the year has taken
much, and left
us hollow.
we count sorrows
on both hands and watch
the cold doors close. i suppose
of all these wayward things,
i miss my
-self the most.
i search the sky for rain
and other groovy ghosts.
It’s Quadrille Monday over at dVerse and I’m hosting. Come play!
Filed under Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs
In these times of insecurity, we can see that lots of people are not sure about themselves and get lost.
Insecurity, primarily due to social and economic instability, but also exacerbated by a weakening of the perception of ethical principles makes man feeling very bad these days.
The perception of ethical principles that underpin the law and personal moral attitudes, which always give strength to the rules that govern society, have so much weakened or moral and ethical values have been placed in the cupboard and are way forgotten.
People should know even when churches may be closed, it are those institutions which can bring some light in the darkness. Modern thought has developed a reductive view of conscience, according to which there are no objective references in determining what has value and what is true; rather, each individual provides his own measure through his own intuitions and experiences, each possesses his own truth and his own morals. When each individual has and keeps to his or her own morals we shall come to see chaos.
People have forgotten that the Creator has provided a Guide for life. Whatever the situation may be, man should be able to find answers to his questions and find solutions for the crisis encountered. All those who feel depressed, feeling down by the present Corona situation, should know that when everybody would keep to the regulations prescribed by the government everybody would soon find it much easier to cope because it would not take such a long time as it has taken now.
Because there are so many people who do not know the Scriptures or have forgotten or abandoned the Gospel announcement, they no longer identify themselves in a community of brothers and sisters where agape love is the most important rule.
Many environments, even in traditionally Christian societies, are reluctant to open themselves to the word of faith and have placed the “Self” or “I” in the first place, giving not much place for protecting the other. today we can see a lot of people who pu their self interest at the beginning of their activity line. They are not concerned what their presence might do on a shopping street or in a shopping mall. One can wonder why they were not able to go online to buy the goods they so urgently do need to have.
Whilst a lot of worry circles around, many do not seem to worry about the effect of their presence on the streets or in the shops. Is it out of ignorance or out of selfishness that they are not concerned about taking more precaution measures to avoid spreading the coronavirus?
When one could place the “self” more aside and give more thought to the “other”, especcially to all those working in the health sector, for sure all the measures the goverment asks to follow would be so much easier to follow and would not feel as a limitation or restriction of our liberty.
So many people are complaining that they would be not able to celebrate Christmas. Why and how does it come they would not be able to have some sacred time together with their own household members? How does it come they can not make it cosy and pleasant for their own little bulb?
If they want to go to church, why can they not enjoy the virtual church service their church may be offering? Or is their church insisting, contrary to the governmental advice, to come together in the church building?
Each sensible person should know it is his or her duty to do everything to protect the other. Under duty of gratitude towards recognisance, each should muster the brotherly love to work for the good or welfare of the other and as such keep to the safety measurements.
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Read also:
In this world of internet and social media lots of people like to present themselves better than they are in real life. They create a virtual “I”” or a “Self” they would love to be, instead of trying to find themselves happy with the being they are.
The one who chooses to be himself or herself in the end is the stronger one who shall be happier at the end of this race, being content with what he or she could reach by himself or herself, without having fooled the self.
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Nobody has the power to make you feel any type of way you choose your own feelings focus on the positive even when everything is negative.
If you choose to always find the good in others,
you will end up finding the good in yourself.
Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Kies er voor om in anderen altijd het goede te vinden
Today we do not find many who can say they do the job for which they studied. Also a lot of people can not say they do what the had loved to do in first instance.
We would advice always to follow your dreams and to do only what you would love to do, but this always in respect to nature and into respect of the Will of the Divine Creator.
When following a dream, trying to make things as best as you can, this often requires to take measures and steps which are not always liked by others. Sometimes it also mean you have to leave place you love or where you have been born and grown up.
A wife and a mother of two boys, Nezel Yurong earned a degree in Business Administration but after more than a decade in the corporate world, chose to freelance full time in writing and virtual assistant services and heed to her calling, with the knowledge that obstacles are inevitable, but
Whatever they may be, just have the faith and determination that you can overcome them. {The 5 Qualities You Need to Reach Your Biggest Goals}
She writes
I may not have gone to a faraway place, but I feel I’ve been to the deepest core of every human existence. This may sound weird, but yes, for more than a year, I’ve exposed myself to the ideas of what makes us who we are, why we do what we do.
Of course, I don’t have all the answers to all my questions because I feel I have only touched the tip of my beingness. But it’s enough to make me understand more of myself and more of others. {Home Again}
Life would be so much easier if we would know the answers. Everyday, we are confronted with questions and looking for answers and every day we shall have to face new challenges. Often it may loook like it has become too difficult for us or that we feel we have enough of it.
Be persistent. Strong successful people do not give up. Do not push too hard on people or on yourself. You may make it slow according to your capacity; just keep moving forward. {The 5 Qualities You Need to Reach Your Biggest Goals}
We want to do so much in our life. Getting older, reflecting on what we have done, we often see many failures or notice how many dreams were not fulfilled. It seem frustrating, is it not? Several times we also thought this or that way would be a good one. We took a new road or an other turn. Time passed … and once more it did not look or did not turn up to what we had expected.
How many times did we not look at the road and at the goal we wanted to reach. How many times we did not know to be patient.
According to Beverly Sills,
“there are no shortcuts to places worth going.”
