Don’t Make the Angels Cry
Following the Logic
A Smackdown for Little Marco
Equivalence?
Down to the River
Moloch by Another Name?
Moloch was a evil spirit that ancient humans would sacrifice their children to. To do this they set up a hollow bronze statue that was heated with a fire until it was glowing. They would take their newborn babies and place them on the arms of the idol, and watch them burn to death.
I can’t help but wonder if that evil spirit still exists in the form of materialism or social decay. Is today’s practice of abortion a sacrifice of children by another means? In both, innocent life is destroyed for the gain of the parent.
Another’s Random Theory
An anonymous writer equates the life of Jesus to the ‘escapee’ in Plato’s Analogy of the Cave: I don’t agree with all that he says, but his thoughts are worth sharing. He writes:
“Around 2000 years ago, someone escaped from the world of shadows and came back to tell those who stayed behind of the real life and to show them the way out.
At that time, they claimed he had risen from dead, became man or had awoken. Nowadays, people would claim he had reached enlightenment. He had experienced that righteousness is the condition to reach simplicity and blessedness and that it is difficult to live as a righteous in an unrighteous world, as a living among the death.
The righteousness and compassion with the chained ones demands you to go back. He preached a completely different way of life and not a different way of thinking.
The story is that the establishment killed him, his words are misunderstood and that they turned his life into a religion.
Humankind took possession of the messenger and did not understand the message. If somebody has seen a beautiful theatrical performance he can tell about it enthusiastically, but he would better show people the way to the theater. His metaphors of the unspeakable made his message unclear. The experience is not expressible in words. For that reason, he gave people the opportunity to take his words figuratively and his life literally. “
End of the Road
I drove into Pulaski Tennessee on Friday to do a little shopping and drop off the boat payment at the post office. Because I rarely travel there, I ended up taking a wrong turn and found myself in a portion of town that was in slow motion decay. It was a mix of 60 or 70 year old cheaply built homes with clapboard siding interspersed with a type of light industry that lent itself to gravel parking lots and rusting, outdated, equipment waiting to be reacquired by nature.
The homes were badly rundown. Here and there you could see where folk were battling back against the unrelenting decay, but their cause is lost even if they were unwilling to concede the battle to time and the elements.
Near the center point of this area there was once a cemetery. Many years ago the city threw in the towel on trying to keep it maintained and turned it into a park of sorts. You could call it a memory garden without the garden. Soon it will be without memories as well. Such is our lot.
It was a cold and gray day that was perfectly lousy for photography and yet the weather, neighborhood, and the gray stone and headstones put me in a mood that I thought could be shared through photo’s, and importantly, I could photograph. I failed, but not miserably so I do have a little to share of what I found.
The photo’s do a poor job of capturing the mood. It was not sadness, not remorse nor even melancholy. It’s that mood that comes when you meld the awareness of the inevitable with recognition of the smallness of our individual lives. Wish I could capture that feel on film.
A parting note. There were many of these (below) throughout the garden. You would expect as much from frontier living in rural Tennessee in the 1800’s. Whenever I see one of these I think of the unspeakable sadness of the parents as they placed the stones. This stone is particular in that, I suppose, the parents spent their last penny on purchasing her marker.
Give a little thought to how you spend your day(s).
Maintaining Control of the Herd
Britain’s biggest employer organization and main trade union body are up in arms over the prospect of British companies implanting staff with microchips to improve security.
The tiny chips, implanted in the flesh between the thumb and forefinger enable people to open their front door, access their office or start their car with a wave of their hand. The chips also store personal and medical information.
Now I’m not fond of Revelations, I can’t understand it and it smells (to me) like a post Christ cult production. With that said, chapter 13, verses 16 and 17 seem especially appropriate:
And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of its name…....
The Q Source Controversy
There has been a significant amount of controversy among bible scholars about the sequence in which the canonical gospels were written. A growing group believe that Mark was the first written gospel and that Matthew and Luke were written using material borrowed from Mark and another unknown source. That is to say that both Matthew and Luke have material in their gospels that is common to the gospel of Mark. There is common material found in Luke and in Matthew that is not found in Mark.
