Lots of people before they come in the faith go through a big battle; They do hope all their worries would be over when they convert to Christianity. Some get surprised that all the problems are not over when having become a Christian. There are even people who get some newer worries, people trying to convince them that they have made a stupid choice.
Flying Rowan. Near Glede Howe. Attributed with magical properties by the ancient Britons and a common sight to hillgoers. This one is famous for being used as a guide to the head of Truss Gap in a popular book on the lakeland fells by Bill Birkett. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In a exhortation on the March Bible readings Robert Roberts looks at how we all are ignorant at the start “ignorant of everything”. In the knowledge that human memory is weak, and soon forgets, “especially with regard to the class of things that constitute the Truth” he reminds us of all the things “not seen”, whether past, present or future; and some of those things for which we have not much natural liking and therefore forgetfulness and consequent unbelief become very easy, unless we are on our guard.He writes
There are different kinds of “things not seen” ‹ different kinds of truth ‹ some unimportant ‹ some important. It is with the latter we have to do. It is the latter we desire to bring to mind. It is the latter which will enable us to overcome the mere bias of native ignorance, and walk as children of light.
“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” This faith lays hold of things ‹ is persuaded of things that we cannot see, but which are true. It does so by the means God has given us for the purpose. We need to avail ourselves of these means in the amplest measure, or faith is liable to wither and die. We need strengthening in the fight or we may be overcome instead of overcoming.
In any case, for sure, god is One thing we can not see …. directly … but when we look around we should be able to see the glory of Gdo in all things of nature. Therefore we better take more time to look at the flowers, the trees, the insects and other animals in this world.
We best wonder more about “God and His works” and come to see His Hand behind everything.
Today’s poem is by Cynthia Guenther Richardson, a retired addictions/mental health counsellor and also a manager of home care services for elderly folks, who has worked in the field of human services for thirty years. She believes that language can illuminate, even renew life. She lets nature guides her in enrichment of body, mind and soul.
Seeking serenity is a way of life for her, a nourishment she cannot live well without. She writes
It may have been intensified by troublesome times as a child and young adult but it has nonetheless been a natural impulse as long as I can remember. In any case, it is a powerful key to a kind of magic guidebook for living richly. Why wouldn’t I use it all the time? {A Master Key to Contentment}
In her texts she might ask us to come to see order in the messy jumble of life, and renewed creation stirring in the design of every universal interaction.
Like pebbles tossed into water, nature’s actions and reactions are a demonstration of exquisite unity and symbiosis. And in human connections–slight as a fast second on the street or ongoing as a long partnership – there are various manifestations of energy exchanged, networks of coexistence revealed. {A Master Key to Contentment}
When looking at life she recognises
It’s a numinous life we are born with and into, and its mystical ways seem to me at once ordinary and exotic. All we have to do is turn around to see evidence of a stupendous wisdom. Deep beauty. Even when there is tragedy to throw us off. Even when there is rancorous pain that wars with a need for kind relief. {A Master Key to Contentment}
That is what we ask our readers, to look around them, to see the beauty of nature and if they would not mind even come to see the Hand behind it all, coming to see the MightyPower of the Divine Creator.
In the midst of the odd wilderness of humanness we may look at man in that huge universe, a world which can fill us with so many things are can let us feel so small.
For today’s writer
Thirst fills me
with a hunger
for small exquisites
which do not rend
the hearts of humans
nor our collective body.
Let me savor any common psalm
to goodness this world has made,
follow paths of ubiquitous light,
stay the cynic for a moment of wonder
so we may wield our will to spare its virtue. {Friday’s Passing Fancies/Poem: Goodness of this World}
Goodness of this World – Photo by Cynthia Guenther Richardson
The tenor of life may seem
to be thin, reedy, misaligned,
a shriek, a gasp amid muted din,
sudden ruptures in connection
that will not relay joy. Yet here
we remain, humans among all others,
with myriad moments and settings
for mystery and mindfulness
to release a sweep of harmony.
I say Peace, my soul, be well moved
and please may peace follow
you and you and more than you.
Are you one of those people who can find enough time and joy to visit parks or different countries?
Spring Beauties (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today there are many who can travel several times of the year and can go to lots of places in one year. Do they ever think of people who are less fortunate than they? Do they ever think of sharing that what they have come to see and enjoy?
We still look for authors who want to share their experiences of their travels and/or their visits of national parks or some beautiful resorts.
In case they have their own blog we do not mind them sharing what they have admired and directing our readers also to links to their articles, so that our readers also can come to enjoy those experiences.
If you feel called to talk about the beauties of this creation, please do not hesitate to contact us or to present yourself as a author on this blog.
The writer we are looking for should love nature and be willing to share this love with our readers.
In case he or she is a Christian, this may be an advantage. Then we expect from him or her, that he or she has respect for all religions and all sorts of thoughts, even when we would not agree with such a way of thinking. Then we expect the author to put everything in the light of the creation and our duty to take care of mother earth. Because that is the reason we do have to make others conscious about the beauty of creation and our duty to take care of it so that others after us can still enjoy all the wonders of it.
Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For us it is important that a Christian life should be a.o. exemplary, loving, selfless, generating, challenging, transforming, stimulating intellectually, busy, and bring a sense of emotional stability, meaning and peace. We want to show others that does not have to mean our life has to be boring. Just the opposite.
The Elohim having created us in His image expect us to use our minds the right way. The Adonai knows that our minds need intellectual stimulation, and provides many stimulative effects in nature. He has provided a beautiful world, full of all the things we need to live and to admire a spectacular attraction. We should experience the happiness that gives us not only the joy of being one with it but the blessing of being a person in God’s creation. In it we should place ourselves and become one with it. Showing our respect for nature is showing our respect for God. Showing others the wonderworks of nature is showing others the works of God.
Each creature should be a powerful source of inspiration that allows us to appreciate the beauty of our universe and associate the beautiful and romantic nature of beauty and feelings.
If there is some one out there who feels he can understand our thought and understands the need to show others the beauty of nature, please let him or her not hesitate and react positively on our call to become a member of those who want to show others the Master Hand of the Divine Creator.
Dear readers, for those who are new, we like to repeat our aims and about the idea behind our sharing.
Sharing Writings and linking
This website wants to bring an overview of interesting articles which were published on the worldwide internet and present some additional views on how we could come to a better world. Up until now we also wanted to bring additional literature in sight of our readers. For that reason we have, up until a few days ago, included several links into the articles, which opened automatically in a new window. But somehow WordPress changed the way to include url links and made it more difficult or time consuming, not allowing the enclosure feature to remember the previous used url codes and having each link to be separately indicated to open in a new window, instead of remembering it for all links on that page. This means we always have to look again for certain links and have to do much more work to include them. This makes writing our articles even more time consuming. For that reason we regret from a few days ago we did not include so many links any more and from today onwards you shall have to chose how to open the link. Until we do not find a solution to keep the fill in for the links remembering what we filled in previously, we shall have to limit such linking to tags and other articles than those of the particular website (in this instance From Guestwriter).
Secondly, we also received regularly complaints from people that we linked to their website or article and had to undo such links or write a letter first explaining why we included that link and asking what they wanted we did with it. Though most agreed then to have the link staying on the article, we had lost lots of energy writing back and controlling everything.
For that reason we are going to refer less to outside articles, but still use Zemanta for presenting some articles, but this time we are going to choose more those sites we do know and for other sites we are not always going to read them all, before placing the Zemanta link, and will withdraw them directly when a complaint or request for “why linking” is presented to us. (Simple as that.)
Now you know also why one or an other site shall be linked to more than others. Those who would also liked to be linked to, can always ask us to examine their website and to follow their writings, so that we can may have a choice out of their articles as well.
Authors sharing their writings
Concerning the writers on this platform, we still wait for more writers willing to share their ideas. Many who we have contacted wanted money to write or to help this site evolve.