Get into the mindset that the wait will be worth it. Always take massive action. And remember that great things take time. {The 5 Qualities You Need to Reach Your Biggest Goals}
In the end that’s all what we have to give ourself in life: time, endurance and being resilient.
Along your journey, especially if you are just starting, there are people who tell you you won’t make it. Those are just challenges that might want you to quit. Don’t listen to them. It’s your journey not theirs. You’re aiming for your success not theirs. Look for a support group or people who are willing to encourage you. Better yet, hire a coach or a mentor who is an expert in that area you want to excel in. {The 5 Qualities You Need to Reach Your Biggest Goals}
Nezel Yurong knows that
How liberating it is to allow others to lead us to take a peek of their perspective, of how they see things much differently from us. The greatest lesson I learn is, there’s no us versus them, there’s only we. {Home Again}
It is the “We” and the “I” we do have to face. Most important in the end you shall have to face the “I” of yourself and to look back at all the things you have done in your life. Then it shall be important that you can say
“i did it my way”
but also that you shall be able to say
“I did it in a right way”
or
“I did it in a way I would not have to shame myself for it”.
We all have to remember that
Life is short, we all know it. What is the best thing we could do to this short-lived existence? {What fuels your drive?}
It might well be (as said above) we had to leave something behind on our trip to the future life; something beautiful, something useful.
Many great and not-so-great souls had passed this way. The great ones left inspiration and hope. The not-so-great ones left fear and continuing cultural conflict. This is a sad reality. And it is up to us to do our fair share of legacy. {What fuels your drive?}
The above mentioned writer who calls herself a purposive ninja tells her readers
I thought I would stay there for long, but after learning some of the necessary lessons, I have to move on to another path. It’s what I feel I’m called to do. I also learned, discovering our passion can’t always be done in one step. We need to follow a series of steps before we’re finally ready to do that mission we’re called to do.
For this, I’m allowing the waters to take away what no longer serves me and to prepare me with a refreshed mind for the journey up ahead. {Home Again}
A true believer in Christ Jesus even surrounded with lots of difficulties shall be able to receive the pleasures and well-being of their hope in the promises of God.
As such their happiness may be an unintended side effect of their personal dedication to a greater cause than many human pleasures and greater than oneself or as the by-product of their surrender to the Most High Divine Being, Jehovah God.
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Preceding article
Who does not want to be loved? Who is not longing for attention, recognition, acknowledgement and for being recognised as a human being, to be seen and heard and why not for receiving a hug?
I’m so confused.
There’s a big mess in my head.
I don’t know where to start and where to end.
There’s no problem in my life.
The only problems are made by me.
I’ve got no big threats against my life.
Then why is my brain fried?
Problems are problems, if you give them the space to be problems.
Because the only one recognizing those problems, is you.
It’s your brain telling you there’s a problem, but when is it really one?
My brain is fried with problems.
Or aren’t they such things?
Are they just thoughts, which pass my mind too many at the same time, so that I can’t see which one is which anymore?
I can’t differentiate between them.
I want things but do I have the right to?
I’m aware of my past and my failures.
I try to stop myself from doing weird things.
But…
View original post 1,147 more words
Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle, Welfare matters
One of our readers 
That visitor of our ecclesia-site like so many would love to see his best version of himself. Understandably would not be that the best thing to hope for?
He knows there is no substitute for good health and we can do a lot to keep ourselves well. Too often lots of people do forget that we have a lot of power over our lives and we can effectively realize and use it by just being intentional. As told more than once at this site, the ideal visualization of the future generates positive feelings and hopes, which is an important part of the journey to get there. We have to set a goal and think positively.
The nagging feeling in itself is not a great motivator or productivity inducer. Even worse constant confrontation with the negative thought pulls us down. So we better avoid contact with negativeness, be it thoughts or even negative people or people who have a bad influence on us.
We should have confidence in ourselves, knowing that what we want to do is not impossible! concerning that matter he writes
And this probability is not from factors outside of our control. The ratio shows how many people come up with the strength to win against the odds. It can be up to us what side of this ratio we land on. {Draw Your Future}
He looks at Patti Dobrolowski her model and wants to highlight her explanation of a factor that makes her strategy work:
“Your brain actually emits serotonin and oxytocin when you draw and dream. So you feel happy. Capable. Creative.” Who wouldn’t want to feel that? Without getting too scientific about it, serotonin and oxytocin do affect mood positively and they can also be attained by exercise or a detailed daydream so whenever you need a boost, you can also try that. {Draw Your Future}
All of us should know we are fallible, but all those around us are as us also not perfect and have their faults and limits. We should not always compare ourselves to others but believe in ourself going for what we believe we should and can do. We should set our mind to delivering on that, knowing that it is in our power. And if we need some help, we also should know there is always Some One high above Who is stronger and mightier than all beings, Who can help us.
The effort to realize this reality in our visitors life started well before the Dale Carnegie course. He was encouraged by it, and wants to continue on his path for long after. He writes
With work and personal issues clouding my mind, I did not get a chance to appreciate the course as much as I would have liked (I failed at being intentional there but we all have our down days). However, I hope that, in coming time, I can realize some benefits from the foundation that the course set for me. I also want to learn more about the man and the movement that grew into this program. {The Power in Me}
We would advise him to look beyond the doors of that institution and to get even more wisdom in the Book of books, trusting in the Most High Establisher Elohim, God His Power but also the power which can grow in himself, which is the power each of us at to be on the look-out for.
