“That was easy.” By the way, you can pick up a red button thingy that recites that at “Staples”--or is it “Office Max”, I’m not sure, I cant remember, but they’re great for people who like to press buttons and I was reading Mark Twain the other day and he says that “the old testament shows us God before he got religion” and I was thinking that maybe the real purpose of the scriptures is like a guide to help us learn how to love everyone we meet and…

Chap, I liked your post. It got me thinking when I considered your "learn to love everyone we meet and..."

How about "...everyone we meet so that..."

Think "The Man!"

BTW: Whenever we pass a Staples store while traveling, it is a running family joke (with our two young boys) that the first to notice the sign pipes up, "Hey, did you ever notice the "L" in "Staples" looks just like a staple?" (Pretty funny stuff, huh?)
http://www.prismbuilders.com/images/Staples500.jpg

quote:

Originally posted by Chapter 31:
...and I was thinking that maybe the real purpose of the scriptures is like a guide to help us learn how to love everyone we meet and…

That's exactly the purpose of it, since that's what Jesus taught, and scripture is all about Jesus!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug Spaulding,

quote:

Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
You see, this is what theology school does.

It makes you think!

quote:

Look, the whole purpose of scripture is to show you who God is. Now that's Scripture 101!

Well, I would say the whole purpose of scripture is to show who Jesus is, so you're right. Scripture 101 is this: the whole bible is about Jesus; every word, every meaning therein - it's all about him. Jesus is the Word of God, scripture is not!

quote:

Now are we still having difficulty here as to who God is?

Jesus is God, I think most Christians accept that. I speak of an understanding beyond simply who he is - really grasping the essence of God, and that is something humans cannot fully understand. In our mind, we're right, likewise in the minds of the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, whatever. We can't all be right, can we? Perhaps we can. Maybe it would be better to say we can't all be wrong!

"We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness."
-Mother Teresa

Good quote, Butch!

Here's one that should give most of us pause:
Hebrews 10:31
"It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (NASB ©1995)

A great reference, by the way is
http://scripturetext.com/

quote:

Originally posted by fjp451:
"We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness."
-Mother Teresa

Very astute, for a Roman Catholic. Mother was a very holy person.

quote:

I was reading Mark Twain the other day and he says that “the old testament shows us God before he got religion”

This story is so good it bears repeating any number of times. I was visiting in a Catholic church where the priest was quoting some scary Old Testament stuff. A five-year-old boy in the pew ahead of me kept asking his mother, "God was like that then, but he's better than that now, huh?" I wouldn't have been in that woman's place for ANYTHING!

You notice how we've strayed off the subject of the meteor? Maybe that, in itself, isn't so scary--it's where and how we'll all end up?

I still like your idea of letting a Russian woman handle it!

dandelion: God never changes.

Go see Gibson's 'The Passion', and have a good look at what God thinks about sin. ( sin : an archery term meaning missing the bulls-eye , or, in this case, falling short (missing the bulls-eye) of a relationship with God. His anger is the same, but his love has poured out his anger on his beloved Son and made a place for us 'sinners' to hide. Once the reality of this sets in, a whole world opens up to a person, that people thru the centuries have seen...

quote:

Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
Go see Gibson's 'The Passion'...

I couldn't recommend that film - it's High-Church/Latin Mass/hardcore Roman Catholic/extreme right-wing/Jew-hating 101!

My spouse dragged me to the cinema to see it, and I can ill-remember a less enjoyable time at the pictures in quite awhile.

Hmmm. Another off-topic debate, I suppose. My reaction to Gibson's "The Passion" was far different.

For one thing, a minor issue, I suppose, I did not see the anti-semitic elements of it. It seemed pretty true to the gospels' versions.

For me, the idea of a suffering "god" had been pretty academic. Sure a flogging and crucifixion would be tough, but, then, he's GOD. He can take it. Watching that film, in all it's dark brutality, was the first time I felt that I could emotionally understand the actual and real suffering of a God who loved his people enough to actually, really, truly, horribly, suffer for us. The movie was a highlight for me in trying to understand how a God could actually suffer. Like I say, before watching that film, the idea of a God suffering, seemed like kind of a contradiction--how can an all powerful God actually suffer? Watching this film, for all it's dark brutality, helped me understand that piece of Christ's sacrifice for us.

We strongly disagree on this film.

Doug:

Doug Spaulding is purposely jabbin' the toothpick into the eyeball to get a reaction. Saying that 'The Passion' was a Jew hating film is...nonsense. Jesus was a Jew. That would be like me saying that because a bunch of Lithuanians decided to beat-up and kill a radical Lithuanian worker in the bread factory, that the event was actually a Lithuanian hate crime.
Come on.! This was a fight amongst the Jews themselves.

I think some people think Jesus was the only onethat was Jewish and the rest of the crowd were Canadians or something.

In the scripture verses that speak of "...and with His stripes you were healed..." each blow of the whip is a part of your release from the imprisonment of sin. I don't know about you, but I cried at the movie (along with others)...who understood that I had been set free from my sin by the sufferings of Christ.

Mr. Dark: Ooops! Christ set-aside his claim of God, to be human. He suffered as a human, in my place.

I agree, Mr. Dark.
Anti-Semitic though, D.S? Maybe Anti-Roman...
Pretty authentic, I thought, with a few exceptions; one of which is that Tradition has it that it was the theif on the Lord's Right who repented, hence the angle of the lower bar of the Russian Orthodox Cross.
Didn't this film come up for discussion here when it came out?

Braling II, yes! Short memories. A quick search box visit will show that this has all been gone thru before.

I just read that Gibson's Mayan motion picture, Apocalypto, broke movie records in Britain, and it's big news in Europe. Supposedly he is in Mexico this weekend to open the movie there.