We are very limited in funds and as such can not pay our staff. We also believe not everything has to be arranged by money. A money-free future is perhaps not possible, but lots of things could and should be done without money in the back of the head.
We still can do with people writing about the history of way of living, to show us how our lifestyle changed by the years of technological evolution. We also would love to find an author who want to talk about nature and show the world the beauty of it and/or can let our readers now what is important to look at at a certain moment in the year. (Parks to visit, special exhibitions, etc.)
A political and economical analyst is also welcome.
Because of our interest how human beings should try to make the best out of living with each other, we also could use some more writers who talk about keeping the family healthy, spiritually and health wise. Talks about marriage, brining up children are more than welcome.
Not everything for money
All That Money Wants (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We are convinced there are many benefits for not having everything in return for money. Most reasonable people will have no trouble accepting a money-free where people want to share with each other out of brotherly love. That will give better quality of life for all, less inequality, poverty, crime, greed, corruption, pollution and waste; greater health, education, trust, respect, awareness, sustainability, community values, technological advances, etc. Most people want these things, but are they convinced of the feasibility. How is a moneyless society possible?
I am convinced that there is a misconception about the need of money.
Imagining a world without money usually raises the following objections immediately, each of which is linked to a particular lifelong held belief (in brackets):
1. You need to have exchange (You can’t get something for nothing) 2. No-one would do anything (money motivates people) 3. People would take advantage (greed is human nature) 4. I will lose everything I have (fear of loss, ownership) 5. Chaos and violence would ensue (society requires control) 6. Society would stagnate or regress (markets fuel progress)
The good news is that all of these objections can be overturned quite easily using just plain common sense and basic observations.
Something for something or nothing for something
I do agree that most people want something for something else. For generations we people are brought up with that idea. Even worse, often people consider somebody not right in his head when he just wants to do something, not requiring anything in the place. Naturally we all need something to eat and we need a roof above our head, whilst we can not all have the same skill. Not everybody has enough competence to do the things he need. So we often are for many things dependent on others.
I am a believer in the Divine Creator and I am convinced He created all beings in His image and with the idea that all creatures are there for some good reason and to complement each other. Rabbi Jeshua, better known today as Jesus, reminded his listeners to look at the birds who have no money but manage to have their food and everything they need to live.
The master teacher and the prophets of God asked the people to look at nature where we can see what man came to call “symbiosys“. Everywhere in the creation of the Most High where man did not interfere there is balance. We can see that in nature two species benefit each other (the bee taking nectar while helping the plant to pollinate is the most obvious example), but there is no intentional transaction taking place. Both species are ignorant of the desires of the other. Some look at it as purely an accident of evolution that has caused both species to survive and flourish. In nature we can find many plants or animals which make use of each other, but not really demanding a return as such, and most of all not being repaid by something we can compare with money. We invented that idea of intentional exchanges as an essential ingredient to life or to community, to cope with scarcity in more primitive times, and with more complex needs.
Motivation by money not the best motivation
Serious Money (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The money / value system that we humans operate in has its origins in more primitive times, but which has now made us hell-bent on keeping score and accounting for everything in a numerical sense, and at the expense of common sense and sustainability. It is true that people are motivated by money, and that the communist system failed because of people being too egocentric and not willing to work together for a communal idea, building up a society where everybody could live on the same terms and being considered of equal value. We love to have a hierarchical system and I do agree somebody who is just lazy and does not want to co-operate in the system can not have the same advantages as somebody who works hard.
But like in nature those animals not having money, we as humans also do not nervelessly need a currency to provide payment, which proved not always to bring that luck hoped for.
We all have look at “Money” as a handy tool or a commodity accepted by general consent as a medium of economic exchange. In industrialized nations, portion of the national money supply, consisting of bank notes and government-issued paper money and coins, provides a value or currency. Everybody expects everything to be “prized” and expresses the value of things in currencies or in money. In the so called “third world” or among less developed societies, we can see that currency encompasses a wide diversity of items (e.g., livestock, stone carvings, tobacco) used as exchange media as well as signs of value or wealth.
Human motivators Better values
We should come to see and understand that there are much better values than money. Think about the many other human motivators:
the desire to love and be loved, to meet people, to have children, to help others, to improve ourselves and our surroundings, to look good, to feel good, to learn, to challenge ourselves, to express ourselves, to innovate, to demonstrate our skills, etc.
Every person alive is motivated by these desires to some degree. Because, after survival, these desires are what give our lives value and meaning.
Nature doesn’t keep score and why should we put everything in figures and balance it out to get even? Do you find it normal that people would seek exchange in their families or in their circles of friends? So why do we seek exchange in others? Among our loved ones, loving people shall tend to help each other out when they can and no-one will keep score.
Permitting exchanges between people having prices
Trying to get everything for yourself is not a natural instinct but a created attitude which can be transformed back to the innocent position we have a s a toddler. At the beginning of life the human being only asks and takes what it needs. Greed is not a basic element of human nature – it is even a deformed desire to stockpile something what the person may consider scarce and which he need to live, or a wrong attitude having come into the personality by the envy looking at others and comparing to others.
Like a squirrel collecting nuts, some may find greed makes good sense – because we don’t know what the future will bring. In a monetary world, the greatest scarcity is money itself, so it makes sense to accumulate it, and, since there is no upper limit to the money and property you can have, there’s no reason to stop accumulating it.
Map of the global distribution of economic and physical water scarcity as of 2006
Price systems may be considered the result of scarcity but for the first time in history, we have the technology to eradicate scarcity (or paucity) and to create an abundance of necessities for all humans on Earth with minimal physical effort. Primarily by coordinating the decisions of consumers, producers, and owners of productive resources people have taken refuge with their monetary system. Prices have become an acceptable expression of the consensus on the values of different things, and every society that permits exchanges between people has prices. Because prices are expressed in terms of a widely acceptable commodity, they permit a ready comparison of the comparative values of various commodities.
Machines to do the work of man
Normally we have enough technology to make work light for man. For lots of jobs the machines could do the work for man. What is going wrong today is that certain people, who do not do much work, can earn more than 300% than those who do the dirty work. And that is too much inequality. Such a difference should not exist. This way not having people being rightly paid according to what they do or which responsibility they take at a reasonable reward, prevents a nice way of living for everybody, as it intrinsically requires scarcity to perpetuate itself.
Ownership
Throughout history mankind has tried out several systems which all failed in a certain way. I as a Christian am convinced no human system can bring the right solution, but until the return of the Messiah we have to find ways to make life as smooth as possible and to have the creation in balance, not demanding too much of nature and not destroying so many things around us, which we have in loan and do not own. And there is the difficulty of it all, too many people think they “Own” and want to possess more. It is their fear of loosing what they “own” which makes them behave this way and often makes them blind for the way others (other humans, animals and plants) have to live.
The whole notion of ownership should be revised altogether.
We all need privacy and a certain amount of exclusivity, right?
Who wants to share their toothbrush, or have strangers walking around their home, for example?
Our normalised belief tells us that we define who uses what through something called ‘ownership’. Our laws define and protect ownership, with the threat of punishment to those who disobey (ie. stealing).
But where does this concept of ownership came from in the first place? Did we own nothing before someone wrote the law?
Given in loan
We think we own something and that the earth is ours. Believers in God do know that it is a gift from the Divine Creator and that we have received this earth in loan. It is not ours, it is God’s.
Growing up we make things our own. We create our personality. Growing up we collect certain things we consider our own. But we should know that once we die, the breath of life goes out of us, and we shall be nothing any-more with those treasures we collected. We can’t take those treasures with us in our grave, to an other life. It shall be of no purpose in our death. We shall just decay and become dust like many of those goods also shall become dust.
The point is that most things in the community belonged to no-one. Whatever items within the community that were not morally or logically entitled to anyone were used and shared by all.
