ is primarily the problem of existence (i.e., of its mode of being); it is, therefore, also the investigation of the meaning of Being. Going back to the intitial thought of previous philosophers

What is Being?

What does it mean to be?

To be is the question!

What does it mean to exist?

What is the nature of being?

For the German philosopher, counted among the main exponents of existentialism, Martin Heidegger, the human subject had to be reconceived in an altogether new way, as “being-in-the-world.” Because this notion represented the very opposite of the Cartesian “thing that thinks,” the idea of consciousness as representing the mind’s internal awareness of its own states had to be dropped. With it went the assumption that specific mental states were needed to mediate the relation of the mind to everything outside it.

Man philosophers had the above questions, bringing them to think about their own being and the being of others around them. Those people thinking and writing about those life questions bring the deep contemplation of what it means to be human. We think no other living being is concerned with such questions. Even pets don’t wonder what their role in the family might be (we think). Even though plants and animals have sentience, we suspect that they have no thinking capacity whereby they would ascertain their essence in this world.

On the other hand, it can well be that one of the reasons that other creatures don’t worry about the meaning of life could be that they don’t seem to have any choice about how to live it. Dogs and cats just live the way dogs and cats live. They respond to circumstances the way dogs or cats generally do. Sure they may differ one to the other, but generally speaking they act more or less predictably like dogs or cats.

But human beings can also be very predictable. We also could say human beings act in a similar way. Many people around us are also very predictable. Though we can notice that even when the majority lives a standard way of living, we can find people who follow a totally different course. There are human beings who stand out and surprise us. We also find several people who do not want to follow the tract the majority follows. They don’t live an ordinary life. They live an extraordinary life, that is remarkably new and different from the norm. And sometimes these rare human beings discover a way of being that eventually becomes the new norm.

Martin Heidegger was convinced that the history of Western thought has failed to heed the ontological difference, and so has articulated Being precisely as a kind of ultimate being, as evidenced by a series of namings of Being, for example as idea, energeia, substance, monad or will to power. He recognised that most of us live as ‘the one’, or that we do generally what ‘one’ does or what would be the general norm to do. Though we are often concerned with what ‘one’ tends to be concerned with.

He spoke about “Dasein” or “being there”, the most fundamental a priori transcendental condition or mode of being not so much to be seen from the point of being there but from the perspective of how the being essentially unfolds. As Heidegger puts it:

“A being is: Be-ing holds sway [unfolds]”.

The hyphenated term ‘be-ing’ is adopted by Emad and Maly, in order to respect the fact that, in the Contributions, Heidegger substitutes the archaic spelling ‘Seyn’ for the contemporary ‘Sein’ as a way of distancing himself further from the traditional language of metaphysics.

We all should be aware that somehow we come on this planet and have to make the best of it. We receive an overdose of information during our lifetime and are fed an untold number of knowledges and rules, with which and by which we try or must try to live. Through all these influences we have to go through, we have to try to build our lives and live a generic human life.

Unlike the rest of the animal kingdom, a human being could, if they were heroic enough, choose to live a different kind of human life and could come to live a profoundly authentic and original human life. The American lecturer, poet, and essayist, the leading exponent of New England Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson called such human beings ‘representative’ because their lives represented new possibilities for being human.

I do not think “Life is But a Dream” even when we may dream that we live or imagine our life to be a certain way. When we are dreaming it can well be that we are not aware that we are asleep. But also when we are awake it can happen that we wonder if we are dreaming, because what we encounter seems to be so unreal. How often does it not happen that we must come to the conclusion that we were in a dream-world. And that dream world was not always to our liking. More than once the dream world that comes into our mind, is one that can cause fear, but luckilly there is also that dream world that causes joy, surprise, and myriad other emotions. Dreams take us, seemingly, to worlds we’ve been to and worlds that we have never experienced. In them we re-live what we lived before in that world we should recognise as the real world. But we should be aware that very often we are deceived by the real world around us. Often we do not want to know that this world has played tricks on us.

Every day we have doubts about certain things, often which we should recognise as facts. There and then we once more are confronted with those questions that come up into our mind so often. Oh, so often we are troubled, and question our own self and all the things we see happening around us. Then we might ask

What is our role in this all?

What happens when we become older?

As time passes we start getting in contact with other peoples and other cultures. Mostly how we grow up is decided by our parents and our surroundings. The culture of our homeland, the religion of our parents, and the friends we hang out with, all influence us and mould us in a form we do not mind or which bothers us. In case we do not like the form in which we are moulded we get frustrated and come into a stressful position. sometimes people would love to have been born in an other place or have lived in other circumstances. But the choice is not up to us. We are dropped in a time and place and have to find our way in it.

We have no memory of a previous life, because there is just not such another life.

Could we prove that we have ever lived if we did not have our memories?

No, there would be no way to prove it. There is not one person who ever could recollect and prove some previous existence. Even for those who are born, when young, their memory is too short and after some time they shall not be able to tell what happened in those first years of life. When you would ask a toddler to prove he lives, he would not be able to do so, because he has not enough memory and not enough knowledge. The very young cannot prove they live because they do not have memories. Memory starts to develop a bit later than the first few years of life. Memory is an essential component to the human mind, so important that we cannot say that we exist without memory. Knowledge and memory are two requirements to realise that one is alive and can be. In other words, our very existence is hinged on our capacity to remember. Without our capacity to think, or to have thoughts, we can not remember nor can we analyse. And to be able to know we live we need to be able to think, consider and to review.

Memory, as the encoding, storage, and retrieval in the human mind of past experiences, is unconditionally linked to thought and being. Without awareness, there is no knowledge of being. We can notice this when people have reached an age when they start to suffer from dementia. It is then as if their thinking but also their “being” falls away.

Memory is both a result of and an influence on perception, attention, and learning. It is those thoughts of past events and influences that help shape us, making us who we are. With that awareness and understanding of that event and of that personality we are confronted with, we ourselves are presented with a mirror, in which whether or not we will accept, love or hate that reflection. But dar we will recognise that this is that “I” that we wish, desire or curse.

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Preceding

With Positive Attitude

There can only be hope when there is a will to be and say “I am”

I and Thou

Our existence..

Leap

To come to live in the peace of fulfilment of our own Divine Identity

What is Existential Ergonomics?

On the Anxiety of Non-Being

Running out of time

Why does the world exist

Our real self ever perfect and free

Life’s Purpose

Modern Living

Quandary of Reflections

Existence in the non-existent and non-existence in the existence

Human experience maintained in a fragile existence

Soul-searching

Vivamos Videre, the more we live, the more we are a witness to life

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Additional reading

1. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
2. Onsterfelijkheid – Immortaliteit – Immortality
3. About The story of Creation 1 Existing cosmologies
4. Genesis Among the Creation Myths
5. Creator and Blogger God 1 Emptiness and mouvement
6. Creation of the earth and man #14 Formation of man #6 The Uncreated One, neshemet ruach chayim and nephesh
7. Jesus begotten Son of God #11 Existence and Genesis Raising up
8. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
9. Ability
10. Ability (part 2)
11. Ability (part 3) Thoughts around Ability
12. Ability (part 4) Thought about the ability to have ability
13. The Opinionated Truth
14. God make us holy
15. Two states of existence before God
16. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
17. Wisdom Quote #21…..seeking within with Carl Jung!
18. Living in this world and viewing it

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Related

1. Who am I to…?
2. Spike the obit
3. Awareness is All
4. Trouble being myself
5. #being as details
6. Conditioning and Consciousness
7. Becoming
8. What Descartes Proved
9. The ABCs of Python: The Identity of “is”
10. When I sleep, I think, I dream [A philosophy post?]
11. Wisdom Collection Collection 26. Human thinking is a creation process with devastating results. Thinking is separation of myself from my source.
12. Mind and language essays on descartes and chomsky
13. Therefore (Quote Series)
14. Essays on the philosophy and science of rene descartes
15. Descartes proof for the existence of god essay
16. My favorites: philosophy ideas
17. I remember therefore I am
18. Descartes, Perception, and Society
19. Strange nonsense
20. Perception and Reality
21. How Ego Disrupts the Cosmic Brilliance of ‘Is’
22. I am
23. What is Left to Doubt?
24. Life is But a Dream
25. In here and out there
26. Confusion of knights
27. Awareness, Consciousness, Experience, Mind
28. Interlude: Descartes’ Role
29. Descartes
30. Consciousness, Personhood
31. St. Borges of Canterbury
32. Spirituality of the Left
33. Breakthrough
34. The floating consciousness
35. Useful Heideggerian Concepts
36. At The Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell is a biography of existentialism
37. Martin Heidegger, the Standing Metaphor, and the Politics of 1935
38. Time and Being
39. Heidegger and the Question of Being
40. Existential Reflections: The Shadow Side of Human Existence (2)
41. Second Principle- Freedom in Being
42. Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.
43. The ‘Man for All Seasons’ and Ontological Exigency
44. Martin Heidegger Quotes
45. Religion, Consumerism, and Absurdism: Modernity and the Quest for Meaning
46. Two reviews of The Early Foucault (Polity, 2021) by Colin Koopman and Jasper Friedrich – and a note on Heidegger
47. [Reflections] Why Does the History of Philosophy Matter to Philosophy?
48. Modern Transcendentalism
49. Ralph Waldo Emerson
50. American Voices: Ralph Waldo Emerson
51. Transcendentalism literary origins in america and influence essay
52. Living in Subversia
53. Ernest Holmes and the Science of Mind Part One: ‘Ye Are Gods’
54. What are the main features of Shelley’s Transcendentalism ?
55. Autumn, Concord, and Transcendentalism
56. Transcendentalism : An American Movement
57. Self-Awareness, Self-Reliance and Non-Comformity

Truly, Truly – a #freeverse #poem by Leona

Life and Times of a Quirky Character

Prayers my heart starts to

mumble as the dew

forms graceful drops

across the eyelashes

of the late summer trees

It sprang to mind the hopeful

and expectant posture of

a bride in waiting

calling

oil filled lanterns

how we see the changing times

only to be reminded that

in life there is death

in love there is loss

truly truly say to you

the barren garden will

blossom as the noon day

sun

creeps along the ground

there in the slanting rays

it is easy to remember that

goodness and favor

does come to those

who wait as the tides

change and the earth

shifts

Have I finally found my home?

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Beautiful endings

Nothing is eternal except the Divine Creator. We human beings all have a beginning and an end, and best make all the best of the time when we are here alive on this planet.

We also best enjoy the good things of this earth and appreciate those around us who are willing to share their love with us.