For now, he leaves his readers on Matters of Living with a good thought from Dale Carnegie, which we like to repeat here too:
Are you bored with life?
Then throw yourself into
some work you believe
in with all your heart,
live for it, die for it,
and you will find
happiness that you
had thought could
never be yours.
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To remember
- Learning to love parts of me that no one claps for. (Rudy Francisco)
- Listening to myself > carrying a lot of unspoken stress.
- Environment allowed to silence inner voice.
- Want to feel that I am living the best life possible.
- Did not give appropriate attention to blind spots in my life =>area where a person’s view is obstructed.
- re-examine my life … again …
- We think we are safe in the bubble => we actually put ourselves in danger by becoming powerless.
- group mentality doesn’t really offer fertile ground for creativity.
- responsible for own moral + ethical landscape.
- search for your blind spots
- Examine your environment + ask hard questions
- Freedom comes when we speak the truth. Even if our voices shake.
- When truth revealed > blind spot = weak spot.
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Related articles
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 to silence my inner voice.
I want to feel that I am living the best life possible.
I want to think that I am comfortable with my choices and that they are intentional.
I want to believe that I learned from previous mistakes and experiences.
I want people to experience me as a free spirit with an eclectic view on life.
Newsflash …!
I am so comfortable inside my own identity that I did not give appropriate attention to the blind spots in my life.
Blind spot: an area where a person’s view is obstructed.
“the…
View original post 1,154 more words
Filed under Being and Feeling, Positive thoughts
We had a look at Susan Billmaier her views on the turbulence of life, and the transformation of the self.
At her blog SusanWithPearls – Living Life. Learning to do that better. Sharing it here.- she often wonders how we know ourselves and how we do get at what is inside.
Lots of people question their own self and look for way to have a good life. For years they try out several things. Most often they go looking for
The self that… is a deeper self, some say a “higher self”, some say a “Christ self”, or the “Buddha/enlightened self”, in some Native cultures it is called, simply, “beauty”. {Knowing your Self is more than knowing the size of your stomach.}
She writes
Whatever it is– the moral self, the good will– I am not too particular about the label, or the words– it is simply the best that a person can find within themselves and everyone has it…whether they know it or not. {Knowing your Self is more than knowing the size of your stomach.}
She also knows that man has to come to a point where the individual comes to see that it has its own value and its own reason to be, demanding to take personal action and own personal focus on personal awareness.
My own Loving Presence is my Self. I turn my attention inward and become aware of my own Loving Presence. With my focused awareness, my own Loving Presence fills me, grows brighter, and grows warmer. {Claim only the Self that you love. A Journey of Purpose: Day 32}
Being faced with the self one may not loose that self nor the faith in the self. Being confronted with the surroundings one need also to be willing to go into confrontation with it and with the inner thoughts, at the same time willing to perceive the necessary changes to be taken or the changes going on around the self.
as a guiding thought can be notated
Accept your light and your lightness! Feel your Self expand! As you perceive change around you, remain anchored in your Being of Light. Allow yourself to sit peacefully in the still place of nothingness as life moves quickly around you. {Arguing with myself and losing: Journey of Courage 2017 – Day 19}
Too many people do forget that we are here on this earth because we are allowed to be here by the Most High Divine Creator. Many do not want to know about that Omnipotent, Omniscient, Powerful Eternal Divine Source of all life, existence and knowledge, but also of peace and joy Though daily they are confronted with “Existence” that surrounds them.
In ““Self Fulfilled”: Journey of Fulfillment 2.0 – Day 05” Susan Billmaier looks at the guiding thought
In Divine Mind, I am filled full! All are equally filled full. All are equal in Love. I fill my mind with thoughts of fulfillment and remember what I already know. I am determined to fulfill my purpose, to know my Self as Divine Love, and to share the fullness I am.{“Self Fulfilled”: Journey of Fulfillment 2.0 – Day 05}
For her “Guiding Thoughts”
acts like a guided visualization and I see/experience the words. There are days when reading the Guiding Thought seems to open a channel within me and I can feel energy within me moving in a new or different way. {“My Self Has My Back, Now if It Would Scratch…”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 33}
First page of “On the Difficulty of Knowing One’s Self”, 1744 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We can only ascertain that lots of people are afraid of looking at them self in the light of a Higher Being that would be Master over them and would be responsible for their being. We can enact that it is difficult for man to accept that there is a Higher Being Mightier than them and giving them all what the can see around them. That High Being wants us to come into a good relationship with our self, with others around us and with Him. He wants us to get filled with that what made Him create us in the first place. Even when the first man rebelled it was His love for man that made He wanted to allow them to take care of themselves and to find solutions for themselves, but providing also The solution to bring an end to their agony, suffering and continues wandering. Also that foreseen solution, the sent one from God, the Messiah, God His own begotten beloved son shared that love of God with mankind and gave his life for all. Like that man of flesh and blood did not want to do his own will, but only did the Will of God, we too should come to a point where we want to do the Will of God and share His love with others. Only that way we can come to fill our mind and heart with love, aligning with the Light of Truth. Steadfast and focused on our own Loving Presence, than we shall be able to live in the peace of fulfilment of our own Divine Identity.
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Preceding
Transformation is easy, when you step into something that already IS.
In the turbulence of life, listen and wait.
How to Live Beyond the Ordinary
Learning that stuff is just stuff
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Filed under Being and Feeling, Spiritual affairs
Every day we are confronted with ourselves again. Every day again we are again confronted not only with ourselves but also with those around us. Everyday we do meet again new challenges, have to affirm again our values.