So without ownership, what stops people from stealing? What actually stops people from stealing from each other is that it is anti-social, disrespectful and invasive, and people who do so are liable to become deeply unpopular. This social incentive for certain behaviour is far stronger than any rule could ever be, as it is dictated by how we feel about ourselves and our position in society. Yet we commonly mistake the rule of law as being the only thing that governs this behaviour.
Crimes, violence and Respect, privacy and exclusivity
Value for Money (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If we understand that respect, privacy and exclusivity are, in fact, already hard-wired into our social psyche – not dictated by external controlling forces – then we can begin to move beyond the traditional inefficient limits of ownership and with it, any fear of loss.
Throughout history we can see that it was the desire of power and the greed of certain people that brought misery to others. The last few moths I encountered many who said religion is the base of violence. When they would look closer at what really happened in history they would see that most criminal acts where done by non-religious people for political reasons and on second place or by people who used a religion as an excuse for their war of conquest. Today we see this by ISIS who present a similar war as the crusaders and do the same atrocities as the inquisitors a few centuries ago. Their killing had a duration of more than one century, whilst ISIS is only busy for a few years. Their terror is as abominable as the terror other terrorists bring. They bring fear and terror in the hope increasing their power. But most crime and violence is driven by desperation through lack of basic requirements for living, ie. theft, armed robbery, burglary, etc. and by having a low moral. Almost all other crimes can be seen as the secondary effects of poor upbringing. ie. where parents are poor, over-worked, unemployed, frustrated, depressed or disillusioned, etc. – all factors that can contribute to an unstable and unloving environment for children, who may later turn to crime as a result of low self esteem or maladjustment.
No incentive for crime
When you succeed into taking away the inequality and create a world where everyone will have free access to good food, housing, education and technology, it still won’t be perfect or eliminate all crime, but if everyone has a good quality of life and free access, then crime will have little or no incentive.
Driven by passion
In our commercialised society we are so used that everything is valued by a currency and money. The economists or entrepreneurs look at the system we are used to and cite economic incentive and competition as good for progress. Have you ever wondered with what they compared their luxurious system? Might it not be that because they start of with a false key that they come to false conclusions?
Are we really to believe that all innovators, inventors and artists will down tools the moment someone calls time on money? Obviously not, since we all know so many creative people that never achieve financial success, it shows us that they are not driven by money, but rather by their passions and desire to innovate.
Sharing people
I would love to call onto people to come to think about sharing more.
Often I do meet people who are very much afraid of a sharing system and think we can not do without money, though they themself use lots of tools without paying for them. We can find lots of people who are using Open Source Applications, which they take it for granted they can use them because everybody is using them. Often they do not see other large scale innovative projects which are becoming the optimum means of production without a monetary incentive.
Lots of people behind the screens try to invent things which can be used by others, and use themselves things others created. Lots of people do forget that many computer programs like Linux, Chrome and Android have been developed freely by enthusiasts in their spare time,. It ware those people who were willing to spend their precious free time to create something for the good of the whole community and not just for them selves or to gain lots of money. The computer industry has led the way on this, but of course, there is no reason why ‘open source thinking’ cannot be applied in agriculture, crafts, construction or education, etc.
Difficult to get people to share something which they consider of their own
The big problem we are facing today is that there has been created a generation of people who mainly think about themselves. Their ego comes on the first place and they look for gaining as much as they can for their own, often at the cost of others.
In the past the economical factor, being of wealthy parents of a having a privileged background was the creating facility for equanimity or for daring taking risks. Comfortable upbringing, access to good food and education, often provided the luxury of time – not labouring for their keep – but spending it on developing their ideas and skills instead. But we also find lots of creative minds who had no financial security, though created masterpieces.
Having money does not mean being smarter. If society can work better without money, then all potential young Einsteins and Mozarts will have the optimal opportunity to exercise and advance their talents.
If we create a society where talents are recognised and stimulated and people can receive equal opportunities, so much more can come off the ground.
Why not believing in a a moneyless future?
You can see that money does not bring that happiness many people hoped for. It is not a bad tool to be used in exchange for things, but we should not put all our hopes on it.
We should go back to the natives. We best dare to look at those living in the Amazon or other not yet by capitalism spoiled places. We too can learn from populations where money is not the key factor to order their way of living.
We should also come to understand that in our society we do have so many things we do not need or do not need any-more. Why not giving that stuff away that is filling your cupboards? If you have certain talents, why not sharing them with others and letting them also enjoy them?
In case a moneyless future seems something interesting to think about or when you like the idea, why not join “a movement of believers”?
Please have a look at the underneath brief introduction to the charter for a truly free world.
even, dense and old stand of beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) prepared to be regenerated (watch the young trees underneath the old ones) in the Brussels part of the Sonian Forest (Forêt de Soignes – Zoniënwoud) in Belgium (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For years already, I claim we should treat plants and animals as subjects but also as living beings created by the Divine Creator, who has given them for our use but not mis-use or maltreatment. I always claimed they too have feelings and ways of communicating. In the 1970ies I followed many scientists who tried to proof and did proof how plants also have feelings and communicate with each other.
Though at regular times people seem to be reminded of it. Because too often man forgets that he is not alone having feelings and able to communicate with others of their own sort properly.
It is long known to biologists that trees in the forest are social beings. They can count, learn and remember; nurse sick neighbours; warn each other of danger by sending electrical signals across a fungal network known as the “Wood Wide Web”; and, for reasons unknown, keep the ancient stumps of long-felled companions alive for centuries by feeding them a sugar solution through their roots.
The German Peter Wohlleben studied forestry and spent over twenty years as a civil servant in the forestry commission. For him trees are his life and for that reason he also gave up his job by the state forestry because he wanted to put his ideas of ecology into practice. He now runs an environmentally friendly municipal piece of woodland in the village of Huemmel, holds lectures and seminars and has written books on subjects pertaining to woodlands and nature protection so those interested can accompany him through the forests of his homeland and the whole world.
The Hidden Life of Trees describes how trees are like human families. We as human beings only think of ourselves being able to make a nice family, though many make a mess of it, and when watching Danish television series I even wonder if there are normal Danish people walking around in the North, who can have a normal family life. In the series we come to see they all seem to be unfaithful.
In nature we see better build ups. Tree parents living together with their children, communicating with them, and supporting them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warning each other of impending dangers. With their newfound understanding of the delightfully complex life of trees, readers will never be able to look at a walk.
The deep dark forest One of the tracks through Pantmaenog Forest. There are prehistoric tumuli marked on the map here but they are difficult to find among the dense conifers. The trees here were planted after Bellstone quarry closed in 1908 and some of the old quarry workings are also concealed by the forest: human beings making their mark on the landscape in a variety of ways. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Since it first topped best-seller lists last year, Mr. Wohlleben has been spending more time on the media trail and less on the forest variety, making the case for a popular reimagination of trees, which, he says, contemporary society tends to look at as “organic robots” designed to produce oxygen and wood.
Though duly impressed with Mr. Wohlleben’s ability to capture the public’s attention, some German biologists question his use of words, like “talk” rather than the more standard “communicate,” to describe what goes on between trees in the forest. But no matter how you want to call that communication we should come to understand that it is really communicating, no matter if you want to call it talking or something else.
It is also different with human beings who think they communicate and are on social media, thinking they have so many friends, but in reality do not have many friends nor comrades and do not really have any real communication going on between all those people. We did not mind to run around in that what God had created us and did not have to hide anything for others, always able to keep faithful to the one we loved and where we choose for. But to day they want to shine and glitter in fashion clothes but are fast to take those cloths of in the hidden to do things we would have found inappropriate when there was not a strong connection with each other. But to day they seem to change of girl like they change of underpants, and often there is not much conversation going on and lots of time it is just a one night stand with no further communication at all. They have become worse than animals. (Are am I looking at it too pessimistic?)
Whilst I do believe those trees have much more communication going on than their human counterparts who are not afraid to kill more and more of those air-cleaners, not seeing that they are polluting more and more their own environment, making it poorer and poorer. Even those Germans who are reputed to have a special relationship with the forest are a kind of a cliché and it can well be that those Germans do not love their forest more than Swedes or Norwegians or Finns.