While the work of these scholars was originally directed toward the sequence in which the gospels were produced, more than mere timing has resulted from their studies. The search is now on for the source of the information found Mathew and Luke that is absent from Mark’s gospel. This ‘absent’ gospel is titled the Q gospel or Q Source because the original searcher/researcher was German and he was searching for the ‘quelle’, the German word for ‘source’. The Q Source is clearly not the Gospel of Thomas.
Scholars differ as to whether the alleged Q-source was a written source shared by Matthew and Luke, or simply an oral tradition they both had access to. Wherever we land in our conclusions about the method by which the gospel writers compiled their texts, the analysis gives us one clear benefit; because it isolates material that is found in Matthew and only in Matthew, or isolating material that is found in Luke and only in Luke, or isolating material found in Mark and only in Mark, we get clues as to the audience to which the author of these respective gospels was directing his information and also the major theme(s) in each gospel.
It seams that nothing is ever as it first appears.
Another John McCrae
An uphill path, sun-gleams between the showers,
Where every beam that broke the leaden sky
Lit other hills with fairer ways than ours;
Some clustered graves where half our memories lie;
And one grim Shadow creeping ever nigh:
And this was Life.
Wherein we did another’s burden seek,
The tired feet we helped upon the road,
The hand we gave the weary and the weak,
The miles we lightened one another’s load,
When, faint to falling, onward yet we strode:
This too was Life.
Till, at the upland, as we turned to go
Amid fair meadows, dusky in the night,
The mists fell back upon the road below;
Broke on our tired eyes the western light;
The very graves were for a moment bright:
And this was Death.
What is Reality?
This video starts of a little slow and a little goofy, but digs deep into the topic of reality beginning at about the 7 minute mark. What a strange world we live in !
Creationism Scientifically Proven?
Johnny Cash: Do Lord
Blinded So That I Might See
He Whom No Moral Obligations Bind Can Not Have Good Will.
“A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men? Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of Society? … The Scriptures tell us “righteousness exalteth a Nation.”
– Abigail Adams
A Heavy Burden
This is scene I’ve seen play out dozens of times. As a senior NCO I was routinely called on to lead funeral details for soldiers and veterans that were interred in North Alabama. If you’ve ever had to pass that flag to a widow or child you realize just how great that soldiers sacrifice was.
The Secret Knowledge of Believing
The 49th Saying in the Gospel of Thomas
Jesus said, “Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you will find the kingdom. For you are from it, and to it you will return.”
21st Saying in the Gospel of Thomas
Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are your disciples like?”
He said, “They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Let us have back our field.’ They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them.
Therefore I say, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest the robbers find a way to come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will (surely) materialize.
Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Pain, Hate and Loathing
Deep Thoughts (Tread Lightly)
13th Saying in the Gospel of Thomas
Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like.”
Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous angel.”
Matthew said to him, “You are like a wise philosopher.”
Thomas said to him, “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like.”
Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.” And he took him and withdrew and told him three things.
When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”
18th Saying in the Gospel of Thomas
The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said, “Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death.”
Sagan: We are Wanderers
This is a great little piece that provokes thought. I choose to overlook the reference to natural selection that occurs (oddly I might add) near the middle of the narrative. How Carl could compose this without seeing the presence of God in man’s long journey escapes me.
Are You the Creator?
How ‘Truth’ is Shaped.
Of the roughly three hundred bishops in attendance at the Council of Nicea, two bishops did not sign the Nicene Creed that condemned Arianism. Emperor Constantine also ordered a penalty of death for those who refused to surrender the Arian writings, his words:
“In addition, if any writing composed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the flames, so that not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated, but nothing will be left even to remind anyone of him. And I hereby make a public order, that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing composed by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death. As soon as he is discovered in this offence, he shall be submitted for capital punishment.
Emperor Constantine against the Arians
Johnny Cash – God’s Gonna Cut You Down
Trouble
Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.
Job 14
Finding Our Way
The 7th Saying in the Gospel of Thomas is entirely different than words spoken by Jesus in the New Testament. It says:
(7) Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man.”
Rather than try and understand this saying by replacing the word ‘lion’ with a word or phrase and then determining if the saying remains true on both sides of the parable (blessed is a lion and cursed is a man), lets step back from that mechanical approach and ask if this saying provides insight into the spiritual world that God created and our relationship to Him in that realm? If we can, then an interpretation of the 7th Sayings could be:
God created spiritual powers and forces for man to subdue and wield; they enhance and complete the man and both are returned to God and live in the Kingdom. Should these forces consume and subdue the man he falls away from God and the powers return God.