Sliver of Darkness

Enjoy things while they last, because everything ends. Death and the nature of humans promise just that, endings. My grandfather lost my grandmother at old age, he had three wives, but he wept for losing one.

Still, that was a beautiful ending. I love beautiful endings. Pray for a beautiful ending, not eternity, because that doesn’t exist.

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Grief and Gratitude

 

A Day Dreamer's Diary

How do you describe a grief for a person you haven’t met in 10 years or weren’t best friends with, but it just sits heavy and hurt in the middle of your chest for more than a week now but you do know they meant the world for their family.
You remember  their gentleness, their distinct humor, their goodness, their simplicity and a tear rolls down , just like the rain drops on this window glass.
I remember the teenage girl with twinkling eyes and contagious laughter, I haven’t met the wife and mother she became in last decade. Our well being was communicated to each other through our families which are neighbours and friendly.
We were always keen to receive news of the other and wished only goodness.
Her sudden passing  has  shook me deep, out of the autopilot mode my life tend to switches despite my continuous efforts…

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Decisions about your own death

Euthanasia is often described as the ultimate expression of autonomy but a former chair of the Danish Council of Ethics Ole Hartling stresses in his book Euthanasia and the Ethics of a Doctor’s Decisions: An Argument Against Assisted Dying, published by Bloomsbury that he does not rely upon “sanctity of life” arguments.

“These lines of thought are metaphysical and easily become dogmatic and hence unconvincing,”

he writes. His arguments are secular and aim to  show that legalisation is simply untenable.

In his essay in The BMJ, he writes:

Decisions about your own death are not made in normal day-to-day contexts. The wish to die arises against a backdrop: of desperation, a feeling of hopelessness, possibly a feeling of being superfluous. Otherwise, the wish would not be there. Thus, it is under these circumstances that the right to self-determination is exercised and the decision is made. Such a situation is a fragile basis for autonomy and an even more fragile basis for decision making. The choice regarding your own death is therefore completely different from most other choices usually associated with the concept of autonomy.

The essay is thought-provoking and well-worth reading.

Leonard Cohen – Take This Waltz (Live in London)

Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women
There’s a shoulder where Death comes to cry
There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows
There’s a tree where the doves go to die
There’s a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on it’s jaws

Oh I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lily
In some hallway where love’s never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take its broken waist in your hand

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With it’s very own breath of brandy and Death
Dragging it’s tail in the sea

There’s a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There’s a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They’ve been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz it’s been dying for years

There’s an attic where children are playing
Where I’ve got to lie down with you soon
In a dream of Hungarian lanterns
In the mist of some sweet afternoon
And I’ll see what you’ve chained to your sorrow
All your sheep and your lilies of snow

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
With its “I’ll never forget you, you know!”

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz …
With its very own breath of brandy and death
Dragging its tail in the sea

And I’ll dance with you in Vienna
I’ll be wearing a river’s disguise
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder
My mouth on the dew of your thighs
And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook
With the photographs there, and the moss
And I’ll yield to the flood of your beauty
My cheap violin and my cross
And you’ll carry me down on your dancing
To the pools that you lift on your wrist

Oh my love, Oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It’s yours now. It’s all that there is

{Instrumental}

(Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay)

~ Leonard Cohen

I am ungrateful – Czesław Niemen

Life often goes by faster than we can grip it.
Man often forgets his Creator, or does not want to know about Him, Who gives life and all beauty found around. Too often man wants to compare to others, who have gathered more money and success, though who did not always find that happiness they were looking for as well.

Too often man forgets he can not take anything with him into the grave, up to another life, because when man dies everything for him comes to an end. Then it will be too late to change roads or to get on the right track. Therefore, he better find the right track before, and chooses to follow the Right One, instead of the world.

Tylko fotografia

Day by day
As a rapid stream of time
It tightens the circle
My existence
Day by day
He runs away
Further
Further
My false desires
The weave falls

And around
Universe
Boundless, inconceivable
Infinite fertile garden
Eternal thought the Masterpiec!
I would like to respect heaven
Ground forehead to slope
But I am ungrateful
That imperfect …

Nonsense
They feed each other
Comic matters
Wrapped in a net
I am ashamed of these
Which is not ashamed
They forgot
That it is over
The graves will make us equal

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In October-November People often too busy with death and the dead

At the end of October, begin November around cemeteries we can find lots of people on the streets and flower sellers who try to sell their chrysanthemums. Lots of people have their thoughts in this Autumn period by those who are not walking any more on this earth.

From Laura Cyrena‘s blogpost Graveyard Walk

You may not misunderstand us. We feel empathy, and we do understand their feelings, their point of view, their situation. We also know that each of us more than once shall be confronted with death in their life. Birth and death are two main factors in each being his or her life. Once born, nobody can escape death. It is part of life.

All of us shall have to walk a different path and shall have to find ways to make the best out of our own life. We also should know that we too may have an influence in the life of others. Each of us has to walk many miles to reach our goal. We shall have to crawl, walk, climb mountains and cycle many kilometres. Going from one place to another, growing up, we also shall meet a lot of people and become confronted with a lot of circumstances.

We often compare our life to that of others. We have a lot of expectations and sometimes by looking at others do not mind having some jealousy coming up in our minds, wanting things others have.

We put conditions on what we want … we reject things that doesn’t fit our expectations … we get distracted doing other things. {Are You Ready to Receive?}

The world offers us a lot of attractions and often we become blinded by its luring pictures. Most of the time we desire a lot from others and would like to receive even more from the one we call our god. When not receiving enough from one god many make themselves an other or even more gods. All over the world we find lots of people ‘taking care’ of many gods, whilst they forget that there exist A Singular Supernatural Spirit Being Who does not have to be cared for, because nothing can be given to Him what does not belong to Him. He is the Establisher and Master of life. He gives us all the possibilities to walk here on this planet.

When we realize all we have is from Him, when we realize we can’t do it own our on, then He will lift us up. James 4.10 {Are You Ready to Receive?}

Coming to realize Who That God is, does not seem to be so easy for mankind. Lots of people have difficulties to come to recognize that invisible God as the Most High Elohim and God of gods above any other god and above any being. Not many want to see or even look for Him, but that is what He hopes people would do, go looking for Him who is the Only One True God.

Seek Him. He delights when we look for Him and look for what ways He desires for us. We are to look for where He is already at work, and God will bless. Hebrews 11.6 {Are You Ready to Receive?}

Walking on this earth may not always so easy. Often we got a lot of mud on our shoes and clothes, getting wet and tired.

… we should realize that in our journey in life, our shoes get muddied. Life gets messy. Not only our life, but the life of others too. The mud gives insight to what we have gone through and where we have traveled. {Why the name, “Muddy Shoes”?}

Many people on their walk of life love to cling close to each other, and just hang out in one place. A lot of them are just happy where they are and what they do, as long as they do not have to bother about others. Many do not think about the task Jesus has given to his followers, to go out in the world and to tell the peoples about the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. Many forget that they are to be going into the world, sharing the love, the hope, the grace of the Gospel.

Every year we see a lot of people who think of their beloved who are gone. But at that time when the days shorten they prefer to hold on to fantasies as people becoming stars in heaven, or going to have 77 virgins in heaven. Several parents let their children look to stars to find the proof of death, making their heads

forever fastened gazing up, while final breaths of skyward worlds eclipse with life our fleshly tomb and and fragile pulse. {To stars}

Others have even placed some ashes from the deceased in a teddy bear of their children.Some love to go on the eveningwalks many organizations provide around Halloween.

To have just a taste of the life they once had. Blood in their veins. Breath in their mouth. Tears in their eyes. {Waiting For The Dead On Halloween}

they

are told they might have the stench of the grave upon them. We are told their skin might slough off on our own. {Waiting For The Dead On Halloween}

Lots of people look forward to the Halloween marches and fires, giving them a kick and fanciful ideas they being stronger than those who died. Some of them might think the rotted clothes of the dead might fall from their bones, and they hope to see things to make them scream and at the same time frightening the ghosts as well. It is said by many

On Samhain many lay in wait for the dead.

We are told the fresh decay of our parents and uncles and aunts and grand folk will be the worse. They have had their year in the ground and are beyond any excuse to linger. They are the most reluctant. They have the clearest memories of what it is like to live. They, more than all the others, want it back. They might wish, if they can, to suck life right out of us and feel warm once again.

It is best we disguise ourselves from them.

It is best if we hide our faces with masks and wear clothes not our own. {Waiting For The Dead On Halloween}

Lots of people consider it more important to  honour the dead, because they are afraid they otherwise would do things to them, instead of honouring God Who according to many does not exist. Instead of thinking what really happens to somebody who dies or people having to face the end of their life, and after that life is finished, they not able to take anything into their grave to use it later. For them, as for animals and plants, there shall be just decay, they becoming dust.

All their life they may have thought they had lots of enemies. Now those enemies can not do anything to them. For those who depart us in death there shall be no tears any more. Whilst the living shall shed perhaps a lot of tears.

²⁶ The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26 BRG)

⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4 BRG)

⁵ For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 9:5 BRG)

²⁹ All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. (Psalm 22:29 BRG)

¹⁹ For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

²⁰ All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 BRG)

¹⁰ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10 BRG)

⁴ His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. (Psalm 146:4 BRG)

¹⁸ For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. (Isaiah 38:18 BRG)

Instead of spending so much time going to clean stones in a graveyard talking at another place than home, to those who died, should we not better use several moments of the year to remember those people, and perhaps even talk to them, though with the knowledge they can not hear us and cannot do something for us. But above there is SomeOne Who can hear and see us. Would we not better talk to Him?

Instead of having friendship with the world, should we not seek for friendship with Him? Instead of being from the world we better would be from God, with the knowledge that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:19) We should not love the world and what it has to offer with all its gadgets and other attractive things, it being ready as a spider waiting for its prey to sting it to death.  We should know that for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh or physical gratification, and the lust of the eyes or greed, and the pride of life and extravagant lifestyles, are not of the Father, but are of the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

 

Bad choices, poor planning, and simply not paying attention. … we wing it, we keep,doing the same thing (thus getting the same outcome and wonder why), we don’t pay attention to what our people are going through and ignore the signs. {52 Hiker Mistakes by Backpacker … and by Worship Leaders}

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Preceding

Measure of loneliness whilst time drags

Facing daily events and exclaiming “Good grief!”

Family happiness and little things we do

The belief of one going to heaven

What traditions/rituals/routines do you have for welcoming Autumn?