When I lived and worked in Germany, for relaxation I went into the woods around Köln and went swimming in open air. Then I could encounter many like minded nature lovers who wanted to be one with it and, like me searched for ways to respect it and to make properly use of feeding us in a clean and appropriate way. No chemicals, no additives, all pure whole grain and pure natural food.
Young musicians living in a shared community in Amsterdam.
Though when I look at how enthusiast we where in the 1960–70ies and had so many dreams, being called ‘flower power‘ people, many not understanding our idea of sharing and love and making a collectivecommunity, kibbutz or commune, many of them have gone far away from their idealism and the last few months we see many things we fought for, being undone in a very short time.
Though might we see somewhere some light shining in the dark, perhaps getting back some younger ones again being interested in nature and how we should behave in it? Can it be that there are again seeds planted for people willing to reconsider our human behaviour in the big universe?
For sure it is high time that people are going to understand the need of forests and green spaces around our busy roads and living estates. Yesterday it was again on the news that in the Kempen 122 ha of woods has to be offered for sand-winning, as if it is nothing. Man also thinks it is alright to artificially space out trees, but forget that shall not give the same intensification as wooded areas. The plantation forests that make up most of West Europe’s woods ensure that trees get more sunlight and grow faster. But, naturalists say, creating too much space between trees can disconnect them from their networks, stymieing some of their inborn resilience mechanisms.
Intrigued, Mr. Wohlleben began investigating alternate approaches to forestry. Visiting a handful of private forests in Switzerland and Germany, he was impressed.
“They had really thick, old trees,”
he said.
“They treated their forest much more lovingly, and the wood they produced was more valuable. In one forest, they said, when they wanted to buy a car, they cut two trees. For us, at the time, two trees would buy you a pizza.”
But where are all those very thick trees gone, I wonder. In Belgium some years ago you could find also many places where you could enjoy the view of masterly or kingly majestic trees. The last two years , in the region where I live now (Leefdaal, Flemish Brabant), we have seen hundreds of trees being cut and not replaced.
Deep in the forest something stirred Go Ape, a series of aerial walkways, swings and zip slides in the forestry land north of Aberfoyle. Note – human beings included for a sense of scale. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Mr Wohlleben had also difficulties with the ministry of forestry but it turned out that Mr. Wohlleben had won over the forest’s municipal owners. 10 years ago, the municipality took a chance. It ended its contract with the state forestry administration, and hired Mr. Wohlleben directly. He brought in horses, eliminated insecticides and began experimenting with letting the woods grow wilder. Within two years, the forest went from loss to profit, in part by eliminating expensive machinery and chemicals.
We should enjoy those trees going to grow in all sorts of shapes, creating all sorts of designs in the air. When we look at ourselves, we should see that we also do not have a life going in straight lines. We also not all grow up straight. Why should trees have to grow up in those particular straight lines indicated by people in the office. The same as the right 25 cm cucumbers, the bananas with the drawn out moon shape, the tomatoes and apples which may not be too big or flat… everything should be according to the book and numbers indicated, … but life is not according the book of man … but should be according the Book of life …. with not everything exactly the same, and not always according to the books of man….
When is man going to see we should come back to being close to nature and to be part of nature again? And when is he going to understand we do need much more green around us … to have a colourful life full of health and joy?
In the early 1860s, Gregor Mendel developed the concept of the gene to help explain results obtained while crossbreeding strains of garden peas. He identified physical characteristics (phenotypes), such as plant height and seed color, that could be passed on, unchanged, from one generation to the next. The hereditary factor that predicted the phenotype was termed a “gene.” Mendel hypothesized that genes were inherited in pairs, one from the male and one from the female parent. Plants that bred true (homozygotes) had inherited identical genes from their parents, whereas plants that did not breed true (hybrids, or heterozygotes) inherited alternative copies of the genes (alleles) from one parent that were similar, but not identical, to those from the other parent. {Encyclopedia, topic Genes} When you know that we have about 140,000 genes which instruct the body’s cells to put amino acids in the right sequence in order to build proteins, you might wonder how this all was provided in the first instance.
One type of light therapy lamp for classic (winter-based) seasonal affective disorder
After the “Majestic darkness”, the “Mörketid,” or the time when the sun does not rise at all in northern Norway the Northern Europeans may see light coming up the horizon. For two months, only a gray-red twilight glow was visible for a few hours at noontime. Having 21.2 percent of Norwegians living beyond the polar circle suffering from Winterdepression they now may come back to life. Some looked for their therapeutic ‘sunlights’. The fresh light shall have the melatonin, a hormone produced in the brain, to increase again. They do know that an increasing number of tourists, however, are enticed to the polar circle by the flickering aurora, the glistening of the snow in the moonlight, and the cozy light of scattered villages. Also for them it are wonders of nature.
In Winter the social activities could have helped to keep people enjoying life. According to a Harvard University study, elderly people who participate in social activities, such as going to church, restaurants, sports events, and movies, live an average of two and a half years longer than less social people. It has long been assumed that it was the physical part of such activities that helped people, said Harvard’s Thomas Glass, who led the study. However, he added that this study provides
“perhaps the strongest circumstantial evidence we’ve had to date that having a meaningful purpose at the end of life lengthens life.”
Glass noted that doing more, regardless of the activity, extended life in almost every case.
With warmer weather awaited and the days becoming longer we should look forward to more outdoor activities which shall give us more fresh and hopefully better air. Though we do have to think seriously about preserving that fresh air and doing much more against the pollution.
TV watching may come in second to relax, after listening to music (according to a study of 2000), people should find more leisure in going to do outdoors leisure activities and socialising more. In this system of things throughout Europe more and more people are feeling pressed for time, reported in 1999 the German newspaperGießener Allgemeine. The same is true whether people are working outside the home, doing housework, or enjoying leisuretime.
“People sleep less, eat faster, and feel more rushed on the job than 40 years ago,”
says sociologist Manfred Garhammer, of Bamberg University.Part of that sleeping less is brought on by watching more television which is recently pushed more in the background by the youngsters who are spending lots of times on social media. Though they seem to accumulate lots of friends on them, they seem to be more lonely and prone depression than some years ago. We also hear of many more borderline personality disorders and eating disorders and broken families which do not help to have some good relations or making people happy.
The second decade of this century daily life continued to accelerate in all the European nations. You would think labour saving household devices and a reduction in hours at work would have brought about any “leisure society” or “time prosperity.” Instead, on average, time for meals has been reduced by 20 minutes and for a night’s rest by 40 minutes and people take less time to look at the beauties around them. The magic of nature, plants growing, animals going around, all seems to pass their eyes unnoticed.
In case they would give it more attention they not only would enjoy life much more but they also would come to see that all that vibrant exuberant activity is marvellously orchestrated and that there is a Master Brain behind it.
For years scientists warned politicians, but they would not listen and the citizens only thought of what was good for them at that moment, not interested to learn about the impact of their ecological and carbon footprint. No matter what happens nature shall show mankind that it is always stronger than the human being, which has to learn by falling and standing up again.
*
To remember
rainfall causes problems to roads, cars, and rail travel => Movement restricted
towns + surrounding areas plagued by floods this winter.
recollection of previous winters = cold mornings with frost covered lawns + a wind that slaps your face with a chilling sting
ground not prepared as no drainage is available + waterways are not viable
foliage not resting as trees + flora remain green > earth rest less
environmental change on animal life > effects of stress, lack of sleep + tiredness
My town and its surrounding areas have been plagued by floods this winter. Movement from town to town is restricted as rainfall causes problems to roads, cars, and rail travel. It seems to be raining for a season. My recollection of previous winters has been cold mornings with frost covered lawns and a wind that slaps your face with a chilling sting. If wet, lingering rain and floods are to be our depths of winter then we are certainly not prepared. The ground is not prepared as no drainage is available and waterways are not viable. The foliage is not resting as trees and flora remain green. I wonder what fauna make of all this weather? What effect is this environmental change having on the animal life?
