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Archive for November, 2008

CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD?

November 20th, 2008
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Genesis 1:26-27 (New International Version)

New International Version (NIV) 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

 27 So God created man in his own image,
       in the image of God he created him;
       male and female he created them.

WHAT DID THE WRITER (WRITERS?) MEAN BY ”LET US”? 

 (Many years before writing was invented these thoughts were handed down orally. Several gods were believed in during that time.  Later there were several writings from other cultures about the creation story.  This could be a combining of those writings).

 For more click on: http://www.bibletexts.com/qa/qa083.htm

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD?

 Could it be that God, as each human is born physically, breathes His Breath (Spirit) into us, that spiritually we have always been alive and at one with God, but that our human life begins when He breathes His breath into us?

 Genesis 2:6-8 (New International Version)

6 but streams [a] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- the LORD God formed the man The Hebrew for man (adam) sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground (adamah) it is also the name Adam (see Gen. 2:20). from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

  1. Genesis 2:6 Or mist

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “LET THEM RULE…. OVER ALL THE EARTH?”

 

God did rest on the 7th day, right?  Is it now all up to us?  Does ruling (having dominion) over all the earth mean that we should be doing all we can to take care of His creation, including ourselves and our neighbors?  What about global warming, melting glaciers in the Artic and Anartic causing tides to rise and fish to die, stronger hurricanes, wilder fires, etc.?  What about the poison in the air we breath, the water and food we drink and eat? What about all the garbage filling the landfills, rivers and oceans?  Can we help prevent that?

 

For more click on: http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/image.htm

 

 

 “Search to know the Truth

And the Truth will set You Free.”
(my aim is not to convince, but to share what I have found for your consideration. – mackie)

Faith

Jesus and Enlightenment

November 14th, 2008
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I summarized this article because Deepak has a rich background in ancient eastern religions and shares his views on how this might relate to Jesus.  Millions of Americans have bought and read his books.  I offer no opinion on this article. -editor.  You can visit his website at: http://www.chopra.com/
 

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

Deepak Chopra on Jesus

 

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and…Deepak?

 

Chopra’s book, Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment, speculates a story of the Messiah-to-be during what might be called his early Wanderjahr. We meet Jesus consulting with a guru on an icy mountaintop in what seems like Tibet . Chopra spoke with TIME about his novel.

Your Jesus story is tremendous fun to read, but where is it in the Bible?

I also researched that period in history for Jesus’s religious context, political and cultural contexts, the Jewish sects at the time, the occupation by Rome . One day I was reading the Gospel of John 10: 30, where Jesus says, “I and God are one.” I interpreted this as “those who have knowledge of God are God.” In Eastern philosophical systems there’s an established idea of a path through personal consciousness to a collective conscience to a universal conscience, which people call the divine. I concluded that Jesus must have experienced this consciousness, and that he must have followed a path. Fundamentalist Christians always quote Jesus in the Gospel of John saying “I am the way. In your book there is a crucifixion, but only reported secondhand by Jesus as something like a dream.

Every spiritual tradition has this idea of death and resurrection. What would Jesus say?

Jesus would say, Recognize the difference between wealth and money. The rest is one big casino, making money off money or losing money off money.

 

For entire article click on:

 

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1858571,00.html

Faith