Pagan Holidays

Halloween is Satanist Christmas

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Find also to read

1. What is life?
2. A Mundane Existence
3. Dealing with worries in our lives
4. Concerning Man
5. Dying or not
6. October month of witches and spirits
7. Halloween custom of the nations
8. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 2 Summersend and mansend
9. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 4 Blasphemy and ridiculing faith in God
10. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 5 People, souls and saints in the news
11. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 6 Bonfire night
12. All Saints’ Day
13. Thought for November 1: To the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
14. All Souls’ Day
15. Thought for today November 4th Going to graveyards and people going to dust
16. A truth to face often to do with time
17. An Escape Mechanism
18. Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!
19. Death
20. Biblical Ambiguity on Death?
21. How are the dead?
22. Realities concerning Human Life and Death
23. Where do we go when we die?
24. Grave, tomb, sepulchre – graf, begraafplaats, rustplaats, sepulcrum
25. Separation from God in death, the antithesis of life
26. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #1 Intro
27. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #2 Psyche, the word
28. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #3 Historical background
29. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #5 Mortality of man and mortality of the spirit
30. Today’s thought “Death by being taken captive” (May 15)
31. Today’s thought “nonsense surrounding the many gods” (July 28)
32. Is there life beyond the grave?
33. Decomposition, decay – vergaan, afsterven, ontbinding
34. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
35. Being of good courage running the race

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Where the Tye River meets the James. Unique in its right angle intersection as opposed to a Y-type of most merges. But something happened. It now lays horizontal on the floor of the forest. Photo from Killing a Legacy.

Related

Glenwood Cemetery on Central Avenue Pike in Powell, a very old cemetery located next to a somewhat newer church. – Photo from Life in Every Limb article by Leslie Sholly {Glenwood Cemetery: A Post for All Souls Day}

1. Life in a few Lines.
2. Killing a Legacy
3. You Snooze, You Lose
4. Dreams of Vampires
5. Yesterday … All My Trouble Seemed So Far Away (Our Story Through Music)
6. Another favorite subject
7. Where is the great Beyond?
8. To stars
9. Not Done Yet
10. Farewell
11. Death Death so we want are always greatly interested him.
12. Dead.
13. The Choral of DeathIn Death
14. An afternoon at Père Lachaise cemetery.
15. Why I stopped making up for the dead-Banke Meshida
16. What would be the #meaning of a #limited #life which ends with #dead?
17. Dead Before 40
18. Graveyard Walk
19. SciFriday: Day of the Dead
20. Inktober 2019 Day 31: Ouija
21. Hallow’s Evehappy halloween!
22. Honoring the Dead on Halloween
23. Waiting For The Dead On Halloween
24. Factoid About Halloween
25. Is Halloween a Christian holiday?
26. [tonight we walk]
27. Fences
28. Twittering Tales – Lonely Girl.
29. Decent Substitutes
30. All Saints’ Day/Sunday C: Nov. 1 or 3
31. Ghosts Await On The Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos
32. November 2nd Day of the Dead
33. Celebrating the deadChrysanthemums and All Souls’ Day
34. Prayer for All Souls Day
35. Remembering our loved ones – on “Mindszentek” (All Saints’ Day)
36. All Saint’s Day – Visiting a Cemetery in Milan
37. Graveyard Reveries
38. Glenwood Cemetery: A Post for All Souls Day
39. Short Story: A Grave Time for A Cemetery
40. 50 Word Story #25
41. 170 – A glimpse of the quiet Varazdin and Zagreb streets
42. Honoring family
43. Parents honour son’s life with Halloween skeleton but cemetery keeps taking it down – National
44. The All Saints Day
45. Happy All Saints’ Day
46. Cemetery Days
47. Walking around a cemetery alone
48. The Cemetery – Part 3
49. A Few Words on Cemetery Problems
50. The Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome
51. Halloween Celebration in the Local Cemetery
52. The Embrace Of Thanatos
53. Alex Williamson cemetery, revisited.
54. Cherry Hill Cemetery
55. A Trip to the West Point Cemetery
56. Mexico City: Free for a Coffee desperate to see a cemetery since roaming through a city of the dead is one of my beloved pastimes.
57. Cimetière de la Cité, Carcassonne, France
58. Buenos Aires – October 2019 – La Chacarita Cemetery

What traditions/rituals/routines do you have for welcoming Autumn?

Cooler air, the changing of the leaves, the crispness in the mornings when you walk out the door on your way to school or work.

… the leaves start to change color, and there is that crispness outside that when you step out the door, you just know it’s Fall. {My favorite months of the year . . . #Autumn #Fall #Harvest}

A blogger from Oxfordshire wonders what people mostly do when Autumn presents itself.

Autumn time brings so many colours and textures that it can be hard not to fall for those beautiful colour palettes nature presents to us. The vegetable garden also presents us with many colourful surprises worth using as decoration. It is the time when we get enthusiastic to go overboard and cover our whole house in all sorts of pumpkins, nuts and leaf garland.

The Oxfordshire Country Living Blog  has been

absolutely loving the change in the season. {5 Things to do this Autumn}

She (or he) normally hates the cold and the dark, but she has been trying to embrace each season for it’s own beauty and welcomes Autumn, drinking hot Apple and Cinnamon Tea.

No drink smells as Autumnal as apple and cinnamon. {5 Things to do this Autumn}

Many communities celebrate the harvest. Christadelhpians also thank the Divine Creator for all the good things we have received throughout the year and how He now also has provided to store enough food to go through Winter. The fullness of summer and abundance of harvest may also be found in the satisfying plenitude of life in Christ. Here in West Europe we may find lots of place which, at times, could be a safe haven for those who wanted to worship God without taking part in heathen festivals and pagan traditions.

The colourful season we are now facing comes for many after they went abroad to enjoy better weather than we are used to in Belgium. Most people consider Summertime the time to pick up vitamin D and to store enough energy for our darker days in Wintertime. After the renewal time for energy our eyes get another renewal time, namely to have lots of fantasies going through our head. Nature offers us such a wide range of smashing colours and special lights, our fantasy can be stimulated, and as such we also feel a positiveness to tackle this windy and rainy season.

When walking through the fields and forests we can breathe an air reminding us of life and death. After a lovely walk nothing is lovelier than having the smells coming from the kitchen, bringing us all sorts of wildlife dishes, warm drinks and herb teas. Pumpkins are the seasonal ingredient for all sorts of dishes and soups. Some herbs from the garden are welcome to be used in a potluck dish to share. [Ingredients including: basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lavender, lemon verbena, Tulsi (Holy Basil), anise hyssop and garlic.]

For many people in this commercial materialist world the harvest is not so important any more as in previous centuries. Most of the people in the West do not have any problem to buy food. For them there is no shortage. Most of them have also no inner connection any more with the different seasons. Shops are helping to get people over that feeling of seasons, by already presenting Christmas articles from September to October. (Every year Halloween, Sint Nicholas, Christmas and Easter are presented earlier to the public.) Though supermarkets may bring in lots of goods from abroad, in a certain way the vegetables of the season dominate the plate.

There’s always sowing, growing or harvesting going on. Though nothing can beat our harvest in October when squash and pumpkins are ready! {Autumn 🧡 Harvest}

Whether it’s walking along an English hedgerow and harvesting the blackberries, or digging up veg from the garden or allotment, nothing is more heartening than cooking with something fresh out of the earth. Somehow it tastes so much better. {5 Things to do this Autumn}

It’s a time to cozy up in your house, eat delicious stews and soups that are too hot for the Summer, wear fuzzy socks and thick warm robes in the morning while you sip your coffee and watch the sunrise. {My favorite months of the year . . . #Autumn #Fall #Harvest}

When we come back from a walk, often it is already to dark in the house, and as such we want to have some extra atmosphere lights.

Welcoming in the darker evenings by stringing up fairy lights, and lighting candles. Make a little Autumnal display and change up some of the cushions for a cosier Autumnal feel. Try adding warmer tones, and cosier textures, it’s amazing how a change as small as cushions and throws can change the feel of a room. {5 Things to do this Autumn}

At home in a cosy chair we can pick up the Bible and be with our thoughts by the Giver of this all. It is the ideal time to think about Him Who makes everything possible. He Who Creates and Gives. With all that abundance that we receive, let us not forget those who are in need.

¹⁹ “When you are reaping in the field, and you overlook a sheaf, don’t return to get it. Let it remain for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless everything you undertake.{Deuteronomy 24:19 International Standard Version (ISV)}

Whatever we do let us showing to others how we as children of God are thankful for what we receive from Him and how we can share with others.

Let us also be very careful, having now months coming where certain traditions are not in accordance with God’s Will. We face moments when people go to deep in thinking about death and share ideas about the dead which are not according to what Scripture teaches about them. for some

The veil is thinning between our world and the spirit world. It is time to celebrate the cycle between life and death. Samhain is known as the witch’s new year. {Samhain Blessing and Ritual Ideas}

Many may come attracted by such pagan festivals like Halloween.

There are many ways to celebrate this turning of the wheel. Some celebrate the final harvest, while others focus on honoring the Gods and Goddesses. Still some spend the time honoring their ancestors. {Samhain Blessing and Ritual Ideas}

What may going on in your head now the days are shortening and darkness with strange sounds may be lurking outdoors?

Do you keep to certain traditions?

How do you look at this time of year?

What traditions/rituals/routines do you have for welcoming Autumn?

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Find also to read

1. Fullness of summer and abundance of harvest found in the satisfying plenitude of life in Christ
2. After the Summer-holiday thinking even more about God’s creation
3. Give thanks to יהוה! For He is good, For His kindness is everlasting

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Related

1. The Cream Of The CropThe end is in sight.
2. My favorite months of the year . . . #Autumn #Fall #Harvest
3. Harvest
4. Fall Harvest!
5. Harvest season for hemp
6. Stop….Harvest time…
7. The Harvest is Plentiful
8. It’s Harvest Time!
9. Harvest Time
10. Autumn  Harvest
11. If It’s October, It’s Fall Somewhere
12. October 17th 2019 – Harvest: Alan Davison
13. Fall Reflections from the Farm
14. Celebrate Harvest
15. Crop harvest running just behind normal
16. Fall into Happiness
17. Beating The Winter Blues with autumn shades
18. Let’s do Pumpkin about Food Waste!