In our current ways of living we know the effects of stress, lack of sleep and tiredness. Will the earth rest less, will wildlife struggle to maintain…
“constantly striving to develop lives of meaning without any outside recourse. The soul is increasingly insulated from the world outside our heads.” {Against Kant and Consumerism}
but today lots of people strive to enrich themselves with material wealth and consider their live worthwhile when they can be more wealthier and better showing off than others. Lots of people think they miss enough money or enough gadgets to enjoy fully life. For many everything seems to turn around the gathering of as much money as possible.
Lots of people do not look for the depth of meaning of life and are not so much interested in the others around them and the influence or necessity of them for them.
The American Conservative in the May/June 2015 article speaks about Matthew Crawford his books “Shop Class As Soul Craft” plus “The World Beyond Your Head” and looks at ‘the subtitle to his latest book which promises a look at our “age of distraction“.
The article says:
The premise of Crawford’s book is that our distractedness is merely symptomatic of a deeper cultural defect, a misrepresentation of the self that has permeated our society. He traces this back to Enlightenment philosophy, especially the thought of Immanuel Kant. Enlightenment thinkers of the late 17th and 18th centuries presented a view of the person that contrasted drastically with medieval and ancient thought: they put unprecedented emphasis on the rational individual as separate from society or community. They posited new theories about freedom founded upon reason and self-determination, with epistemological roots in ideas such as Descartes’s famous claim that “I think therefore I am.” Kant believed that knowledge and ethics must necessarily be situated within the mind—that existence must be interpreted through the autonomy of the individual.
The writer thinks
The soul is increasingly insulated from the world outside our heads.
Whereas in the real world, Crawford writes,
“we are subject to the heteronomy of things; the hazards of material reality,”
and continues
what Kant has given us is our modern identification of freedom with choice, in which choice is a “pure flashing forth” of the individual will.
that identification of freedom with choice has been there already from the period of the beginning in the Garden of Eden. Man had the choice either to follow his Creator His Will or to go his own way. Man choose the latter.
Thousand of years later, many think the world around them limits them and nature is to block their leg.
dumb nature is understood to be threatening to our freedom as rational beings, it becomes attractive to construct a virtual reality that will be less so, a benignly nice [reality] where there is no conflict between self and world
How many people do not want to be on their own and have the world turning around themselves. For many it is most important that everything turns around their own “I” so that they can say with proud: “I am“.
The associate editor of The American Conservative Gracy Olmstead writes:
Consumer culture tries to destroy the discomforts and imperfections that are necessarily part of life.
Is not there one of the greatest problems of our present society, which has put most of its hopes on the material things it can require to make its own. It is not that they want to hoard things, but they love to gather all the newest things so that they can show off against others who have to do with older things.
Though the writer of the article finds that modern cars are designed in an insulating and distracting way, we more see them as copies of each other not having any more the specific personality or difference as the cars had in the 1950ies, when each car looked so specific and really could get its fans for one or another model and each model with its own flashy personal colours. to us it looks like that car owners lost the interest to have a car or any other object (clothes, houses) that look very personal and have their won story to tell. People do want all the same and are willing to cue for the latest gadget. Everybody else has to be able to see that they have this or that brand and can afford this or that mobile or i-pad, which has to be of the latest and newest ‘invention’.
Concerning the cars we could agree with the idea the critic has
Everything within a car is constructed to give a sense of isolation and ease.
When the author would mean that the person who is driving the car would like to have the feeling to being his own world, having his own little world where nobody else around is being part of it. When the music can play loud it does not matter that others can hear it in their bathroom or are whipped out of bed. It is there music and everybody else should have to hear that is the best music to listen to.
Naturally the cultivation of “me-worlds” extends beyond auto-mobile design, but form men this might still be the thing to make their ‘me’, though the i-pad has taken a lot of that place.
Olmstead finds that Crawford spends a good deal of the book arguing that an Enlightenment approach to epistemology leads to narcissism: an understanding of the world that revolves entirely around the self and writes
The narcissist “treats objects as props” and struggles to comprehend them as objects with a reality of their own. The fantasy of autonomy, when full-grown, results in a “project of open-ended, ultimately groundless self-making.” {Against Kant and Consumerism}
Interestingly, Crawford identifies our treatment of others as the root of online narcissism in the age of Facebook:
“We increasingly deal with others through representations of them that we have,” he writes. “This results in interactions that are more contained, less open-ended, than a face-to-face encounter or a telephone call, giving us more control.”
Automobiles, the reviewer says
“can foster circumspection—literally, looking around for others and regarding oneself as an object for others in turn—or a collection of atomized me-worlds.” Our experience becomes ever more “mediated by representations, which remove us from whatever situation we inhabit directly, as embodied beings who do things.”
Throughout the ages the world has received its many distractions. The tools may have changed but the aim and way has stayed the same. Today “virtual reality” allows many to find back lost friends or schoolmates and gives the opportunity to interact with more, and more diverse, people, not fewer and not more homogeneous.
For American society to emerge from the distractions of consumer culture and virtual existence
Ms Olmstead finds
we must look beyond the symptoms and consider the disease: the shroud of individualism that prevents us from fully embracing the real world.
The individuals looking for themselves to acquire as much material wealth as possible have to come to see that they would be better to work at their social contacts spending more time to be with each other in real life than in chat sessions, never going deep in a conversation. For sure we we must
cultivate an awareness of—and love for—the world beyond ourselves.
After World War II we did not have so much at school and had to sit with three on one bench having just one book for three pupils. We never felt it as something missing. Though the Germans had first confiscated many assets of my family and the allied forces stolen and destroyed lots of things in the family houses, because the Germans had made their quarters in it, I had not to complain about shortage in my parentshouse. I had the blessing to be brought up in a wealthy family.
In our house we had no lack of material things, but our parents learned us to share and to respect all the personal in the house who took care of us, the maids, matrons, teachers, cooks, gardener and labourers. Though I do agree we were made clear of the difference of class and if we made friends they had first to be approved of by the pater familias, the father and boss in the house. We were brought up and formed by ideas of class systems, knowing very well the difference between the propertied, the underclasses or lower classes and higher classes. I, myself left the path of family tradition and went a total different way, with the consequences of seeing black snow at certain moments and having to work hard and long hours to make a decent living. With no regret, because I still would choose for the profession I have enjoyed a lot.
From a lot, I came in a big less … but I did not loose much. In a certain way I think I have gained a lot. The only thing I regret most is that I still can not afford to buy our very good own family wines and I dare not to visit the castles of some cousins. But what I can see, that many families have gone far away from their previous positions of the 19th and 20th century. The 21st century has brought a lot less for most of them.
Noticeable is that we can see a lot of new rich, who have a total different mentality than my grand-grand parents, grand parents and parents. Today we also find a nivelation from the categories who were divided in the golden sixties, noticing the rich from then more ‘poverised’ and not able any more to have so much personal to keep the house(s) and ground(s). But the previous rich and great families had ethics and rules of living which by the present new rich seem to be not known.
By the young we see a lot of youngsters who love to have a lot and best all the newest things, because something having of an older version is not cool and just not done. Many eyes today are on what is presented by the glossy magazines and by the television and computer screens.
Amish couple shopping in Aylmer, Ontario, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lots of parents feel a pressure by the media giving them a bad feeling if they not provide enough for their kids. Many parents seem to get not only a bad feeling, but a guilty feeling. It is like their kids would be missing something & would look back at it as a sad memory. Many parents have fallen in the trap of commercialism and are going for spending a ton on things they not necessarily need and worse also on ‘things that don’t matter’ like ‘goodie bags’ people always forget to take.
Would it not be better if more people would come back to their senses and consider only buying those things they necessary need and those things that really can improve their quality of life? It is good to see that there are more people who want to shift their focus and who want a simpler life.