Attitude / Golden Gun (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This world which challenges us brings us day in day out some new adventures. We can try to tackle them or try to escape those things which we do not want to see. But covering our eyes is not helping us nor getting such things we do not want to see away. Living in this world we should be aware of what is going on in it. We can not stand at the side, not wanting to be involved or just letting everything happen. Those things which we consider wrong demand an action. And we should take action. Though there are several Christians who think we do not need to do any works, because we are saved, we should not let everything pass along like nothing wrong happens. That what is not according to the Law of God, that what cannot be justified demands reaction. We should open our eyes to what happens in the world and should react appropriate.
Having us to react will demand strength and courage. It shall also demand an attitude to be taken. And that attitude should always be in accordance to the attitude our master teacher Jeshua wants his followers to have.
Attitude (EP) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Every day we do have to face our inner self and find the core of our own business, our own being, our own strive, our own goal. Every day again we do have to face how we are wanting to build up our own life and our own future. It is naturally so that in case we do nothing we cannot do something wrong (we think). Not doing anything, letting it all pass, is witnessing of taking an attitude, which is not the right attitude. Rabbi Jeshua and his disciples taught about the essence of taking action and doing things. The master teacher gave several examples how people lost their opportunity to take part of the celebrations, the wedding or the entrance to the Kingdom.
The grace of salvation has been given to the whole mankind, but each individual has to do something with it. When we are willing to receive that marvellous free Gift, we do have to be thankful for it and do something with it. When we just leave in the cupboard, untouched it shall be of no service for us.
It is an Immeasurable Grace bestowed on humanity but lots of people do not see or appreciate the value of it, or take it for granted that now they have received it they do not have to do anything any more. Oh, how are they mistaken.
Each day we are confronted again with many ideas … our mind wandering about. Even a baptised person can have thoughts which are not in accordance with God His Will. Though they may be convinced that they have done away with the old life, that old life simmers slowly and little tinkly lights may be very attractive. More than once in our life bitterness, wrath, and even anger, does want to come along our path. We also can have moments where clamour and evil speaking may be lurking around our own corner. All those things we are asked to put away from us, with all malice. And that requires an action, which is a work to be done.
There are also days that we wake up and feel as if we have a broken heart. Though we may know that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul. Each time we left our mind wandering in the wrong way we do know we can repent, i.e. take an action, making the effort to see that we were wrong and that we do have to ask for pardon. It demands an action to see what we did wrong (i.e. doing a work) and when we know what we have done wrong we have to repent about it (again doing a work).
Painting “Kampen for tilværelsen” (Struggle for existence”) by Christian Krohg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Often because we ourself do have to endure so much pain we want others also to have pain. Often we also want to have many good things others may have and desires others to have some of our bad things. Such desires are often around us to cause pain. We can have feelings which hurt others or can bring them into distress. Yes, we must be aware that we can get up in the morning with allowing to grow in our mind the
“intent to commit an unlawful act or cause harm without legal justification or excuse.”
This makes our own self the sick self. The self what needs healing. the healer is always around, but we have to come to him (which demands an action or work). Without coming to the Saviour Jesus Christ we shall be nothing and will have it so much more difficult in our life. he is the Way to God and he is the one who can guide us through difficult times, putting our hands in the hands of his heavenly Father.
Every day we wake up we should know that God is willing to be close to us and that He is really concerned with what is going on in our heart and mind. Be aware, He knows much more than we allow others to see, hear or feel, what we think or want to do. Even when we do not carry out malicious acts against someone, but carry such thoughts in our mind, God knows it.
You ought not to secretly wish that something bad would happen to any person. Rejoicing in some misfortune that befalls someone else is also evidence of malice. And that is something God detests.
The dispensationalist Plymouth Brother Harry A. Ironside
The Canadian-American Bible teacher, preacher, theologian, pastor, and author Harry A. Ironside said every Christian has an obligation to put away all malice.
“If you do not live up to that, you are not living a real Christian life. This is Christianity lived in the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Gospel Light Society writes
You might feel like the malice in your heart is justified because of what someone did or said to you. But, you must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and bring your feelings under the authority of Christ. You must choose to put on the new man who will not walk in maliciousness, but in a spirit of love and forgiveness toward all. {How Not to Walk, Part 26 (Revive the Family, Revive the Church, Awaken the Nation, O Lord #272)}
Every day we have to face the new life lying in front of us. Having done away with the old life, we should try to do our utmost best to live in accordance to God His Wishes, not following man’s doctrines but following Biblical doctrines.
George Cuff wrote:
There are sins from the former life that simply must be denied,
Things the godless revel in, that a believer must sweep aside.
Immorality of every kind, impurity, lust and greed;
You will be bound to idolatry if scripture you fail to heed.You must also rid yourselves of anger, malice and rage.
Watch your speech carefully. Do not in profanity engage.
You threw off the sinful man who reveled in foul deeds;
The new man is renewed in mind, empowered by Christ indeed. {How Not to Walk, Part 26 (Revive the Family, Revive the Church, Awaken the Nation, O Lord #272)}
Empowered by Christ Jesus we should find every day the fresh living water, empowering to continue in the right way, trying to finish the race, lying in front of us.
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Preceding articles
Running challenge and the City build by the Most High Maker
For mams and dads it is also back to ‘normal’
What IF you’re only driven by stress?