Words of Wisdom for the Day – Toil of slavery – Freedom not a gift

1 800th post on From Guestwriters

the winter chill

writings & wildflowers

the winter chill in the air

means it’s quiet overhead

but the silence

of the trees

doesn’t mean they’re dead

just asleep, hibernating like a bear

View original post

The belief of one going to heaven

Banner for the symposium, Blake’s Ancient of Days. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The belief of one going to heaven after death is a doctrine that you will hear almost any church preach today. The majority of people believe heaven is where they will go once death has overtaken them. Where did this belief come from? The belief in a heavenly afterlife was made popular during the Greco-Roman period and was the product of the interaction of ancient biblical traditions with new trends in religion and science. The impact of Greek language and religion on the doctrine of life after death among the Jews was highly influential, and is still a highly influential doctrine to this day.
We must remain cautious of believing in doctrines that originate from man.
Psalms.115:16.The Lord has kept the heavens for himself, but has given the earth to us humans.
The bible clearly teaches a different message from what is being taught among various religions today.

– Virginia Warren

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• What is a cult?
• On Science & Religion

Facing daily events and exclaiming “Good grief!”

When waking up every day we may be lucky to wake up, to face the day again. In the day we may perhaps encounter lots of things which surprises us and sometimes we call out ‘good grief’

The young Garrick Sinclair “Ricky” Beckett, a U.S. Army veteran honourably discharged as a professional saxophonist in the Army Bands, currently attending Concordia University-Ann Arbor in the Pre-Seminary programme with a major in Christian Thought and a minor in Theological Languages looks at a popular cartoon figure.

He writes

As he hears some bad news, Charlie Brown exclaims, “Good grief!” We often think of this as an oxymoron. Grief can’t possibly be good! {Good grief}

Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By the word grief we think of sorrow and distress, even of great mourning and affliction. When having bodily pain or when our mind is being hurt we can be grief stricken. Deep sadness caused especially by someone’s death or by trouble or annoyance grief comes over us. Grievance overmans us when there is a cause of such suffering or a deep and poignant distress caused by or as if by bereavement. We can come to grief but than it means we fail in something we’re doing, and may be hurt.

Mary Bringle also noticed

Even the cleverest boy could come to grief alone, in the night. {Collins dictionary on Come to grief}

In Dutch ‘grief’ is ‘verdriet’ and is connected to ‘lijden (suffering), ‘bedroefd zijn’ (grow sad, being sad, be sorry, sorrow) maar ook tot ‘afkeer’ (aversion, distaste, disgust, revulsion,repulsion, repugnance, loathing, abhorrence, abomination, scunner). When ‘come to grief‘ we founder, break down, collapse, fall through, flop (informal), be defeated, fall short, fizzle out (informal), come unstuck, run aground, bite the dust, and even feel that we go up in smoke, come to naught, not make the grade (informal), go down like a lead balloon (informal). In any case it looks like it turns out badly, us falling flat on our face, meeting with disaster. Stuck with grief we may be found lacking or wanting, facing a spiritual miscarry or misfire.

Some people say ‘Good grief‘ when they are surprised or shocked. When we face something that’s actually worth grieving over, we’re often overwhelmed.

From a ‘sukkelstraatje’ (being in trouble/in dire stratis) we can become ailing (sickly) with a ‘sukkelpartij’ (sucker party) receiving ‘zielspijn’ (agony, heartache, profound sorrow) or ‘zieleleed’ (sadness). That ‘zielesmart’ or ‘zielsverdriet’ (anguish, heartache,profound sorrow, misery, unhappiness),  ‘Weedom’ (woe), ‘hartenpijn’ ‘hartenleed’ (heartache, heartfelt grief, heartfelt sorrow, heartbreak), agony consumes us with grief.

We do know we have to cope with it, we have to conquer it or go over such grief.

It’s rather ironic that our culture views grief as a bad thing while it encourages grief over a lot of things. It is encouraged that we grieve over minimum wage, to grieve over what the White Man did to black people centuries ago during slavery, to grieve over what the government did to the indigenous peoples of America… {Good grief}

The savoury on our daily bread is not always pleasant. we may try to begin every day with gratitude, because all we have, has been given to us. This body, heart and mind, friendships, opportunities, challenges, family,… it is all given to us. But honestly we are not always pleased with the confrontation with it.

We may value family where we practice love and sharing.  We may value work where we share our passions and gifts. And most of all we would like to have a good health and value it.

As we align with gratitude, values, dharma,  and who we are as limitless conscious existence, every action we take becomes a contribution to the whole. {Why Are We Here?}

Getting up we notice we face the day and can fill it with words and deeds.

this world we touch but in words

words insulated in plated metal

this world we hold but in teeth

teeth estranged from heart’s palate {This World, A Seat}

Sometimes it looks like every day again we do have to start all over again, going back to these “manifold temptations,” which tour around our face. Every day there are so many things we do have to face, so many experiences we have to go through.

It can be anything in this life that tends to trouble us or haunt us that can bring grief over us.

something that hurts you at the most sensitive and delicate core of your soul, heart, and mind — things that tend to make you miserable.  How do we get past these things? {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

Facing each day we have to open our eyes and look at all things, seeing them in perspective, trying to understand what is really going on and what sort of place it deserves.

The danger is to just endure our troubles with groans and whines and complaints and not do anything to discover the remedy to the situation.  We come into the danger of thinking, “Why is God doing this to me?” {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

With “Ricky” Beckett we urge you not to think “why” these things happen to us, but rather to think what.

 Instead of thinking, “Why me,” think instead, “What can I learn from this?  What does God want to teach me?”  And then how:  “How will this make me grow closer to God?”  In short, other than the sinful condition of the world we live in, that is why we suffer — to learn something from God and to grow closer to Him, and then the “why” may reveal itself to you as God works out His progressive revelation in your life.  That’s the short answer, but now let’s discuss the longer answer. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

Each day again, and again, we should be prepared to learn and to continue our road, up to a better world for us.

We are living in this world and walking on our paths under the eye of our Heavenly Father.

Say to yourself,

“There is a definite plan and purpose for my life.  God has examined me and has adopted me into His family.”

Why does He do this for us?  So that He may bring us into perfection (which is not acquired during this earthly life).  That is His objective — that you may “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29), as Jesus Christ will say, “Here I am with the children God gave Me” (Hebrews 2:13).  If we do not believe and recognise this fundamental concept of ourselves as Christians, then we are bound to go astray and misunderstand these troubles that happen to us as God’s children. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Introduction}

These days lots of people take some time to think about the death and remember the dead.

When death and disaster occur, we are so grief stricken that we don’t know what to do. While all this is going on, we avoid grieving over our sin, which the thing we should grieve the most. It is good to grieve over this because our sin alienates us from God. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). We should grieve greatly over this because the end of our sin is death. But fear not! The Romans verse continues, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Godly grief is good grief, for it leads us to repentance. Godly grief, or good grief, causes us to recognise our need for forgiveness—our need for Christ. By repentance we exercise faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and we are justified by faith (Romans 5:1).

Let us always remember that God may permit all these things we have to face, to happen to us and to the people around us, not for the purpose of making us suffer and watching us squirm, as some would like to believe, but rather in order to chastise us, which He enacts due to our complacency and for our failure.

In 2 Peter 1:5-7, the apostle writes that Christians are to discipline themselves and to supplement attributes to their faith, not merely to be content with minimal faith but for it to be forever increasing.  There are Christians who do not take heed of this exhortation and instead are indefatigable with their complacency and indolence.  As I understand New Testament doctrine, if we do that we should not be surprised if we start to experience troubles — that God perhaps begins to chastise us by shaking us off our shiftless butts. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – Chastisement}

We ourselves are also not free from bringing grief to others. We must recognise that we too can do things wrongly. We too can bring pain to others and give them heartache or grief. Many Christians are convinced that as re-born people they cannot sin. But they are mistaken.

First John 3:9-10 says,

“Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.  This is how God’s children — and the Devil’s children — are made evident.”

 Now, it is easy to misinterpret this passage.  It is not saying that God’s children are incapable of sinning.  After all, even though we’re God’s children, we still sin.

St. John is saying that the one “born of God” — that is, baptised in the Holy Spirit — does not make it his life’s trade to sin.
The child of God does not make it his life’s priority to live in sin, as the children of the Devil do (e.g. the homosexual lifestyle, a murderous lifestyle such as ISIS or serial killers, etc.).

God’s children are not free from acts of sin, but the child of God does not commit to be a servant of sin, but rather a servant of God and His holiness.  Christians are not impeccable; they are simultaneously saint and sinner (simul iustus et peccator).  Sin lives within us, but the Christian is justified by faith (Romans 5:1; Galatians 3:24).  John is not speaking of sinless perfection but of a life imputed with Christ’s righteousness.

We can and shall have moments of weakness and shall sin. Afterwards we should repent, which is doing a work of faith. Only when we do such works of faith shall we be able to enter the Kingdom of God. When not willing to see what we have done wrong and not wanting to repent over the wrongdoing we shall not be allowed to enter through the small gate. The teshuvah or repentance is a necessary ingredient to come to God.

Knowing that God may have a particularly great task set for us we should wonder what we can do in the world God has prepared for us. Facing that world, where we are so many times tested, we should not mind having ourselves tested, when we are standing straight in our shoes, going for the One True God.

So, one may have to pass through a certain trial because of some great task ahead that God has planned for them.  Think of any biblical character that had to endure such a trial.  The first person that comes to mind for me is Jonah.  He was running from God’s calling to preach to Nineveh, and as we know he was swallowed by a great fish; and upon repentance and accepting his calling, God saved his life by having the great fish spit him out onto the land to fulfill his calling.  Maybe a drastic example, but perhaps not as drastic as you might think.  Consider any whales of doubt you might have in your life and what God is doing to bring you through those doubts, or what you ought to let Him do. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – God to Prepare Us}

Facing each day lying in front of us we best remember that we are given the opportunity to be here and that God knows what’s best for us and what we need to experience in order to get us where He wants us to be. Therefore let us give ourselves in His Hands and be thankfull that He was willing to accept the ransom offer from His son.

As our Heavenly Father, God may see the need for trials and prescribe the necessary tools that are destined to make us grow in Him for our own good. {Facing Trials: Why Do We Suffer? – God to Prepare Us}

With the knowledge that worldly grief produces only death because the world has no hope for a relief from their grief, we do have a better prospect in the hope given to mankind.

Worldly grief abandons the person who grieves. Godly grief is guilt over sin, which this guilt leads to repentance as the sinner recognises the necessity for forgiveness in Christ, which leads to salvation because the repentance we perform is exercised by this faith gifted to us, and it is through this gift of faith that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). {Good grief}

Perhaps we leave it to others to say ‘good grief’ when they see our endurance and come to see we want to present to the world a good example of a loving person, whatever happens to him.