We should be much more aware of our own impact on our environment. We also should take up our own responsibility for the protection of our own environment and for the future of our next generations. When we commit to living a simpler life, we can commit ourselves to get rid of, stop doing, and not including things that don’t bring us happiness, have a meaning in our lives, or does something positive for us. By doing so you will find out that you also shall get rid of the distractions, the noise, & the clutter in your life.
But do know simple living isn’t only about material things. As I started of, remembering the stories which filled our life, traditions which formed us, it was all about a life style of the mind, a feeling which made us to take on the required attitude. We as children had to behave decently and live according to family laws. They ordered life. And this ordering seems to be gone, because there are no laws or rules which are respected and kept by people. Most people have no religion guiding them and the laic or secular conventions have thrown over board the ethics of good and right living. Though the good living and respectful living is a frame of mind, a train of thought that requires us to examine our lives on a daily basis and eliminate things that aren’t working for us physically, mentally, & spiritually.
We should not be afraid to do shortage on our children. It is wrong to think you do short by not giving in on the new trend or new ‘revelation of the season’. The market wants us to buy everything it can offer. The managers do want our money spend on utilities but also on things we do not really need. Our world has become build on sandcastles. The danger is that the dream and soap-bell are going to burst, not so far in future.
The youngsters today got chained by their i-phones, i-pads, beatiful cars which can ride much faster than is allowed, think they have much choice in the shops and eating places, but have no eye for the real quality of the goods. They became blinded by and for many things.
It is up to their parents, grand parents and their real friends to open their eyes again and to bring them to understand that we are better only to buy those things which were made by people who were fairly paid and were no damage was done to either animal, plant, man or the environment (water and air). We all should come to respect nature much more and should also to come to respect those who make all those things. what I notice today, is that there is no respect at all any more for those who do the dirty work. And that is where our society has gone wrong.
They all were envying the place of some in our society, who had grounds and houses and who gave work at people. They all nurtured people in government to enrich themselves. Now we are facing greedy governments which charge taxes, which make labour to expensive and contribute to less people at work and less people able to make themselves a proper living. The greed of some made the economical world to collapse. And the protective hands of those in parliament, made that it even could happen that those who mocked up the system got bonuses. And nobody seem to have cared, because they were all so busy with themselves only looking at themselves, only concerned about themselves.
The egoism with the want for more has taken mankind and made them to shut their eyes for realism and for the truth of natural laws and ecological matters. As such they all started to poison themselves (literally). The more is giving them less in the end.
Whilst the world should know that there are better options. We do not have to go to find our food miles and miles away from where we live. We do not have to find cheap labour to soothe our mind not having slaves working for us. We do not need slaves and we do not need to be independent on other continents. If we really take care we can provide enough for each of us in our own environment, not damaging our and others their environment.
We can see a lot of literal and figurative bulimia. It is time that we come to consume less and take at heart:
Having spoken about truth and confusion, the chaos many people make of their faith life because they want to follow human doctrines instead of Biblical words. Often lots of people do not come to see the Truth because they dare not take distance of those man made doctrines like a Their life also comes in a stream of troubled waters because they encounter so many confusing things. Though if they would step out in nature and see what is around them, feel nature, they shall come to feel God the Divine Creator in it. In that beautiful nature God comes to us and reaches His Hand. We only have to take it and trust Him to carry along the paths of life. It is Him Who gives us the many opportunities in life. Him we should thank.
Each day we should give ourself permission to breath for ourselves and to meditate on the works of the Creator.
The antidote for confusion is perspective. Often times I come “here” with shoulders weighted down and burdened by the many obstacles I currently am facing yet only to leave seeing no longer obstacles but rather opportunities. Give yourself permission each day to breathe. Life is better this way.
Lifestyle and Readers Digest Magazine founded by Marcus Ampe on the 26th of March 2014
Welcome
New to this site. You may like to read this first
If this is your first time you visit us, you might like to know about our aims and intentions.
This site does not want to be a specific religious site, though now and then religious articles may be presented. The main interest on this site is about worldly matters, social affairs and the behaviour of human beings in this universe.
Our aim is to bring first articles about our responsibility in the progress of human relations and peace involvement.
Please find to read about our aims and aspirations:
Messengers of Peace and Positivism – Boodschappers van Vrede en Positivisme
We belong to the Bloggers for Peace and you can join them too. (Click on the picture to know more and to connect.)
Club members their own blog-writings – Clubleden hun eigen persoonlijke blogs
Articles by Guestwriters members – Artikelen bij Gastschrijvers leden
Most club members "From guestwriters" do not have their own blog, but shall write under their own name as "Guestspeaker" on the Lifestyle magazine Stepping Toes.
Those who do have their own website can be looked at underneath:
Please do find those independent authors their recent postings on their own website:
Van de schrijvers die een eigen blog hebben kan u op hun site als laatste artikels vinden:
Recent Posts on the other Lifestyle Magazine: Stepping Toes
Op“Biblespace- Uw Bijbelstudie – Uw Redding” wordt er helemaal geen plaats gelaten om over te gaan tot ernstige Bijbelstudie, doordat enkel stellingen geponeerd worden waarbij lezers niet kunnen op reageren. (Op 23 juni 2017 is er op die website namelijk geen reactie mogelijk bij de artikelen.) Zo kan men wel verwensingen of negatieve kritiek vinden […]
In Genesis 28:3 komen wij het woord lhq qahal tegen dat de Naardense Bijbel vertaald als een “vergadering van volkeren”. “God de Almachtige zal je zegenen, hij zal je vruchtbaar en talrijk maken; worden zul je tot een vergadering van volkeren!(-)” (Genesis 28:3 NB) “God, de Ontzagwekkende, moge je zegenen, je vruchtbaar maken en je […]
First, because many things in the Scriptures are attributed to the Holy Spirit that cannot apply to a divine person. And many of them cannot apply to any person at all. Some examples are that the Holy Spirit is given by God (Acts 5:32; 1 Jn 4:13) either according to measure or without measure (Eph […]
In the 1960ies we often heard it said that God was dead. Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, was appointed pastor at Röcken by order of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, after whom Friedrich Nietzsche was named. Before Friedrich Nietzsche’s fifth birthday his father died in 1849. He was left to live in a household consisting of […]
Tragically, the simple words “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8) have been grossly misunderstood as meaning that Christ died instead of us. There are a number of connections between Romans 5 and 1 Cor. 15 (e.g. v. 12 = 1 Cor. 15:21; v. 17 = 1 Cor. 15:22). “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8) is […]
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:17) The Apostle Paul in this verse tells us that no one can believe unless they hear. In the same context, he also says that no one can hear unless “a preacher” is “sent.” (vss. 14,15) Thus, without question the “sent preacher” is […]
Documents of the Christian Church 2nd Ed 1963 Henery Bettenson (quotes from Arius and his followers) “If, said he, the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence; hence it is clear that there was a [a time] when the son was not.” “The Son of God is from what […]
Many who believe in the trinity are surprised to learn that the idea of divine beings existing as trinities or triads long predated Christianity. Yet the evidence is abundantly documented. So let us have a look at some of the evidence. Marie Sinclair, Countess of Caithness, in her 1876 book Old Truths in a New […]
Originally posted on malakhahavah: Steeds meer profileert Maarten Boudry zich als de Richard Dawkins van de lage landen, waarmee ik hem niet wil complementeren met zijn intellect, dat wil ik in het midden laten, maar wel wil bekritiseren op zijn dogmatische houding als atheïstische evangelist tegenover religie. Maarten Boudry zal in het collectieve geheugen van…
Thoughts by and a Look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Marcus Ampe's Space
Originally posted on Turkey File: You’d have to love your president! Saturday, 15 July, was the first anniversary of a failed attempt by some officers in the Turkish armed forces to overthrow the country’s democratically elected AK Party government. The government has planned a week of meetings and other activities to commemorate the courage of…
The last months we have seen that even by papers which had nothing against Erdoğan had also people arrested as being considered a danger for the “Islamic nation Turkey“. In that country many may have looked forward to see the the 105th Caliph rise above the stars of Europe and America. Mixed with cultural and […]