Return To Your Soul -Asha
The Awakening
Via Running Cause I Cannot Fly.
“Ex Obscurum” (From Darkness). Featuring original poetry narrated by the author Matthew Schwartz.
“The Awakening”
“Remnants of my arrogance
Crumbles like ancient paper.
Why have me suffer this way?
Knowing I’m unable to lift myself up?
My dreams of grandeur are dead.
Glory is no mortal treasure;
Only a mirage for a lost soul.
Booze and drugs do not know my pain.
My body fails me.
My skin yellow, my vision dim.
I come to you burned and beaten.
Still clinging to these toxic vines,
The last rays of sunlight fading.
Is something or someone listening?
Hear my prayer:
Cut from me these twisted limbs.
Or, let me perish and be free at last.
I’ve failed at both life and death;
Must I wallow in this hideous morass,
Giving back nothing of any worth?
Death should have come many times past.
Why have you thwarted my retreat?
This is no pardon for a man like me.
To change I’ve tried, but look at me:
On the floor begging for eternal peace.
Begging you for one final breath.
Is this the mercy that befits your loving omnipotence?
Should I live one more moment of one more day,
Let it be free from hate.
Let it be unspoiled by fear,
Unencumbered by shameful lies.
Let it be imperfectly human.
To the power of all powers I come here now.
Spirit over all spirits I need your help.
You have always known,
When like a burning match my life was flickering.
No mere accident has kept this heart beating.
Could these odds persist year after perilous year?
No! To your power I surrender. But what now?
The black spots on this leopard are many.
Only a stroke from your sacred brush could change me.
To one knee, I lift my broken body.
Salty tears wet my parched lips.
My dingy railroad flat on Second Street glows.
The fog clears from my blurry eyes.
The burden of my regrets and guilt lift
away.
Loneliness and despair evaporate,
Like a dewdrop in the midday sun,
A voice within me, but not within calls.
Like thunder after a passing storm
The rumbling echo speaks softly:
“You are never alone. I love you enough to let you suffer.
I love you enough to let you choose between
Light or darkness;
Love or hate.”
– Spadecaller
The Prologue
I have heard that no great undertaking should begin without first asking for God’s blessing. This is doubly so here as we endeavor to discover more of our God and what requirements/responsibilities, if any, He would assign us.
The paths taken by each of us in this life are many, solitary and unique. Life is different for each man and we live it alone save the spirit of God. It can be no other way. Along a path in my walk of life I came across the Gospel of Thomas. And so my sincere prayer to God is that I can understand what he would have me know through this work.
Along this path, one of life’s many, I pause to dip my toes in the waters that flow within the Gospel of Thomas —here—
Confusion (Verses versus Verses)
I’ve always thought that there is/was an upside to confusion. Being confused usually tells us that a piece of information that we have is wrong or doesn’t fit. I suppose the scribe that worked on transcribing Thomas’ work ran into a real head scratching moment when he got to the 5th, 6th and 14th sayings. Go here for the ‘as written’ texts along with how I think they should have been compiled.
The Cave
In book VII of ‘The Republic’ Plato crafts a narrative between Socrates and Plato’s brother, Glaucon. It’s a thought provoking piece that, written roughly 400 years before the birth of Christ, is commonly referred to as ‘The Allegory of the Cave’. A paraphrase of the Cave and an caffeine induced correlation to Christ on the cross– here
The Elephant
The Blind Men and the Elephant is a famous Indian fable that tells the story of six blind sojourners that come across different parts of an elephant in their life journeys. In turn, each blind man creates his own version of reality from that limited experience and perspective.
I thought the fable was particularly emblematic of why Christs disciples may have had trouble defining him. More here.
Paine and the Age of Reason
The Age of Reason highlighted what Thomas Paine saw as the corruption of the Christian Church and its efforts to acquire political power. He found both new and old testaments unreasonable and could not see a logical, coherent relationship between man and God. He did what we so often do (created our own God) and advocated for reason over revelation and rejected the idea of miracles. Effectively he created a God that worked for him. As you might expect, Paine produces a compelling series of arguments. This is all the more reason to be cautious before accepting his ideas and making them your own– just because it’s a compelling argument made by a man of great stature doesn’t make it true.