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Preceding

Our existence..

Facing our existence every day

Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!

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Additional reading

1. A world in denial
2. Materialism, would be life, and aspirations
3. Dealing with worries in our lives
4. Emotional pain and emotional deadness
5. Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12
6. Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31
7. Isaiah prophet and messenger of God
8. Suffering
9. Offer in our suffering
10. Suffering – through the apparent silence of God
11. Suffering continues
12. Suffering leading to joy
13. Self inflicted misery #8 Pruning to strengthen us
14. Surprised by time in joys & sufferings
15. Profitable disasters
16. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow
17. The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
18. Every athlete exercises self control
19. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #3 Rejoicing in the insistence
20. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
21. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray
22. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
23. Continuing Paul’s Prayer Requests
24. Written to recognise the Promissed One

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Further reading

1. Day By Day
2. Grief
3. Throw-back Thursday: Grief is a fickle foe
4. Book Mark: Notes on Friends’ Grief
5. Grief From Across The World 
6. The Well of Grief
7. The unspoken grievance
8. The Five Stages of Grief
9. Sad
10. Memories…and Grief
11. Deviant Deflections – Unrequited Love
12. When part of you is missing
13. No one tells you about the guilt..
14. Monday Morning Grievance: The New Copier
15. After Suicide
16. How To Go On
17. God I miss you. 
18. Letter to you, my little one…
19. That feeling 
20. Heart Holes
21. Waiting For The Dutchman
22. Old Unfinished Post: The 5 Stages of Relationship Grief
23. Grief embraces love
24. 1 a.m. on the Borderline
25. Inside the glacier of my mind
26. Beautiful Reminders
27. Beyond the grey clouds
28. The Mercy of the Morning
29. Here’s to better naked tomorrows
30. It Is God’s Gospel
31. (11/04/2016) Works of the Spirit?
32. Forgiveness and Eternal Life Through Jesus Christ
33. Does Working with Others Lead to Better Results than Acting as an Individual? L 41
34. Leading by example
35. Jesus Models Friendship
36. Saints
37. Mercy in giving
38. 1 Timothy 4:12 (31.10.16)
39. The stories we tell
40. Eulogia
41. “Conformity To The Will Of God”
42. Advice… L38
43. If You Really Love Me
44. Life Changing Moments While Young
45. Good Advice for Us in Today’s World
46. Love as a god

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Which is worse–works without faith, or faith without works?

Rob Heijermans, who says is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and believes that God has spoken

— in fact, the universe itself is a product of the voice of the Lord. The phrase, “And God said…,” appears nine times in the first chapter of Genesis alone. {Is Anyone Listening?}

He also knows he has ever deceived himself and looks at James, Jesus’ younger half-brother, who knows all about self-deception.

Though the writer wrongly thinks James deceived himself for many years,

“denying that Jesus was God in the flesh.” {11 Self-Deceit 101}

Having grown up with Jesus in an Essene family he probably got to know Jesus as well as God very well. He also knew what Jesus had told others and to whom Jesus prayed, like they at their family, at home, prayed to the only One true God, the God of Israel. Jesus did not pray to himself, but to the God of Abraham, about Whom he taught people to pray to as well.

The apostle James warns us in Verse 22  of the first chapter that if we are hearers of the word–the Bible–and not doers, we deceive or ensnare ourselves.

James 1:22 EWB-CB  But become ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Much too often Christians do forget Jesus’ parables and the warning of James. We may not delusively content our selves with being of the audience, but have to put what we hear in practice.

The writer of the blog UpStream writes

James says it’s like looking into the mirror on the morning of an important interview, seeing some serious bed-head, lots of stubble and a smudge of last night’s hot fudge sundae, and just walking away without taking action. {11 Self-Deceit 101}

Too many Christians make it themselves very easy, thinking because they are saved they do not have to do anything any more.

Rob Heijermans is aware that

sitting under the teaching of the Scriptures and not doing what they say is an act of self-deceit. Studying the Scriptures for ourselves, gaining an understanding of their meaning, but not obeying God’s Word, produces knowledge that makes us arrogant but yields no fruit in our lives. It is self-deceit. Even more serious is purporting to be a teacher and either teaching what is false or not doing what is true. James will deal with this more later in his letter. {11 Self-Deceit 101}

We should come to get to know what is written in the Bible and may not twist around the words of it. As such when is written “the son of God” we may not say “god the son“. We should clearly take the Words of God into account and take them serious.

In this world many have made their own gods. A lot also made Jesus in to their god, like Rob Heijermans has done. He also preaches about hell as a sort of place of eternal torture, whilst forgetting that the Divine Creator is a God of Love, who is an eternal Spirit Who can not be seen by man, but is with man, telling them no lies and saying they shall have paid for their sins with their death.

But this God of gods tells also about His sent one, the Nazarene Jew Jeshua, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Jesus on this earth tried to make his heavenly Father known and showed the way to the Kingdom of God. His brother knew also very well the importance of Jesus’ teaching about that Kingdom. He had to loose his brother at the wooden stake and see his mother cry, being full of grieve. But he had also come into the hope Jesus preached and wanted to share it with others, like his brother had asked it.

That preaching James had taken up is also an act we should do. It is one of the works Jesus asked his followers to do.

Twice, the writer of Hebrews mentions “dead works.” (Heb 6.1, 9.14) Now, James writes of “dead faith.” In the subsequent verses of Chapter 2, he mentions that even the demons believe in God–and tremble before Him!–so simply believing facts about God is not saving faith. James then cites two Old Testament characters whose faith was demonstrated by their works: Abraham, the Iraqi father of the Jewish nation was not content simply to tell God he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. He unsheathed his dagger and was about to plunge it into Isaac’s belly when God stopped him and provided a substitutionary ram. Rahab the whore did not stop at believing that God was conquering His enemies through the Israelites–she protected their spies, knowing the awesome power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. {14 How to Work Your Way to Hell}

Lots of Christians have forgotten Who that God of the Israelites is and why we should take Him as our Only One True God, like Jesus also took Him as His Only One Most High Almighty God. But not only did they take the ransom offer of Jesus as the final act for them, misleading themselves that they would not have to do anything more because they are saved by the Blood of Christ.

Strangely enough the blog writer seems to know that

On some occasion, James probably heard his Brother say that God is glorified when we prove we are His disciples by producing fruit. (John 15.8) {14 How to Work Your Way to Hell}

In many parables Jesus had told how we have to get a good relationship with the heavenly Father. How He is willing to take us up as His children, but also how we can loose the entrance to the Kingdom of God. James came to understand those teachings of his brother and knew how important it was when people came into the faith how they had to change themselves and had to work on themselves continuously.

We may not assume that it are only our works that can get us some where.

the second half of James 2 demonstrates: just as it is vain to think that my works–religious duty, outward devotion, social activism, neighbourly consideration–could possibly get me to heaven, so also is it vain to suppose I am truly a child of God while my life manifests nothing of my faith. As Jesus said, a fruit tree with no fruit is cut down and burned. {14 How to Work Your Way to Hell}

When having come into the faith we have to water our own tree. (By reading and studying the Bible.) Then we do have to let the food of the earth and food of heaven feed ourselves, so that we can bear good fruits. For getting good fruits we need good pruning. We need to do a lot of work. Without the work there shall be no good fruits and when we are not willing to prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God we shall be too late like some young girls who did not prepare themselves or thought they had enough time. Please do not postpone. Take care that you are ready for when the day comes.

When procrastinating you will be surprised when the day comes you shall have nothing done what had to be done and will miss the boat.

Some things may be hard or difficult, like changing sides, or putting away human doctrinal teachings, like the trinity a.o.. but God wants from His son an his followers truthful worshippers of God who are faithful to Him, the Adonai Jehovah, and to His commandments. When we do not follow God’s commandments it will be like ignoring God’s Wishes and not wanting a good relationship with Him. Keeping to those commandments shall demand works we shall have to do with pleasure because we do believe in Christ, the son of God, and in his heavenly Father we also want to love.

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Preceding articles:

Leading people astray!

Restitution

Comments to James remarks, about Faith and works

Luther’s misunderstanding

January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

Our life depending on faith

Romans 4 and the Sacraments

Is Justification a process?

Justification – salvation is by grace through faith – JI Packer

Faith itself not the cause of justification – Louis Berkhof

Letter to the Romans, chapter 3

Letter to the Romans, chapter 4

Additional comments to the 3rd Letter to the Romans

Additional comments to the Letter to the Romans 4

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Please find also to read

1. God of gods
2. God is one
3. Sayings around God
4. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
5. Jesus Messiah
6. Jesus and His God
7. the Trinity – the Truth
8. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
9. Bearing fruit
10. Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does
11. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness
12. Christ’s ethical teaching
13. Being Justified by faith
14. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action
15. Faith and works
16. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
17. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #16 Benefits of praying
18. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
19. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
20. Be holy
21. She who sows thistles will reap prickles
22. Love for each other attracting others

 

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Further related articles

1. Count on your desire to procrastinate
2. Sermon Redux – Part 4 of Doing Our Best for God’s Church – “Rejoicing in the Brutal Truth” – 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
3. Boast in God’s Grace for You- Joseph Prince
4. The Parable of the Two Sons
5. Rewarded for Doing Good?
6. Rewarded for their Labor? (1 Corinthians 3:8)
7. Judged for What We Have Done
8. Rewarded for What We’ve Done?
9. 2:24 – You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
10. Chapter 2:23 – And he was called a friend of God.
11. Four Panel Philosophy
12. James 2:20-22 — Dynamic Faith
13. Show Me Your Works

+++

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Comments to James remarks, about Faith and works

 

“1  My brothers, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality. 2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in; 3 and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing, and say, “Sit here in a good place”; but you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”; 4 haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4 NHEB)

“But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?” (James 2:6 NHEB)

“But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.” (James 2:9 NHEB)

“For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13 NHEB)

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?” (James 2:14 NHEB)

“17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. 18 Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.
19 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But do you want to know, foolish man, that faith apart from works is useless?

21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In like manner was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:17-26 NHEB)

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The Works (Faith No More album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Christadelphian Agora comments:

“You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did” (James 2:22).