There can only be hope when there is a will to be and say “I am”
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Falling into silence;
Deep within my own soul,
Where whispers can be heard;
Where silhouettes and shadows
Paint pictures dark and vague;
Where one speaks without a word.
Finding the secret place;
Mysteries yet to unfold,
Where riddles dance and play;
Where questions and quandary live
In their exploration
That challenges each old way.
Living within myself;
My heartbeat keeping time
As spirit and soul join
The song of eternal life
That will be forever;
At home, yet journeying on.
Filed under Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs
In life we do have to relate in first instance to our self, next to the creation, and then last but not least to the Creator Himself.
An “I-Thou” relation with understanding of past, present and future, is essential to build up something positively constructive.
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To remember
- Martin Buber (I and Thou, 1923)
- Humanist variant of/alternative to existentialism: Relationship precedes essence.
- Identity = by-product of “I-Thou” relation
Martin Buber (1878-1965) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Preceding article: Curious creature or Positivist man
Next: Sacred formula of positivism
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Related articles
The way I read the Jewish theologian, Martin Buber (I and Thou, 1923), he offers a humanist variant of/alternative to existentialism. Where Sartre might say, “Existence precedes essence,” Buber might say, “Relationship precedes essence.” In contrast to the stark “thrownness” of the existentialist, who finds himself alone in an indifferent universe, Buber finds identity itself to be a by-product of the “I-Thou” relation (connections both to fellow humankind and to Being itself). Having shuffled off the existentialist’s burden of aloneness, however, Buber is not exactly the Walmart greeter to Happy Valley. Like the existentialist, he is weighed down with responsibility. For now he carries forever — past, present, and future – the built-in burden of all that connection, the “exalted melancholy of our fate” (16).
To our previous posting “Failures, mistakes and Initiatives for Excellence and success, Working towards turning a Dream of yours into reality” we bring a second poem by Richard Innes Mulvey from Edinburgh, who also runs his own Indie music label called Lone Head Records.
From the poems which came under our eyes it may look like he is seeing this world from dark glasses. Though citizens may have been stripped raw to create a new power for him. Though he writes
Edinburgh Castle Lightshow during Edinburgh Festival in 2009 (Military Tatoo) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Stars keep the sky in fashion
In this world of dreams
I find myself touching everything
But I still can’t touch you.
Too many people keep comparing themselves with others and look up at idols , minimising their own self, instead of recognising who they really are and what they really could be able to do when they would believe more in themselves.
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Preceding
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Filed under Being and Feeling, Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs
Lindsay Felderman confesses she is a person that likes to shop and buy new things. Over the years she has accumulated a lot of stuff, from clothes to shoes to hats to Apple products to video games and more, like so many people have gone from one shop to an other or looked at the internet shops to find their liking.
Though many focus on gaining material wealth her eyes may have gone open by two life events that have happened/are happening now that are making her come to the realization more and more, that things are just things, and that what is more important is creating memories with people that you love.
What may be the changing elements that people come to see that they have to live more simply.
She writes:
if we haven’t used/seen/worn something in the past year, it’s out of here. Going to charity or the garbage. No need to keep so many physical items around. I have learned over the years and the amount of times I have moved, that stuff is just stuff, but every time I settle down, it seems I collect more and more. Well, not this time. I am getting rid of the clutter and starting fresh. {The Meaning of Material Things}
Today lots of people have lost track of the necessities of real life making issues. Several youngsters are clinging to the idea of having the most recent newest thing brings happiness, and want to do everything to get the new hipe. They have no idea any more that material things are nothing without real people behind it that get their love from those around it.
For many people it takes a lot of time before they come to see what Lindsay came to see and feel when she and ‘her’
Samantha and I’s families met for the first time, Ever, in almost 3 whole years.
She came to feel one of the most elementary things for building up a real ‘home’ and a real ‘family’ and got to see what
transpired that day was truly magical, it was so special,
that she will never forget
Each one of us only brought certain family members to the event for various reasons. But each one of our family members meshed in a way that I couldn’t have planned myself. Every one was laughing and joking, and conversations were flowing all over the place. Every one truly wanted to learn about the other. There was not one dull moment. It was honestly the way that family should be. No drama, no fighting, just pure love, honest and true love. I know this is really mushy, but if you know anything about the history of Samantha and I, you will know that this was a moment we were not sure would ever come. {The Meaning of Material Things}
It is incredible how many broken families we can encounter today. At school we find classes where there is not one kid who still lives by both its parents. Divorce seems to be the key word of this contemporary society where not many want to take time to talk with each other and to make it worthwhile living with each other instead of living next to each other.
Lindsay Felderman got reminded that family is what you make of it, but also came to see how it is possible for others to be there for you and how valuable this is. This is the most precious treasure so many do not seem to find, though it is so close at their doorstep.
Much more people should be there for each other, willing to share their love and time for each other, with comprehension and with patience. It is so important
That people who truly love you, will be there for you. That they will love you no matter what, that they will take you in their arms and hug you because you are special and unique and just You.
But to come to such a position people do have to be wiling themselves to be just their own and not somebody who fits the common trend of homogeneous people, wearing those clothes that shops and fashion magazines dictate.
When a person is really just herself and is willing to give her self openly to somebody else and to share herself with others than the doors may go open to build a good relationship and to build real ‘family’.