The previous months I have been very busy writing (under different names) religious articles for other websites and working on a glossary (of Jewish terms) which had normally to be published in April (but because I had not finished it yet, being postponed until later) plus working at the same time on a translation of […]
2016 seemed to be the year lots of people thought it had become really time to leave this place like it was, them not having to worry about it any-more. Alida Victoria Grubba Rudge, 113, became Brazilian supercentenarian, nation’s oldest person. Nola Ochs, 105, American centenarian, became the world’s oldest college graduate. Guyanese novelist (To […]
Merkel‘s popularity had suffered in 2016, following a rash of sexual assaults in the western city of Cologne on New Year‘s Eve blamed mainly on Arab and North African men. Going from 2015 into 2016 in some German cities brought out the animal by several Muslim youngsters. More than 600 women claimed to have been […]
2016 year of dissonance, despair, where all certainties were brushed away When Israeli commandos in 2010 intercepted a flotilla of ships seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Hamas in the Gaza Strip a diplomatic rupture broke several contacts in the world. There was a six-year-long deep freeze in relations between Turkey and Israel which this […]
Wanting to write on what happened in 2016 I noticed I have forgotten to publish some articles I wrote this year. The time went credibly fast when our thoughts had to go to so many people in trouble, having to face so many horrible moments. Some may call this the most horrible year of their […]
“1 god blessed Noach and his sons and said to them, “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. 2 the fear and dread of you will be upon every wild animal, every bird in the air, every creature populating the ground, and all the fish in the sea; they have been handed over to […]
“13 by the first day of the first month of the 601st year the water had dried up from off the earth; so Noach removed the covering of the ark and looked; and, yes, the surface of the ground was dry. 14 it was on the twenty-seventh day of the second month that […]
“1 god remembered Noach, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so god caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down. 2 also the fountains of the deep and the windows of the sky were stopped, the rain from the sky was […]
“1 {ii} \@ADONAI\@ said to Noach, “come into the ark, you and all your household; for I have seen that you alone in this generation are righteous before me. 2 of every clean animal you are to take seven couples, and of the animals that are not clean, one couple; 3 also of the […]
Addendum 2: eeuwig branden in de hel? Lezers die de gelijkenissen, die wij geciteerd hebben, hebben opgezocht zullen hebben bemerkt dat in veel gevallen het ‘ondeugdelijke’ wordt verbrand. In Matt. 13 gebeurt dat met het onkruid uit de akker en in de toepassing van het ondeugdelijke uit het sleepnet; in Matt. 25 wordt dat aangekondigd […]
Addendum 1: is er een ‘tweede kans’? Sommigen, verontrust over het feit dat het oordeel definitief is, hebben de theorie ontwikkeld dat zij die daarbij afgewezen worden een nieuwe kans krijgen om eeuwig leven te ‘verdienen’. Hoe bijbels is nu zo’n idee? Wel, het heeft alles te maken met de opvatting dat het doel van […]
Bruikbaar of ondeugdelijk In de serie van zeven gelijkenissen over het Koninkrijk in Matt. 13 zijn er twee die spreken over wat er zal gebeuren bij het oordeel. Dat is de gelijkenis over het onkruid tussen de tarwe en de gelijkenis over het sleepnet. De eerste gaat over een veld met tarwe, waartussen onkruid mee […]
Inleiding: Aangenomen en verworpenen Jezus heeft in zijn leer veel te vertellen over het oordeel dat bij zijn terugkomst zal beslissen over de vraag wie aangenomen zullen worden en wie verworpen. Het criterium daarbij is wie de leerschool van het leven zodanig heeft doorlopen dat hij een bruikbaar dienaar is geworden. Niet onze leerstellingen of […]
Addendum 3: Een soeverein God Het leven is in de Bijbel een geschenk van God dat Hij ook weer kan wegnemen. Door zijn overtreding van het gebod heeft de mens zijn recht op eeuwig leven verspeeld, en dus trekt God zijn gave terug. Maar Hij kan, in zijn genade, dat leven opnieuw schenken aan wie […]
Jewish and Christian literature since the time of Yeshua or Jeshua have pointed to Genesis 3:15 as the first reference to the Messiah in the Torah. Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his […]
The first human beings had chosen to go their own path. As any good father would do when his children had done something wrong, God punished them. But as a loving Father He in His great mercy promised for a solution and preserved David’s bloodline and the Messianic promise. Mankind had chosen Yet, we each […]
Do you know where in the Bible we find God‘s first promise to send the Messiah? The answer is foundational to our faith because within this first Messianic Prophecy mentioned in the Bible lies our fate of eternal separation from God. Too many christians limit the Bible to the second main part, the Messianic Writings, […]
The Divine Creator of heaven and earth wished not to leave the ones sent out of the Garden of Eden on their own. Though Adam and Eve rebelled against God, Him having expelled them, the Elohim was willing to stay close to them and to help there where He could or where it was appropriate […]
Those people coming from the first man and woman in a certain way got infected by the wrong choice these people made. God gave a free will to the human beings He created. He did not want them to go wrong or to have it bad, but because they objected to His ruling or His […]
Recent Posts: Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
Matthew 6:14-18 c) Forgiveness and neighbor love MT6:14 “For, if you forgive the missteps of others[1] your heavenly Father will forgive yours.[2] MT6:15 But, if you do not forgive the missteps[3] of others neither will the Father forgive your missteps. MT6:16 But, when you fast[4] do not be gloomy hypocrites[5] with distorted faces to make […]
(#Mt 6:5-13) b) Prayer and neighbor love || Luke 11:2-4 MT6:5 “And, when you pray, be not as the hypocrites. For they like to pray standing in religious gatherings and in town squares to be viewed by others.[1] I tell you the truth: They have their full reward! MT6:6 But, you, when you pray, enter […]
Gospel by Matthew Chapter six: Love and money Matthew 6:1-34 – The Nazarene’s Commentary on Leviticus 19:18 Continued a) Charity and neighbor love MT6:1 “But, listen to this:[1] Do not exhibit your ‘righteousness’[2] before men to be observed by them[3] or you will have no reward[4] from your heavenly Father. MT6:2 So, when you give […]
Matthew 5:43-47 – 6. The Nazarene’s Commentary on Leviticus 19:18 MT5:43 “You heard it said: ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’[1] [Leviticus 19:18] MT5:44 But, I tell you: Love your enemies[2] and pray for your persecutors. MT5:45 And so prove to be Sons of your Heavenly Father.[3] For His sun rises upon the wicked […]
Matthew 5:38-42 – 5. The Nazarene’s Commentary on Exodus 21:24 MT5:38 “You heard it said: ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’[1] [Exodus 21:24] MT5:39 But, I tell you: Do not resist[2] wicked authority. But, whoever slaps your right cheek,[3] turn to him the other. MT5:40 And, the one with a legal settlement against you […]
Recent Posts by bible Scholars: Bijbelvorser = Bible Researcher
Kan het losgeld duidelijker worden beschreven dan het hier is gedaan? Adam, bekroond met de glorie van de perfecte mensheid, een beetje lager dan de engelen en met de eer om heerser te zijn over de werken van Gods handen, die alles verliest door de zonde, en zijn nageslacht deelt het verlies. De uit de […]
De Overeenkomstige prijs Goddelijke Rechtvaardigheid vereist de straf voor ongehoorzaamheid, en kan de schuldigen niet opruimen. Wij moeten weten dat de Allerhoogste Schepper van hemel en aarde een barmhartige, meedogende en ontfermende God is die lankmoedig is of Zich niet snel boos maakt, en met vertoon van veel geduld, groot in goedertierendheid en trouw is. […]
Sommigen hebben moeite gevonden om te begrijpen hoe Adam stierf op de dag dat hij van de verboden fruit at. Hij stierf niet binnen vierentwintig uur van zijn zonde, want we lezen in Gen. 5: 5, “En al de dagen die Adam leefde waren negenhonderd en dertig jaar; En hij stierf. ‘ Deze moeilijkheid is […]
Geen implicatie van eeuwige pijn als de bedreigde straf voor ongehoorzaamheid Toen Adam en Eva in de tuin werden geplaatst, die God ten oosten in Eden had geplant, waren ze perfect van hun soort; “Heel goed” was het woord hoe ze omschreven werden. (Gen. 2: 8; 1: 31). Het landgoed van de mens is niet […]
Door de misstap of verkeerd gaan van de eerste man en vrouw (Adam en Eva) kwam de mens onder de straf van de dood te staan. Het verlangen om de gelijke aan God te zijn is iets wat de gehele mensheid heeft blijven lastig vallen of tot verleiding brengen. Noch steeds zijn er mensen die […]
When wondered about a godhead and having come to the conclusion that there must be a Divine Creator or Supreme Being that surpasses all human and animal beings, we may question if it is possible for us to have a relationship with that Higher Being. What does it take to begin a relationship with God? […]
In March 2016 we created on Weebly a website to talk about man’s relationship with God. After we had done all the placing of pages and came to the contact form and placing of a Gravatar for the replies, we were brought to WordPress where we not only could choose a Gravatar but also got […]
Throughout history of mankind there have many groups of people who worshipped a triple deity (sometimes referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune or triadic, or as a trinity). Those people who worshipped such tri-une god all claim they only worship one deity. Such deities that are worshipped as one are common throughout world mythology; the number three has a long history of mythical associations. Carl Jung considered the arrangement of deities into triplets an archetype in the history of religion. But the God of the Bible is clear about Which God has to be worshipped, not a more headed, be it an eightfold, three-une or bi-one god, but only the God of Abraham, Which is only One God of gods.