“An old Scotsman operated a little rowboat for transporting passengers. One day a passenger noticed that the good old man had carved on one oar the word ‘Faith’, and on the other oar the word ‘Works’. Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this. The old man, being a well-balanced believer in Christ, and glad of the opportunity for testimony, said, ‘I will show you.’ So saying, he dropped one oar and plied the other called Works, and they just went around in circles. Then he dropped that oar and began to use the oar called Faith, and the little boat just went around in circles again — this time the other way around, but still in a circle. After this demonstration the old man picked up Faith and Works and wielding both oars together, sped swiftly over the water, explaining to his inquiring passenger, ‘You see, that is the way it is in the believer’s life. Works without faith are useless, and faith without works is dead also, getting you nowhere. But faith and works pulling together make for safety, progress, and blessing’ ” (Maritta Terrell).

Peter Cresswell comments:

v.9 As a community (speaking generally) we are condemned by our inability to work out this maxim in our practical lives. There are those who genuinely are prepared to preach to anyone and accept anyone, but I think if we are honest, most of us are not happy with this teaching. A moment’s reflection on it today then will do no harm. Would we, for example, like Jesus in John 8:3-11, accept the repentance of the prostitute (which is seems this woman was) so readily? Lev.19:15

Peter Forbes  comments:

2:1-4 It is said that we form an impression about someone within a few minutes of seeing them. We have not had enough time to assess their character and yet we make decisions which may colour our view for the rest of our lives. It is really clear why God does not judge by outward appearance – 1Sam 16:7 – we should emulate His approach.

2:4 So we see that partiality which starts by looking on the outward appearance – see 2:2– is in reality judging the way others think.

2:4  Partiality is a consequence of being ‘double minded’ as mentioned in James 1:8

2:5 In speaking of ‘the poor of this world’ James echoes Paul’s comment about men of faith – Heb 11:37 . One cannot but wonder how we would have reacted to some of the men and women of faith if we had seen them in the street.

2:6 Continuing thoughts on our contribution for June 8th James asks his readers to think on the realities of their experience. The very ones that they would revere were the ones who were their persecutors!

2:6     ‘despised’ <818> is translated ‘shamefully’ Luke 20:11 and ‘dishonour’  John 8:49 showing that James is reproving the brethren for denigrating the ‘poor’.

2:9 That we should show ‘no respect of persons’ draws on the Law of Moses and is seen extensively in Scripture. Here are some occasions. Leviticus 19:15 Deuteronomy 1:17 16:19 2 Samuel 14:14 2 Chronicles 19:7 Proverbs 24:23 28:21 Romans 2:11 Ephesians 6:9 Colossians 3:25 1 Peter 1:17 No matter how one dresses up the prejudice against the poor and favour toward the well dressed it is a violation of the Divine law. Actually it manifests pride. We like to identify with the rich in this world rather than the poor.

2:11   James here clearly shows that there are no degrees of sin. Sin is sin. Agreed the consequences of some sins is greater than others insofar as our actions impact upon other men. However any sin violates God’s principles.

2:13 These words of James draw upon the teaching of Jesus in Matt 7:2

2:14-17  I suppose one could summarise what James is teaching here by saying “talk is cheap”.  It is ever so easy to talk about how we love and serve God. It is far harder to simply get on with doing that.

2:21-23  We notice that Abraham was “justified” in Gen 15:6. However it was many years later when he was willing to offer Isaac – Gen 22:9 – which demonstrated his faith. So, even though God saw Abraham’s faith no man could have seen the evidence of Abraham’s faith. But God knew in advance that Abraham had faith.

2:23    There are two earlier occasions when Abraham is called God’s friend – (#2Ch 20:7; Isa 41:8)

2:23 How would you like to be called ‘the friend of God’? Such is the description of faithful Abraham – he believed that God would keep His word and so acted upon that knowledge. So we know the way to friendship with God.

2:23 There were quite a number of years between the statement in Gen 15:6 that Abraham believed God and his offering of Isaac. Faith is not a ‘flash in the pan’ activity.

2:25 The inclusion of Rahab as one who was justified by faith is a powerful testimony to the truth that observance of the law of Moses is not a pre requisite for pleasing God. A powerful lesson for Jews.

Michael Parry comments:

James exhorts against favouritism in our assembly.  Brothers and sisters should be treated equally in love and respect.  Do we naturally gravitate towards some and find it difficult to deal with others?  Of course we do.  But let us remember the example of Jesus.  Although He was drawn affectionately to John (John 19:26; 21:20), He still treated His betrayer Judas with love (Matt 5:44).

A point about verse 19:  there exist no such supernatural entities as devils (or demons).  What are being alluded to here are people possessed with demons (mental disorders).
There were demoniac people who recognized God and the Lord Jesus  (Mark 5:1-13, 16:9, Luke 4:40,41, 8:2).

Having scriptural knowledge, understanding, and faith means nothing unless it is translated into Godly action.

V.8 James is the only one to use the phrase royal law.  Loving one’s neighbour is the second part of the greatest law (Matt 22:37-39).  The first part concerns the love for God who is King over all – hence James’s royal reference.

V.12 James also talks of the law of liberty. No longer is anyone judged under the Law of Moses.  But, the moral commandments under the Law are carried forward and form part of the Commandments of Jesus.  It is expected that believers follow these commandments willingly.  Believers will be judged on their adherence to these laws.

John Wilson comments:

V.18 James introduces a third person into his explanation of faith and how it works by love. The third person is able to give a practical demonstration of his faith. James’ humility would not permit him to set himself forth as an ideal representative of a living faith. “I will show thee my faith by my works”  A practical demonstration of a motivating force that is greater than the individual himself, by which “he overcame the world”  (1John 5:4).

2:25 With the example of Rahab; along with that of Abraham (V.21,23), we would suggest is used by James to show the universality of the principle of faith that he was writing of. Abraham was the Father of all the Jews; Rahab was a Gentile who was converted. She was weak and sinful, but triumphed by faith. Not unlike what Paul wrote Gal 3:28.

2:26 Faith without works is like a corpse; there is a body, the substance of which is undeniable, but it is a dead body, and unless the breath of life enters into that body, it remains inactive and ineffective. Unless faith issues forth in a practical demonstration of a way of life which is pleasing God, it is a corpse without life, and incapable of imparting it.

Roger Turner comments:

v 5 First Principles>Kingdom of God>Gospel concerns God’s Kingdom
The Gospel preached by Jesus and the Apostles concerns the Kingdom of God.
2. Invitation for men to participate
Matt 25:34, Luke 12:32, 1Thess 2:12, James 2:5, 2Tim 4:1,8, 2Pet 1:10,11, Rev 2:26,27
For more about the Gospel concerning God’s Kingdom go to Matt 4:23 

Valerie Mello comments:

James 2:17

“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

The apostle Paul defines faith as, “… the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). Faith may be further defined as having a confident belief, value, or trustworthiness of a person, which does not necessarily rest on logical proof or material evidence.

This kind of faith requires development, and if we are not prepared to spend time in developing it, we shall not obtain the kind of faith that pleases God. The more we consider God’s actions in the past, and see His prophecies vindicated in the present, the more we come to learn to value Him, trust Him, and put our faith in Him concerning events not yet fulfilled, but promised by God.

This is a true story about a captain commanding a passenger ship who was sailing from Liverpool, England to New York. His family was on board with him. One night when everyone was sound asleep, a squall unexpectedly swept over the waters and tossed the ship violently, awakening the passengers. They were all scared, and the captain’s frightened eight-year old daughter asked, “What’s the matter?” Her mother explained that a sudden storm struck the ship. “Is father on deck?”  “Yes, father is on deck,” answered the mother. On hearing this, the little girl snuggled back into bed, and in a few moments was sound asleep. The winds still blew and the waves still rolled, but her fears were calmed because her father was at the helm! Our Heavenly Father is always at the helm! It is this kind of faith the Father is looking for in His children, and despite outward appearances, without this kind of faith it is impossible to please Him (Heb 11:6).

Wes Booker comments:

James 2:12,13.

What are some practical lessons and exhortations that we should try and practice in our lives in connection with what James is stating here – especially the last part of v. 13 – “Mercy triumphs over judgment”?

In thinking about a practical application of what James is exhorting us here, it’s important to keep in mind that within the pages of the Bible there are a number of very positive references to the idea of judgment. Though we might tend to immediately think of Christ’s words – “Judge not that you be not judged” (Mat. 7:1), there are a number of times where the flip side of the concept is there in such words as “judge righteous judgment” (Jn. 7:24) and Paul’s words concerning the ongoing fornication in the Corinthian ecclesia – “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you” ((1 Cor. 5:12,13).

In the example that James uses following up his statement about mercy triumphing over judgment (v. 13) – in James 2:14-17 he gives the example of a brother or sister without clothes and daily food and what should be done by the ecclesia in that situation. What he doesn’t state is the reason for them to be in such a destitute situation. Was it due to things beyond their control? Or did they do certain things that brought this dire condition on themselves? Were they able-bodied and in a position to seek employment and get themselves out of this situation without having to come to the ecclesia for help? Whatever their situation was, James states categorically that the attitude that wishes them well without providing for their physical needs is an example of faith without works being dead. So the #1 priority of the ecclesia is to provide help when they have it within their power to do so. And, of course, the same should be true for individual believers in Christ.

The person or ecclesia who has it within its power to help and chooses to not do so really needs to have a really good Scriptural reason for not helping. And if there’s ever a question as to the rightness of a course of action, then the weight should fall on the side of mercy. And so with the seesaw effect, mercy comes up as judgment goes down. I remember reading years ago in one of bro. Islip Collyer’s books – I can’t remember which one it was – what he had to say on this subject. And it was so powerful that it really stuck with me. I’m paraphrasing here –

When a tough-to-decide situation comes up ecclesially where both sides – the severe and the lenient (merciful) – both have positive things that can be said for deciding in that particular way, I, for one, will always choose the side of mercy for this one simple reason. I know that on that great day of judgment, I will need all the mercy my Lord can muster on my behalf. So how can I go the other way? If I’m going to err, it is going to be on the side of mercy.

Robert Prins comments:

Illogical Really

When James spoke about people showing faith through the things that they did, he gave two examples. One of them was Abraham as he was about to sacrifice Isaac, and the other was Rahab, as she hid the spies and sent them off in a different direction.

Neither of these actions were really common-sense logical. After all, if you had been promised that your son was to be your heir, and the door to a multitude of descendants, it would seem stupid to kill him! And in the case of Rahab, when approached by people who were planning to flatten her city, it doesn’t seem right to hide and protect them.

But, both Abraham and Rahab had their eyes on something bigger and better when they acted in faith. Abraham was so sure God’s promises would be fulfilled, that he obeyed anyway. And Rahab was so sure of God’s strength, and that God was good to those who were good to Israel, that she put her own life in peril from the authorities in Jericho to put her trust in God.