It is unbelievable what that lady could gather in whatever time it took to collect more than
18, 30 gallon trash bags, filled with clothes, shoes, hats, purses, and accessories galore. … They were just taking up space in our closet for no other reason than to take up space. That wasn’t all we gave away though, just the 1st round. I would say by the end of it, we had close to 30 bags that we donated, and a bunch of boxes of DVDs and books as well. It felt great to get rid of so much Stuff. That is all it was, just stuff, taking up space. {Do What You Say}
She also recognises that this doesn’t even include the amount of crap she had collected by the years and dared (at last) to threw away. We do not know if it would have been wise to throw a way her school projects she did when she was a kid, even to her high school yearbook, because in our country (Belgium) a student has to keep the school material for ten years, because it can always asked a s a proof of studies and work done.
She went with the mantra that,
“I will always have the memories”.
but has forgotten that perhaps one day in history she perhaps would have children and later grandchildren and than she will not have anything to show and to share.
Naturally there is no need to continue to lug around physical items to remind oneself of those memories, as long as they are not destroyed. For the moment she thinks it is impossible that her memories can ever be destroyed, but then she forget that accidents and illnesses are possible to wash away any sort of memory and by then it can be useful to have some materials to bring back the memory. (The writer of this article your reading, speaks of experience, having had a memory loss after a very serious car-crash.)
Though lovely to hear Lindsay Felderman immediately felt lighter as she packed and got everything moved to her new place in one weekend.
But the point of this all,
she writes, is
I did what I said I was going to do. I didn’t just talk the talk, I walked the walk. I wrote about how material things aren’t the true meaning of life, that I was going to start to purge the majority of mine and I did it.
We are taught from a young age, that actions speak louder than words. But many of us still grow up to be big talkers. We talk about our dreams and what we could be doing. But very few of us actually act on those dreams. We let life get in the way, and we let our words speak louder than our actions instead of the other way around. {Do What You Say}
Today we do not find many youngsters with aspirations and when we encounter people who say they want to do this or that, we see that they are not really taking steps to do so. Not many want to do what they say, but it seem Lindsay took the courage to do so.
Can you do it as well?
She concludes
You gain more credibility in life when you just do what you say you are going to do. Plus it feels better, you say something and you do it. People around you begin to trust you, they believe that you will do the things you talk about. When you only sit around and talk about it, you just become a talker, you become noise in their ear. Much like the “wamp, wamp, wamp” noises that the adults in Charlie Brown made every time they were talking to the kids. You don’t want to be that person.
Be someone who makes a difference, makes a change, follows your dreams and most importantly: do what you say. {Do What You Say}
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Preceding articles:
Mini-MAX-malism: A Bigger Approach to Less is More
The Art of Doing Less – Your Time is Finite
Thought of the day: We want more, i want more, but why is that?
Why “Selfishness” Doesn’t Properly Mean Being Shortsighted and Harmful to Others
Looking at a conservative review of Shop Class As Soul Craft
Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth
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Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle
Some might think we are
“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.
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Preceding articles:
Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth
Why “Selfishness” Doesn’t Properly Mean Being Shortsighted and Harmful to Others
Comic: The Last Time I Felt Accepted For Who I Am
The world starts with yourself
Find Inspiration and Follow Your Dreams
There can only be hope when there is a will to be and say “I am”
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Filed under Lifestyle, Social affairs, Welfare matters
When looking at the world man and animal can be seen moving around, sometimes men going about more than wild beasts.
In that universe where everybody in his worldly life is so busy with working and with earning money to be able to buy as many gadgets as they would like and to make their material dreams realised, lots of people consider those who have faith in a Supreme Being to be loosers or people who live in fantasy worlds. Lots of them do believe that when in faith you just have to accept everything blindly. For them and many faith is a mystery, where you need to ask any questions.
It is true that we mortals can not understand everything. We could even say that we should not even try to understand everything. Question is if you may look at faith on a rational way. Can you believe in a Higher Being Which or Who created everything. And do you have to approach all the saying about It/Him rationally?
Portrait of René Descartes, dubbed the “Father of Modern Philosophy”, after Frans Hals c. 1648 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The last few years focus has been on the rationale. René Descartes with many followers could say “I think, therefore, I am”, and we can only agree because when you are not in existence you can not “be“. When born and not able to think the being of that person is also like as if without life and can not do anything. To be able to do something a creature (animal or man) has to think or to use its/his/her brains. Without the use of the brain, without letting the ‘electricity’ go through the nerves, creature shall not be able to do much. It has to receive something, analyse it, act and react to it. But before it can go into action and reaction it has to have knowledge of the self. It has to have a working ‘I am‘ and has to feel as an ‘I am‘.
Though man faces some problems.
First there is the “I am”, the “Self” which it has to come to face and has to try to understand.
Secondly it has to come to see that the “I am” is only part of a bigger part of “I Am”. When it comes to know that it can go searching for that Bigger “I Am” and hopefully shall come to recognise the “I Am Who Is” without nothing can exist.
Thirdly each little “I am” has to recognise that manifesting the “I am” demands interaction, but that such interaction is never ending. One word only points to another word and never to reality itself. Having brains thinking, receiving interpretations and having to make interpretations itself, it shall have to come to the conclusion that no one interpretation can ever be regarded as final.
As in interpretation, so in life: everything becomes undecidable.
