₦airaland Forum

Joagbaje:
So what is wrong in fleecing ? if the sheep is not fleeced , they wont grow new wool. dont your baber fleece your hair ? do you run out of hair. thesame with christian giving. the more we give, the more we recieve.

imhotep:
Many models and athletes abstain from different types of food, they subject themselves to strenuous regimes of training and discipline.
I suggest you go and complain to the trainers/employers of these models/athletes regarding their lifestyle: which is equally dangerous. Some models have body mass indexes that are dangerously below 18, others suffer from anorexia. . . all in a bid to catwalk and get paid for it. . .

If you do not believe in God, then stop talking about God. . .

Joagbaje:
Few days before that day. You instinct was correct.

AKHOZEM:
@ joagbaje
Thank you for this thread , It's quite enlightening. I have some questions though.

JeSoul:
Re: I am losing my faith in "christianity".

Poster, I may be the only one on this thread that thinks that this is a great thing for you. Perhaps if you lose this 'christianity', you may find Christ and if you lose this 'religion' you may find God. I encourage you to continue asking questions, God will guide you if you put your trust in Him. Godbless!

Dulcet7:

JeSoul link=topic=584241.msg7523845#msg7523845 date=1294933245:
Re: I am losing my faith in "christianity".

Poster, I may be the only one on this thread that thinks that this is a great thing for you. Perhaps if you lose this 'christianity', you may find Christ and if you lose this 'religion' you may find God. I encourage you to continue asking questions, God will guide you if you put your trust in Him. Godbless!

+1

AKHOZEM:
What kind of counsel is that. You ask a distracted person to continue in distraction just because her pastor ask her to buy a sermon? You should have ask questions rather . How much is the pamphlet . 50nairra or 100? Are they selling it for the money or to ensure members discipline themselves to study it for their growth. My pastor once mandated all of us leaders to get study bible by force. And we were glad because we were careless . We buy shoes and expensive things without investing in our spiritual life. A good pastor is a coach. Pls avoid dangerous counsel. Paul had books he reads and he encourage Timothy to study. They didn't get those books free. We invest in our growth.

Dulcet7:
AKHOZEM are you also Joagbaje?

AKHOZEM:
I am Dulcet
Are you Jesoul?

Dulcet7:
No sir I am not Jesoul but my intuition hardly ever fails me. Take care.

Krayola:
IMO Son of God did not mean the same things then that it means now.

Joagbaje:
The old testament folks are born again. I'm sure we had an agreement on that issue before. They got born again at the resurrection of christ. No man got recreated before Jesus rose from the dead. It is an insult to the blood on Calvary.

thehomer: One doesn't have to be a fundamentalist or a literalist, but such a person must believe some basic tenets. Can a person be considered a Christian who does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

mazaje:
How do you know this?. . . .

Krayola:
What if the accounts were not intended to be taken so literally?

Deep Sight:
. . .just like the "respect" you stated that you have for the "riveted application" demonstrated by serial killers, eh?

The path to salvation thus becomes more like an awakening, an understanding, and an experience of what is already here but we cannot see. The spiritual path (prayer, meditation, fasting, worship, etc.) becomes a mechanism to peal back the onion layers of who we are and what we think the world around us is, so that we can examine the power of God within ourselves, within others, and within existence itself. Salvation is an opening of our eyes and hearts, a new way of seeing the universe.

Faith then is not belief in a certain doctrine about Jesus, but a trust in using him as an example of what it looks like to live a God-centered life. Through the stories in the Gospels (whether or not the details are historical are irrelevant), we can understand the nature of God's presence within the world and what a God-centered life looks like: a life of humility, compassion, love without boundaries, a life which experiences suffering and doubt, but a life that ultimately participates in the eternal power of God that transcends death.

We've all heard the expression "Try it on faith." This doesn't mean, "Believe me" but rather "Trust me, and experience it for yourself." Faith is about testing, questioning, and doubting. In science these qualities lead to greater truths, why shouldn't the same apply to religion? For me, religion is about embracing the unknown and the difficult -- a journey of exploration that never really gets there because ultimately I am finite. Faith is about being comfortable with my doubts because doubt is part of my search for truth. Faith is not a closing of my eyes and mind to the real world, to science, to modern knowledge, or to experience, but it is the opposite: an opening up and a new way of seeing.