What faith opportunities do we have in our lives? What about the opportunities to let God take vengeance rather than ourselves? What about forgiving others and trusting God for the rest? Or giving money or possessions away when asked? Or speaking out about our faith in God at an appropriate time?

Faith is seen in what we do. Let’s make sure God sees it in our lives.

Rob de Jongh comments

The bird resting on the patio

From v14 to v26 James explains how faith without works is dead. It’s a difficult concept to grasp, so perhaps an analogy may help.

Last summer we were on holiday in a cottage that had large glazed patio doors leading to a patio outside where the children watched birds hopping around. One day we came back from a trip out and our little boy said,

“Mummy. Why isn’t that bird moving?”.

We suspected the bird had flown into the glass and either stunned or killed itself, but we didn’t tell the child.

“Maybe it’s resting”,

we said, while earnestly hoping that the bird was going to get up at any moment and fly away.

Here was a small child who knew nothing about death, yet he recognised from the inaction of the bird that something was wrong. Later in the day when the children were elsewhere we took the bird and buried it beneath some overgrown bushes in the garden. As grown ups we knew that if it didn’t move for a half hour, it was probably dead. It was still a bird — recognisable even by a child, but what good was that? So it is with us. Any or all of us may be called a believer, confessing that God is one (v19), but if there is no action based on faith, it’s likely that faith isn’t alive in us:

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26

But what can we do if we suspect this is so with us? The first step is to pray to God, confessing our lack of faith and asking for help. If we want to be alive, seek for it, and ask, we will have our faith revived, as promised in Luke 11:9-13.

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Preceding articles:

First man’s task still counting today

He who knows himself, is kind to others

Luther’s misunderstanding

January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

Our life depending on faith

Romans 4 and the Sacraments

Is Justification a process?

Letter to the Romans, chapter 3

Letter to the Romans, chapter 4

Additional comments to the 3rd Letter to the Romans

Additional comments to the Letter to the Romans 4

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Additional reading

1. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4
2. The sin of partiality
3. The Greatest of These is Love
4. Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does
5. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action
6. A Living Faith #6 Sacrifice

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Further related articles

1. (01/07/2016) Salvation Only Through Christ?
2. Partiality In The Church
3. Christian Prejudice: Finding Answers to a Shameful Problem
4. Human Rights Are Not “Common Sense” – They Are Christianity
5. Is Jesus Partial? Colossians 3 verse 11
6. “What is Christianity about?” by Michael and Susanne
7. Today’s life is full of fakeness..
8. The James Series: Surprisingly Equal
9. 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle B
10. Micah 2: Soap in studying the Bible
11. Favoritism Forbidden
12. Are We Partial?
13. Friendship and partiality
14. My Journey to Racial Reconciliation
15. Can Faith Save You? Sermon by Keith, 6.14.15, Pentecost 3
16. How To Beat The Competition?
17. Facing Our Prejudices
18. James: Favoritism
19. The Book of James Chapter 2:1-9,12-13 (NKJV)
20. 2:9 – But if you show partiality, you commit sin
21. 2:13. For judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.
22. “Sunday Best”
23. Partiality and The Law
24. No Partiality
25. What does the Bible say about partiality By…
26. Mercy the missing piece
27. Living Life Partially Impartial
28. unjust justice
29. How can you say God is not partial?
30. Herrenhuter readings for Sunday, the 8th February 2015
31. February 2 – Walking the Line
32. Show No Favouritism. Show Mercy.
33. Reflective Paragraphs Week 11 – James
34. Losing Integrity Over Identity
35. The imported and the favoured workers
36. Playing Favourites in the Church. A Reflection on James 2:1-17
37. Healing wilful deafness
38. Daily Digest: Playing Favourites
39. Disease favouritism
40. Diminished
41. Not Of This World
42. How Important is Belief?
43. Substance and Evidence
44. Religious Literacy
45. Bible-In-A-Year Day 33: Leviticus 16-18
46. Death-Defying Faith.

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Related articles

• 10 Monotheistic Gods You’ve Never Heard Of
• Yes, Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God (But Here’s What That Means & Doesn’t)
• Horny Moses: Why Biblical Literalists Really Have Some Explaining to Do
• The General Epistle of James – Scripture Without Borders
• Is anything too hard for the Lord?
• In the World, Not of It: Property in the Life of the Church
• NYT: The Words That Killed Medieval Jews
• Advent in Wartime
• WORD OF THE DAY – Friday 18 December 2015
• A La Carte (December 10)

January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

In the past there have been many discussion about the possibility man being good. When we look at the world today it seems not much has changed. Along all sides we can see people who do not want to share the luck they have with others. This has come to a high point with the refugee crisis. It is understandable that people want to protect their own goods and culture, but often they are too much afraid that their way of living would be in danger by others from far away coming to live in their regions.

Several people are convinced that people who are fleeing from war-zones can not be good and trustworthy people. According to several Christians it is even impossible for a human being to be good from himself and as such no one can be reliable.

A17th century Calvinist print depicting Pelagius. The caption says “Accurst Pelagius, with what false pretence Durst thou excuse man’s foul concupiscence, Or cry down Sin Originall, or that The love of God did man predestinate.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The controversial British monk Pelagius in the fifth century had taught that man’s nature was essentially good. This was not to the liking of the Catholic Church leaders who found that because of Adam’s sin all men were born with a strong tendency to sin. It is even for that reason that lots of Christians do say it is impossible for Jesus to be a man. Because he was without sin he should be God, according to them. This naturally is not at all true and makes of God a horrible Creator, having created human beings who can not decide for themselves to do good or bad. Worse it would also mean that God gave man commandments He knew they would never be able to follow.

Pelagius rightly said that an individual had the power to do right by choosing to do right and by beating the body into submission through ascetic practices. Traditional Christianity said that men could defeat their tendencies to sin only by the working of God’s grace in their heart. According to the churchleaders Pelagius‘s ideas meant that Christ‘s death on the cross served more as a moral example than as an atonement able to transform the soul from within by divine force, which meant against going their doctrine of sola fide.

Those who think that Old and New Testaments alike teach us that we cannot change ourselves have not very well read the Holy Book of books. In the many books which form the bible we do have many examples of people who have gone from bad to good but also from good to bad and sometimes returning to good.

Saint Augustine from a 19th-century engraving

The Christian philosopher and theologian St. Augustine or Augustine of Hippo (354-430), best known for “The Confessions” and “The City of God” was responsible for the excommunication of Pelagius.

While in Rome, Pelagius first heard of Augustine through his reading of a prayer from Augustine’s Confessions: “Give what Thou commandest and command that Thou wilt.” To Pelagius, the philosophy expressed in this prayer sounded like the total abandonment of human responsibility and a denial of the ethical dimensions of the Christian faith. If all moral action, thought Pelagius, depends solely on God — both the commanding as well as the ability to obey — God is either an arbitrary tyrant or else man is a creature deprived of free will. Pelagius conducted his teaching along these lines while he was in Rome, and it was to this teaching that an able lawyer, Caelestius, responded, leaving his profession of advocacy and becoming Pelagius’s disciple, companion, and the popularizer of his views.

Caelestius’s Pelagian views continued to spread, and soon Augustine was preaching and writing with intense fervour against this what he called a new heresy, arguing that the whole lump of humanity is infected with sin and that only the grace administered in baptism can wash away the guilty stain.

In spite of these admonitions from the Doctor of Grace, the controversy continued, and it was not long before the articulate bishop of Eclanum, Julian, stepped in to argue the Pelagian cause, forcing Augustine, by the clarity of his logic, into positions regarding the doctrines of grace and predestination that have been burdensome to Western Christendom ever since. {Encyclopedia of World Biography | 2004}

Today we still find many who do not want to see that man has a lot in his own hands. Today there are still lots of Christians who think it is impossible for man to live according to God’s Wishes and that he does not have to do any good works to enter the Kingdom of God because it is just impossible for him to do such good works.

According to Augustine it is not possible to lead a sinless life, with (for whatever reason, probably she had to carry the god son according to the Catholic Church) the exception of the Virgin Mary. For Augustine divine grace must precede every virtuous act and today many Christians are also still convinced we are all saved whatever what we have done and whatever we do in our life.

For such Christians who try to put sand in the eyes of searching people, the saying that we need works to enter the Kingdom of God is heresy. For them it is not only possible for man not to sin, they are not able to bring any change in the salvation of themselves.

The caricature of Pelagianism found in many orthodox textbooks and devotional manuals is hardly one that Pelagius would recognize. He never, for instance, denied the need for grace or for infant baptism; he never accepted the position that man can, by his own moral efforts, achieve his salvation. On basic doctrinal issues, Pelagius was certainly orthodox; and on matters of Christian morality his chief concern was to foster among Christian people a right regard for the ethical responsibilities he saw as inherent in the Gospel message. {Encyclopedia of World Biography | 2004}

The Christian attitude is a very important issue which was been tackled by rabbi Jeshua (master teacher Jesus Christ) with a lot of delicacy. The Nazarene Jew, who was not afraid to bring others to see they had no right to judge others, told his listeners many parables in which he tried to get them to understand that we must be very careful not to loose the right to enter the Kingdom of God.

Lots of Christians are mistaken to think they do not have to do any good works to enter Gods Kingdom. It is true that they are saved and have nothing to do to get under the Grace of salvation. But what they forget is that, though they received salvation for nothing, they can loose it when they do not work at themselves. The leaders of the Protestant Reformation, 1,500 years after the last books of the Bible were written wanted their flock to believe that Jesus paid the full prize or penalty for our sins, so that nothing had to be done or paid any more. They added their human doctrine, which is nowhere written in the Bible, saying that

Jesus paid the punishment for our sins, he having fully atoned for our sins and by saying “it is finished” he did what no human could do, make up for their sins and made an end to everything what had to be done.

But it was not finished by having to come to God (a work) or to follow God’s commandments (again demanding works).

It is totally wrong to think once new born and/or being baptised, we are cleared and have a free way to enter into God’s Kingdom, or what some are thinking to go to heaven. In case a person has fund Christ and has come to God several works are needed. First of all before finding Christ work has to be done to come to know him and his God. Once a person believes in Jesus Christ, the son of God, that person has to convert to Christianity which again is a work to be done. But once baptised it is not finished. Than the person has to work at his or her character and try to stay on the right track, following God’s commandments, which shall require again some, not to say ‘lots’ of works.