Now there is a difference between all who want to understand and try to approach the many “I ams” in this world. Into this decidedly undecided world, there are people who have opened their eyes and have come to see what is behind the ordinary “I am”. They have found The Bigger “I Am.” They might have found it by listening to their inner voice or by coming to read, see and hear the Word of God. For them the curtains have gone open and the biblical message as reasonable thinking person has come to them with common sense. They have come to see and understand that Faith and logic are not really opposites.
Genesis 1 tells us that man was created in God’s image (Genesis 1: 26-27).
“26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 NAS)
Diagram from one of René Descartes’ works. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Being created in the image of God, means also each person we see around us has something which might be found also in God. Each person we do encounter can carry something from God with him or her and can share it with others. The person who has come into the faith, believing there is a Creator Deity, and who has seen the Works of that God (Source of knowledge) shall also come to the understanding of the importance of sharing the knowledge of that “I am” with others. For the one with faith it is like being with child, incredible exiting and giving lots of energy. It is as an extra breath given to you.
In the past many man of all sorts of professions have already felt the special awareness and consequences for them of having faith in the Elohim, Divine Creator of heaven and earth. The “I Am Who Is” or the “I Am that I am” is the Most Almighty God of gods, Who overshadows any other god or “I am”. He is also One God Who demands recognition for His important Pole Position. He does not like to see that His creatures do love other gods more than Him. Believers, man of faith, should recognise that and take it into account, worshipping only that One and Only One True God.
To help us to understand that Bigger “I Am” and our own “I am” This Eternal Being has given His Words and let it hem be notated by the many faithful men. All those writings about the “I Am” are bundled in the Book of books, the Bible, the infallible Word of God.
In the several books of the Bible we can find a.o. the Book of Psalms in which we can find the answers:
- God gave us the Psalms and other Books of the Bible
- as a prayer book for our lives.
- to show the friends of God.
- to learn through poetry and song.
- to experience the transcendence and the imminence of God at once
- to affirm the mystery of life
- to educate and to exhort ourselves
- to show us our sins
- to remind us of the brevity of life
- to remind us of the necessity to live the right way
- to show us the way to a better and easier life
- to express our heartfelt longings
- to discover God His Character
- to discover God His Will for our lives
- to learn to direct ourselves to the utmost important things in life
- to learn how to behave
- to learn to pray aright
- to reveal His sovereign grace to us
- to show us the Way to Salvation
- to show us and give comfort in finding the Way to the Kingdom of God
Created in the image of God, the image of the Big “I Am” this is not just an outward likeness, for God is Spirit, and is only for our understanding presented in a description which is derived from that of a human. Upon further reading in the Book of books, the Bible, we can see that God’s Word reveals that humans, unlike animals, are provided with rational. Man can think and reason logically, but above all he is able to know God; and the latter goes. An animal has no sense of higher values, let alone God, a man does. But that is also exactly what sets him apart. A man who does not have these capabilities, or does not use them, is indeed no more than an animal:
“Man in [his] pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalms 49:20 NAS)
In fact, it is precisely this ability to abstract reasoning that,
according to the apostle Paul, makes the infidel shall not go unpunished because when he looks around himself he should be able to see the many things God provided. It might be true that the invisible things of God can not be seen, but even his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived since the creation of the world are working with the mind, so that they are without excuse.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20 NAS)
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Additional readings:
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n the 17th and 18th century Western philosophy was in strife – split between British empiricism (figures such as Locke and Bacon) and continental rationalism (such proponents as Leibniz and Spinoza), both camps disagreed with one another on the topic of epistemology and metaphysics.
Important to add to the context is that in this time, scholasticism was the most prestigious method of education; it entailed Aristotelian values with a significant religion input. Scholasticism used logical methodology to deduce and then resolve contradictions. It was also qualitative, looking at objects and people and how they worked behaved, i.e., their qualities, and it was this manner in which Descartes was educated
Related articles
- Glue, tikkun (white-pebble.net)
An old story says that when God first let his light shine in the chaos of the new universe, the universe shattered wherever the light came in. And so we live in a shattered world and life is a constant effort to glue the pieces of the world back together.But it’s by dealing with the cracks that I grow. I learn from my failures in everything from studying math to learning again and again how to be a mother — this time, how to be a mother to a young man who has now a wife and home of his own.
- Shattered (lmk1009.wordpress.com)
A mirror, broken on the floor.
Rather, ripped from my hands
And thrown onto the cold, hard, ground,
Shattered and stepped on.
Such was my world
The day the news came.- For Freedom (danettefrazier.wordpress.com)
She smiles and jokes and tilts her head to the side But inside she hurts; she’s dying inside She serves others with fervor in hurried fever But she’s wearing thin and none really see her The freedom of others offends her at her core Because inside she hungry and craving still more Her worship is quick; her worship is cold She’s busy, so tired, and…- That Box (mythoughtsoverload.wordpress.com)
I woke up realizing that there’s a small cut on my finger. Most probably it was cut by one of the shattered glasses when I was picking out the stars yesterday. Is it a reminder for myself that the past and the future does not belong together?- Shattered (rycallaghan.wordpress.com)
It’s like you’ve crawled under my skin and made a home for yourself.
Lurking in some dark corner of my body.
Letting me think I’m healing, that I’m getting stronger.
Emerging when I’m most vulnerable, and least expecting it.