Repentance means retrospective awareness, repentance means looking backwards. You have done something. If you were aware then no wrong can happen, but you were not aware at the time you did it. Somebody insulted -- you became angry, you hit him on the head. You were not aware what you were doing. Now things have cooled down, the situation has gone, you are no more in anger; you can look backwards more easily. You missed awareness at that time. The best thing was to have awareness at that time, but you missed it, and now there is no point in crying and weeping over the spilt milk. But you can look, you can bring awareness to that which has already happened.

That's what Jesus calls repentance. That's what Buddha calls pashchattap. That is what Mahavir calls pratycraman, looking back; what Patanjali calls pratyahar, looking in.  It is not feeling sorry, it is not just feeling bad about it, because that is not going to help. It is becoming aware, it is reliving the experience as it should have been. You have to move into it again.

You missed awareness in that moment; you were overflooded by unconsciousness. Now things have cooled, you'll take your awareness, the light of awareness, back. You move in that incident again, you look into it again as you should have really done; that is gone, but you can do it retrospectively in your mind. And Buddha says this cleanses the heart of the evil.

This looking back, continuously looking back, will make you more and more aware. There are three stages. You have done something, then you become aware -- first stage. Second stage: you are doing something, and you become aware. And third stage: you are going to do something, and you become aware. Only in the third stage will your life be transformed. But the first two are necessary for the third, they are necessary steps.

Whenever you can become aware, become aware. You have been angry -- now sit down, meditate, become aware what has happened. Ordinarily we do it, but we do for wrong reasons. We do it to put our image back in its right place. You always think you are a very loving person, compassionate, and then you suddenly become angry. Now your image is distorted in your own eyes. You do a sort of repentance. You go to the person and you say, 'I am sorry.' What are you doing? You are repainting your image.

Your ego is trying to repaint the image, because you have fallen in your own eyes, you have fallen in others' eyes. Now you are trying to rationalize. At least you can go and say, 'I am sorry. I did it in spite of myself. I don't know how it happened, I don't know what evil force took possession of me, but I am sorry. Forgive me.'

You are trying to come back to the same level where you were before you became angry. This is a trick of the ego, this is not real repentance. Again you will do the same thing.

Deep Sight: Sometimes i wonder if you are a prankster. Hitler was adored by his people? Perhaps u are unaware of the numerous attempts to assasinate him. U seem not to know the level of intimidation that hitler deployed. Go to Germany today and see if he is adored or an icon of national shame, the object of a national guilt that is yet to heal.

Deep Sight: I dont understand u. Each time i read your posts and i am on the cusp of respect u come up with some post that is either a ridiculous prank or what else i just dont know.

Christ is totally different from Christianity so whenever you want to understand Christ, go directly and immediately -- not via Rome; then you will never understand Christ. Christ or Krishna or Buddha cannot be organized: they are so vast that no organization can do justice to them. Only small things can be organized. Politics can be organized, not religion, Nazism can be organized, communism can be organized -- not Christ, not Krishna. The sheer vastness is such that the moment you try to force them into a pattern they are already dead.

It is as if you are trying to grasp the sky in your small hands -- with closed fists. With an open hand the sky may be touching, may be a little bit on your hand, but with a closed fist it has already escaped out of it.

Whatsoever you have been hearing about Jesus is not about Jesus, the real man; it is about the Jesus that Christians have invented, decorated to be sold in the market. The Christian Jesus is a commodity to be sold; Christ himself is a revolution. You will have to be transformed through him; he is the baptism of fire. You can be a Christian conveniently,  but you can never be a REAL Christian conveniently. If you are REALLY following Jesus, there is bound to be trouble.

He himself ended on the cross; you cannot end on the throne, But if you follow Christianity there is no trouble. It is a very convenient way to adjust Christ to yourself rather than adjusting yourself to Christ. If you adjust YOURSELF TO CHRIST, there will be a transformation; if you adjust Christ TO YOURSELF, there can be none. Then Christ himself becomes part of the decoration of your imprisonment, part of your furniture -- your car, your house; a convenience at the most -- but you are not related to him.

Deep Sight:
Dulcet, you might want to check out this thread to get a feel of noetic -

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-336988.0.html