Find out in this article and its links how Jews, Christians and Muslims may have been influenced by the pagan gods and false teachings and how they have to separate them from such pagan teachings.
You may wonder if there really exist a God. You have all reason to question His existence and to check if you are feeling right or thinking the right way. We are even requested to examine our own faith. It is important to know what you want to believe, what you want to take for […]
Though being the most reprinted and most translated book many people doubt the authority of that bestseller of all times. Not all people are convinced it has something to say for them. Even lots of Christians never took the time to read the Bible from A to Z. Lots of people do think it is […]
Recent Posts by: Immanuel Verbondskind - עמנואל קאָווענאַנט קינד
After the wrong choice and action of the first human beings the elohim had no other choice than to bring over man the curse He had warned them for. But out of love for His creatures He also provided straight away a solution against the curse of death and gave man a second chance.
In the second and third chapter of the Bereshith (the book of the beginning) we find that God, Who had made man in His image, brought a helper for the ish or man so that they could live together in a bond of union, related to the other living beings and to the Most High Elohim, in a state we now call marriage.
About the origin or source of evil there are many discussions. In this article I look at the time where badness entered in the world of man and where we have to look for the source of evil or badness.
Nature and everything in it was in a perfect natural peaceful balance. By the wrong choice made by the first human beings there came a crack in perfection and in the relationship between the Creator and other creatures.
Man knew that The Word of God brought life and order and got their mind wondering if they could not become as wise and mighty as God. The inner voice of man or the nachash is of self-esteem and brings deception when allowing oneself to be carried away by the temptation, falling into trickery, treachery,and insincerity.
When listening to certain Christians we only can have the impression they do not understand the Hebrew way of talking and do not see how often idioms, parables and allegory are used. Too often they take words as names and texts literally when they are not meant as such.
After having looked at Adam we cannot pass his helper Eve. It was she who brought the man to follow her idea and to ignore God’s Wish not to eat from the Tree of moral, with as consequence that they got knowledge of good and evil and came to learn pain and death.
In this 4th part looking at the way we should see at the accounts of the Genesis we see how words can be taken in their grammatical sense, and how some things are to be seen not in the literal sense.
Study of geology over some centuries now has shown evidence of a succession of different eras represented by layers of rock giving evidence of the development of the earth over millions of years.
Religion and science may impinge on each other, and for this reason ‘creation’ is for some believers an emotive, not to say disturbing, subject. For some, Darwin and evolution have discredited Genesis and over the last century in the English-speaking world believers unwilling to ignore the facts of geology have had the problem of offering some explanation of what the Bible teaches on this subject.
The problem has been aggravated in some circles by an unwritten taboo on open discussion of the subject. The truth of the Bible, it has been said, can be accepted without getting bogged down in current scientific opinions.
In our review of the Biblical story we look in this article at the second account of the beginning of everything.
When having many questions an interesting blog to look at their old and more recent Posts: Questiontime - Vragenuurtje
Veel mensen, met name de Engels sprekenden, vergeten dat er in verschillende talen “Allah” als woord gebruikt wordt voor Dé God, alsook voor andere goden of een god aan te duiden. Soms lijkt het wel of Engelstaligen willen dat iedereen de Engelse tittels en namen gebruikt. Oorspronkelijk een Arabisch woord zijnde dat werd overgenomen in […]
The Divine Creator Allah the Exalted in might provides information about the total encompassing nature of His divine decree and pre-ordainment, “No calamity befalls on the earth or in yourselves” and this is comprehensive of the encompassing nature of the calamities which afflict creation, whether of good or evil, that all of them are written […]
De Goddelijke Schepper Allah de Almachtige geeft informatie over de totale allesomvattend aard van Zijn goddelijke decreet en pre-ordinatie, “Er gebeurt geen ongeluk op aarde of in uzelf” en dit is uitgebreid van de allesomvattende aard van de rampen die de schepping teisteren, of het nu goed of kwaad is, dat ze allemaal zijn geschreven […]
Continuing on my 2nd and 3rd question and my article on From Guestwriters and on “Looking for answers on the question Is there a God” in case we do have to assume there is a god or gods we should wonder what or whom that god or gods may be.
Voortbordurend op mijn 2e en 3e vraag en mijn artikel op From Guestwriters en ‘Op zoek naar antwoorden op de vraag “Is er een God” ‘ voor het geval dat we moeten aannemen dat er een god of goden zijn we ons zullen moeten afvragen wat of wie zulk een god of goden wel mogen zijn.
I am still learning to love the parts of me that no one claps for. (Rudy Francisco) I was listening to myself speak lately and I realised that I was carrying a lot of unspoken stress. The emotions that I felt caught me completely off guard and I wondered why I allowed my environment […]
I used to feel uncomfortable when people asked me why I am estranged from my family. It is difficult to explain a life-long struggle in a few sentences. How do you describe the rejection and the hurt? How do you share openly without being judged? People with strong relational families find it hard to understand. […]
It looks like the WordPress site URL is incorrectly configured. Please check it in your widget settings.
“This year many people will rise from where they are to greater heights. That will not be the result of good luck as some people may think. In a majority of cases, it will be the result of hard work, faith, courage and relentless effort. That is what brings success; and the choice is theirs. […]
Facebook Pages
When you have a Facebook account, you may also connect to following Facebook Pages ("Like" them), to get updates of newly published articles.
+
Wanneer u een Facebook Account hebt kan u de volgende Pagina's ook "Leuk" vinden en aangeven dat u berichtgevingen wenst te ontvangen zodat u steeds op de hoogte wordt gehouden van nieuwe publicaties.
Photos by Cynthia Guenther Richardson 
Though when I look at how enthusiast we where in the 
In our current ways of living we know the effects of stress, lack of sleep and tiredness. Will the earth rest less, will wildlife struggle to maintain…
alsowritten
Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
Bijbelvorsers
Christadelphians
Guestspeaker
Immanuel Verbondskind
Vragensteller - Inquirer
lizaborstlap
Marcus Ampe
Success Inspirers' World
Relating to God