Every Christian must work to control themselves. Once having become a Christian that person should try not to lie, to steal, to betray, to fornicate, to murder and many other things he or she should avoid doing (which demands work). If none of these works are needed for salvation the person could have sex with as many persons or animals as he or she wanted no matter the gender. If no works have to be done a person could also continue to do fraudulent actions, without having to worry.

It is for the reason having so many Christian preachers trying to convince others they do not need to do any works, and because of the reaction by Grow Pastor, Minister to Men, Ken Miller to us, at his article That’s the Spirit!, that we think it opportune to warn people of the lack of understanding of the given grace.

Christ Jesus died for all people, sinners or not. By the works of faith he has done, we received the Grace of Salvation, but when we ignore his calling or his heavenly Father’s calling than we shall not be allowed to enter the Kingdom of god when we did bad things and did not repent about them. It is not by works of justice that we had done, but, in accord with the mercy of God, Him willing to accept the ransom offering of His son. Through Jesus Christ our Saviour we are been justified by his grace and are we allowed to become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5-7)

When Saul had become a follower of the Messiah he looked at the work of the master teacher and at the sacraments which were given to those who followed Jesus. The apostle wrote

Romans 3:27-31 The Scriptures 1998+  (27)  Where, then, is the boasting? It is shut out. By what Torah? Of works? No, but by the Torah of belief.  (28)  For we reckon that a man is declared right by belief without works of Torah.  (29)  Or is He the Elohim of the Yehuḏim only, and not also of the gentiles? Yea, of the gentiles also,  (30)  since it is one Elohim who shall declare right the circumcised by belief and the uncircumcised through belief.  (31)  Do we then nullify the Torah through the belief? Let it not be! On the contrary, we establish the Torah.1 Footnote: 1See 7:12.

and gave the Romans to know that they thought or hold that a man is brought into right standing with God by faith and that observance of the law has no connection with it.

Saying that he did not confirm that

“by faith apart from deeds of the law” as meaning, “by faith alone”

but him affirming that we then not through faith make null and void the law; instead, we confirm it. It is by our faith that we shall do certain works according to the faith. Pelagius considered that sacraments are elements believers should keep taking throughout their life. For him it was like it is for us, that faith should be expressed and perfected in works. Submitting to Jehovah His works in the proper disposition, which is that of faith, is an action or a work to be done.

Too many Christians forget the importance of the feeling we should have about what we have done. If we do not feel bad by the wrong things we have done and do not repent for them, for sure the Bible shows us, we shall not receive an entrance in God’s Kingdom. Repentance and teshuvah demands a work. Staying a good person also demands work. All those that say we do not have to do any work of faith, are either forgetting what the Bible tells about it and are insinuating we can do whatever we want and shall still be saved.

On the other hand it is very strange that it are just such preachers who talk so ferociously about salvation and no works needed for salvation, who also preach about damnation in a hell, a place of eternal fire.

Luckily the Bible speaks about the end of our life by death, and that we once we die shall not be able to feel anything any more. No frustrations, no pain, no sorrow any more when we die. Then it shall all be finished, but then it shall also be too late if we did not choose for God and did not work at our own self.

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Please do find also to read:

1. Salvation and Righteousness
2. Elul Observances
3. God’s wrath and sanctification
4. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
5. Outflow of foundational relationship based on acceptance of Jesus
6. Back from gone #4 Your inner feelings and actions
7. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
8. Cognizance at the doorstep or at the internet socket
9. Good and bad things in this world
10. Establish your hearts blameless in holiness
11. Myth 12: The Hyper-Grace Gospel Makes People Lazy
12. Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does
13. A Living Faith #3 Faith put into action
14. A Living Faith #6 Sacrifice
15. Humbleness
16. A race not to swift, nor a battle to the strong
17. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong
18. Being of good courage running the race
19. Bearing fruit
20. To Soar In The Spirit You Have To Be Hard Core
21. Our stance against certain religions and immigrating people
22. Religion, fundamentalism and murder
23. Daring to speak in multicultural environment
24. As Christ’s slaves doing the Will of God in gratitude
25. 2014 Religion
26. Disobedient man and God’s promises
27. From pain to purpose
28. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #17 Sorts of prayers
29. God’s forgotten Word 5 Lost Lawbook 4 The ‘Catholic’ church
30. Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
31. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
32. When not seeing or not finding a biblically sound church

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Further reading

1. No one is saved by the law. Salvation is by faith through Grace.
2. The Justification of Abraham
3. St. Paul Didn’t Say Faith Alone
4. The Law of Diminishing Returns
5. A Call to Dare God
6. The Tangible Presence of God
7. Devotion for Monday After the Second Sunday in Lent, Year C (ELCA Daily Lectionary)
8. Grace is a soft gospel for soft Christians & The Hyper-Grace Gospel Makes People Lazy
9. Did God really say “Prevenient” Grace
10. Can someone who genuinely loves the God of Israel, prays to Him and trusts him go to hell? The New Testament says…
11. I was wrong – but I am right – Calvinists preach a false gospel.
12. The pain of radical grace
13. The power of grace
14. Seeing Christ
15. (12/04/2015) By More Than Believing
16. Faith Child – Forget the poor!
17. (01/13/2016) How To Treat Unbelievers?
18. Repent so that you can understand
19. Faithfulness
20. Faith Without Works (Pastor Joe Taylor)
21. Faith without Works ??? (1 Way to live)
22. Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life: Faith Alone Does Not Save
23. The Works
24. Faith in Action
25. Put Your Faith Into Action
26. Fashion advice?
27. Intentional God
28. The Sower of Seeds: A Parable of Jesus
29. Matthew 23:23 [Coming Soon]
30. Studies in Mark (Pt. 8)
31. Galatians 5:4 [Unfinished]
32. Galatians 6:7-9 [Unfinished]
33. Ephesians 2:8-9
34. Titus 3:5-7
35. NT Reading – October 5
36. James 1:14-20 — Faith that Works!
37. James, Part 2
38. The Book that Almost Wasn’t: Faith, Lists, and Works ~ James 2
39. Tuesday Devotional: Revelation 2
40. Faith Without Works Is Dead
41. Putting Legs to Their Faith
42. Are You a doer???
43. Are You Willing to do more???
44. Mincing no Words
45. Epistle for September 6, 2015
46. Tell it Tuesday w/ B.Parker|How To Pray When Life Isn’t Going Your Way
47. Tell it Tuesday w/ B. Parker| It’s 2am and No One is Answering…Who To Call?
48. Childish Thinking
49. Are You A Weed?
50. Sneaky Subjectivism
51. What Future?
52. Intentional Avoidance, Disconnected Ignorance, or Disinterested Forgetfulness?
53. We Are All Damaged Goods…
54. Just Sitting There
55. The Subnormal Christian Life
56. 14 How to Work Your Way to Hell
57. Faith Life Congruence
58. We pray and plead with you…”Do You Job!”
59. Gospel Doctrine 2015 – Lesson 42 – “Pure Religion”

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Related articles

• Did the Catholic Church Just Say That Jews Don’t Need Jesus?
• Jews for Jesus Denounces Vatican Statement on Jewish Evangelism
• Does the Pope Know Something The Rest of Us Don’t?
• News: Orthodox Rabbis Say Christianity is God’s Plan, Vatican Says Stop Evangelizing Jews
• Messianic Jews, Mission and the Vatican
• Receiving Christ no matter the season
• The Spirit Speaks – of the One Greater than the Church
• Anti-Christian persecution isn’t all about Islam…
• Thoughtcrime? College Professor Put on Leave for Saying Muslim & Christian God Are the Same – David Pakman Show
• Christian Genocide. Why is our govt ignoring the plight of Christians in Iraq?

‘I try to keep my hate in check. If you can’t hate, you can’t love.’

The author of this article thinks religion has robbed us of freedom to think and listen to our inner selves, but true Christianity demands just that. The Divine Creator requests us to place ourselves in the whole universe and to go deeper in our inner being. God demands us to come to know our own “I” and to make it not a “selfish I” but to come to an acceptable relationship with those around us.

The author also ask us to imagine a life where equality existed and institutions crumbled, which “is what keeps him pushing along”.

Those who read and come to know the Bible shall not be “misguided souls who choose to work in prisons” but the opposite shall become liberated beings who are no slave any more of this world. For them they shall know that no human being can do them something very bad. Even when they would take the life or the person this would not be the worst thing, because once death all suffering shall be ended and life gone, the person having done the killing not having accomplished much more and not been liberated himself of the agonies which are bothering his mind. The opposite he (the murderer) shall have some extra worries or bad dreams “en plus”.

To the Inside-Outside Alliance group of people who claim to be trying to support the struggles of those inside (or formerly inside) Durham County jail, and their families and friends, we would advice to revise their idea about religion and ask them not to take away the dreams of a better life which really can come true when a person does find the right religion.

By pushing all religion into the corner and to consider it evil is taking away the right of the prisoner to have a hold or guidance to become a better person or for the one who is imprisoned unlawfully to see the good his imprisonment may bring to his other inmates. Because even imprisoned we can do good to others and should be doing good to others. Even when we may be literally chained we do not have to be spiritually chained and even when they would put us in an isolation cell we can be very free when we are willing to make ourselves strong enough so that the other his limitations on us do not obstruct our self-development and our own being.

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To remember

The theory of will power

cause of demoralization in prisons:  All transgressions of accepted moral standards = to lack of a strong will

majority of inmates of prisons = people who did not have sufficient strength to resist the temptations surrounding them or to control a passion which momentarily carried them away.

In prisons = monasteries = everything done to kill a man’s will => no choice between one of two acts ==> whole life regulated + ordered in advance => to swim with the current, to obey under pain of severe punishment.

will power disappears

prison = done everything to kill inner strength > make him docile tool in hands of those who control him

penal system based on the deprivation of individual liberty

 

sound of chains + steel banging all the time = enough to test the strongest will = will break you

all we can do = give advice to people +live a moral life.

Misguided hate can hurt

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Preceding articles

Remain lovingly = No path for softies

Crying is good for inner self!!

A little ray of sunshine.

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Additional reading

• Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ

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Amplify Voices Inside

Kropotkin wrote a lot on the wrongs of prisons. These two paragraphs hit the nail on the head for me. Sadly I feel these effects.

The theory of will power

“There is another important cause of demoralization in prisons. All transgressions of accepted moral standards may be ascribed to lack of a strong will. the majority of inmates of prisons are people who did not have sufficient strength to resist the temptations surrounding them or to control a passion which momentarily carried them away. In prisons as in monasteries, everything is done to kill a man’s will.

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