I found a piece of me yesterday
It was my smile
I haven’t seen it for a while since you shattered all of me
I’ve missed that piece of me
Each time I find bits of a missing piece
I get so excited I want to show you
Something you used to see as beautiful and valuable
I hold it out with both my hands open for you to see
With cold eyes you break it again
My hands fall beside me
And I look at the pieces on the floor
Blurry from the tears welling up
You turn your back and walk away
I stand there watching you leave
And collect the pieces from the floor in my arms
It’s OK, I’ll glue them together again and find more broken pieces
But next time I won’t bring them to you.
Filed under Being and Feeling, Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs
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Originally posted on FabFourFamily:
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Het kan niet genoeg herhaald worden: antizionisme is geen antisemitisme.
Originally posted on Quo Vadis:
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Een kijk (door Willem Frederik Veltman) op wat de beste remedie is tegen nationalisme.
Introducing a news website that may well deserve your attention as it also debunks fake news and brings out the true facts.
Voorstelling van een nieuwswebsite die gerust uw aandacht mag verdienen omdat deze ook fake news ontkracht en de ware feiten nar boven brengt.
Event Turkey has broken Nato unity on Finland and Sweden’s push to join the alliance, blocking an initial vote on accession after President Erdogan demanded that the two countries hand over dozens of Turkish exiles he accused of “terrorism”. The veto came hours after Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary-general, hailed a historic moment for western […]
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Zij die geloven dat Jezus God is zouden best eens nagaan in hoeveel Bijbelfragmenten Jezus zijn plaats tegenover God kenbaar maakt en hoe hij met God in communicatie gaat en ons leert bidden tot God zoals hij tot God bad.
In voorgaande artikelen kon u al lezen hoe Jezus als hij wonderen had gedaan, tegen de mensen zei dat ze niet hem, maar God moesten danken. (Één van de onmisbare tekenen dat Jezus niet God is.) Voor hem was God danken ook een vorm van gebed waaraan hij en zijn discipelen zich ook aan hielden. […]
20 jaar geleden bracht een triller een debat op gang dat vervolgd en verder uitgediept zou worden in 2006 bij het uitbrengen van vertalingen van Nag Hammadi geschriften.
Twenty years ago there was a lot to do about discussions brought forward by the speculation that Jesus would have fallen in love with Mary Magdalene and would have had children by her. In the previous posting you could read that after his third novel, Deception Point (2001), Dan Brown returned to Langdon with The […]
Twenty years ago a novel saw light in a world where already more people were coming up against the Catholic Church, but this time also telling a lot of historical lies.
We have come to a dangerous moment, Russia possibly resorting to nuclear weapons to avoid completely losing in Ukraine.
In several places around the world, one can find portraits, paintings and sculptures depicting Jesus as a white man. But that is not at all consistent with the real appearance of the man who was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth. By the way, there is scientific evidence to back that up.
Through the corona crisis internet became introduced by many of our members, giving them the possibility to still join and feel connected with fellow believers.
° In Jewish life, actions transmit more than words. Lighting Hanukkah candles; blotting out Haman’s name; cleaning out the hametz; tashlikh; fasting; dancing with the Torah. Yes, all of those things come with a story. And there’s so much more background and history and ideas and textual sources that go along with the story. But […]
A brief animated overview of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the events leading up to it.
Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. If we bear all this suffering […]
At 12h, today, 2023 April 19th, Warsaw remembered the heroes of the Ghetto who fought against the horrors of the Nazis 79 years ago.
Met het internet is er volgens sommigen een indringer in het huis gevonden die het geloofsleven op de proef kan stellen.
Mag men zeggen dat het dankzij de lockdown periode tijdens de coronacrisis is dat het internet meer ingang kon krijgen bij Joodse groeperingen?
Het woord in het Hebreeuws en Grieks Het Hebreeuwse woord voor dienaar of slaaf is ebed, en het bijbehorende werkwoord abad. Deze woorden duiden een algemene situatie aan waarin de ene mens ondergeschikt is aan de andere. Ze kunnen zowel een vrijwillig als een gedwongen dienen aanduiden. De Septuaginta (de Griekse vertaling van het […]
Looking at the Biblical terminology used to denote the term “righteousness”, the Hebrew tsadiq translated by the Greek dikaiosune and its various forms in both the LXX and the NT.
God heeft alles Zelf in de hand en daarom spreekt de Schrift soms zelfs over dingen die nog moeten gebeuren, alsof ze al zijn gebeurd, en in termen die aangeven dat ook de consequenties daarvan al blijvende werkelijkheid zijn.
Bij de Parasja Nitsawiem 5782 kijken wij uit naar een sjana tova oemetoeka voor ons allen.
Dit jaar zijn er nog 2 sjabbatot tot Soekot en is er voor elke sjabbat een parasja en de sjabbat voorafgaande aan Rosj Hasjana lezen wij nu de de parasja Nitsawiem.
Verwonderlijk kreeg ik vandaag het bericht van WordPress dat ik tegen een jubileum mag aankijken. Gefeliciteerd met je jubileum bij WordPress.com! Je hebt je 5 jaar geleden geregistreerd op WordPress.com.Bedankt voor het gebruiken van onze service! Ga zo door met bloggen. Wat zijn die vijf jaren voorbij gevlogen. Voordat mijn pen al mijn gedachten kon […]
Kijkend naar de geschiedenis van het Joodse Volk in Oekraïne staan zij nu weer op het punt dat er vele doden onder hen kunnen vallen.
Met Rosj Hasjana denken wij aan de wondere scheppingsdaad van de Allerhoogste. Spijtig genoeg moeten wij toegeven dat de mensheid van die schepping een janboel heeft gemaakt.
From guestwriters 