There has been something buzzing around my head, and i guess my heart...and that is what does it mean to say "head and heart". No matter when you go or who you talk to it seems that this phrase just seems to make sense, emotion vrs reason. Head versus heart. I read and heard the phrase "i new it in my head but not in my heart" In fact i've said it myself, as a classic line in my testamony. So it gets me to thinking, this head heart conflict isn't mentioned in the bible and scientifially it dosn't make a shred of sence, so why does it seem so common? Why is it a problem? How can i change the head vs heart idea of god to a head and heart in sync together idea of god. Maybe i'm just no good at some emotions but it's always been much easier to focas on KNOWING "about" god, and not the actually knowing of god. But then i think, the desire i have to know everything possible about god dosn't come from nothing. I think that it comes from a desire for relationship.
for example:I recently had a new roommate move into my house. This guy contacted me over the internet as he isn't from here, and i was searching desperatly for a roommate so I said that he could move in. He arrives fresh from the airport on the first luggage in tow. I show him his room and give him a quick tour of the relavent rooms. He then disapears. It's now the 6th, and i have only seen him in passing twice. It's weird for me to someone i know nothing about living in my house so i have madfe a point of trying to find things out about him. Now the problem is that he's a hard one to talk to since he is just never around. When i see him i try to casually ask questions. I have also tried to find about him in other ways : Facebook mostly. Searching desperatly to find out about him, to see if we have things incommon, intresting things about him etc. Genna seems to think this is just plain creepy but i see it differently.
I think in a weird way this is very similar to my reationship with Jesus, not in the way that Jesus us unavailable to me, infact the opposite and I try to take advantage of his availablitiy and love, although it is definatly something i need to work on. But I also think that in the same way i can get to know my new roommate but looking at his facebook and talking to others that know him...I can look at God's incredible jam packed version of facebook. And let me tell you God's privacy settings are super low. So not only am i going to try harder to keep up with study of the bible, but also take advantage of the "mutual friends" that God and i have. By talking with others about realtionships, and as well as things we know ABOUT God, i can know more of God's heart, and therefore share in it more. This is my theory at least. So this is my goal. No more head vrs heart seperation, no emotion good reason bad or vise versa but Head and heart in unity in realtionship with my maker.
A side step really, In the same area as head and heart unity i am making a public deleration that I no longer want to be a slave to cognitive dissanance. I will not let my soul, my reason and love be a slave to my desire.
Cognitive dissonance is when i know something in my head/heart and yet i do that action anyway: "incontinance" as Arisotle would put it in "the nichomachean ethics"
Paul also mentions this frustration in his letter to the romans:
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
I share in this frustration with paul, Cognitive dissonace is the term used in pshcyology when your ideas and intentions don't line up. It's dissance. The problem is that you can't live like that, something has to change. Your actions...or your belief.
More and more i am noticing this in my self, that i am a slave to my desire, to sin. That i have altered ideas about sin and live because my sinful actions are harder to change. And i want to stop this. More than anything in the world. I should not be embarrased by my actions...that proves that my mind is in conflict. So my goal which i am telling you all now is to consciencly decide to change my actions and not belifs, because i think that for the most part i have been taught good morals.
I would say that this is my new years resolution, but i don't want to make it impossible...so instead i'm going to take it day my day. Sure i'll slip up, but i'll be honest with my self when i do and remember the next thing that Paul wrote in romans:
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,[a] 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
-That's all for now.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
How did C.S Lewis get all those smarts? Was Jesus a lunatic or a saviour?
In my late night inter-web searching i came across one of my favorite C.S Lewis Quotes that i had long forgotten. It really sums up some of the thoughts i've been thinking. And my desire to not settle for anything less than Jesus is!
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (CS Lewis, “Mere Christianity)”
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (CS Lewis, “Mere Christianity)”
Where to start?
So tonight, i had a fasinating conversation with my friend Kat. It brought up lots of questions, more questions than i can ever begin to ask really. We talked about Jews mostly and the difference between jews and christians and what that means when it comes to salvation. Did jews just miss the mark? Are christians just jews that got it right? What about Jesus? I was finding it hard to think that God could give up on his people! That jews would not be saved! So i mulled it over and came up with some disjointed ideas about how Jesus didn't come to start a new religon, but the exact opposite! He came to end religion. This is where he became Scandioulus... Skandalon, a stumbling block to people. He may have calmed the storm but Jesus rocked the boat more than a little!
My search for more clear thoughts was made much easier with a push to the book of Romans ( a book that has been of great importance to me this year) from my father, specifically chapters 9,10,and 11.
I encourage you to go go read those right now so that you can follow my train of thought ( it will only take you 10 mins and it's worth the time)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%209&version=31 Here's a link so you have no excuse...
After reading Paul's letter to the Romans things started to make much more sense in my tiny little head.
This is how i understand it in a nutshell:
God has NOT given up on Isreal ( the jews) They are his people. (30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." 33As it is written:
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.)
That it's not up to us to argue who is going to be saved or not "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'[b]" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7"or 'Who will descend into the deep?'[c]" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
That Christians are not better than them and that both will be saved12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
God has a plan for their salvation.Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
That when Christians start acting like christians should, jelousy and a desire to be like that will whell up in the jews.
And that as christians we are a grafted branch onto the olive tree that is isreal ( the jews) and should not become cocky
So Thats my understanding so far, i have alot more thinking, reading, study and conerversing to do. I'll keep you updated on the progress.
I thank god, that he dosn't give up on his people!
My search for more clear thoughts was made much easier with a push to the book of Romans ( a book that has been of great importance to me this year) from my father, specifically chapters 9,10,and 11.
I encourage you to go go read those right now so that you can follow my train of thought ( it will only take you 10 mins and it's worth the time)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%209&version=31 Here's a link so you have no excuse...
After reading Paul's letter to the Romans things started to make much more sense in my tiny little head.
This is how i understand it in a nutshell:
God has NOT given up on Isreal ( the jews) They are his people. (30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." 33As it is written:
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.)
That it's not up to us to argue who is going to be saved or not "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'[b]" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7"or 'Who will descend into the deep?'[c]" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
That Christians are not better than them and that both will be saved12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
God has a plan for their salvation.Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
That when Christians start acting like christians should, jelousy and a desire to be like that will whell up in the jews.
And that as christians we are a grafted branch onto the olive tree that is isreal ( the jews) and should not become cocky
So Thats my understanding so far, i have alot more thinking, reading, study and conerversing to do. I'll keep you updated on the progress.
I thank god, that he dosn't give up on his people!
What's this all about?
I needed a space, a place where i can pose questions, mull over things, and get feedback, both positive and negative. I hope that this blog is more than another site where I can rant, but a place that I can share with you what I'm thinking about, reading about, what podcasts i listened to this week and their relavence in my life and those things that i stumble over.
The blog title: Skandalon-stumbling-stone
It's not random, it's from romans 9. The greek word "skandalon" means the stumbling stone, which is the metaphore used for Jesus in the book of Romans.
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
Jesus- he's Scandilous really. A revolutionary, and that causes people to stumble. And in the course of it--see him for who he is, what his message really means, and the impact that he should have in our lives.
I refuse to see Jesus as anything less than he is, something that I need to work on. I refuse to settle for the sunday school version of Jesus that I been fed. Jesus is far more than that. A revolutionary! Hense the picture of Jesus that i have on the blog...I thought it was fitting.
The blog title: Skandalon-stumbling-stone
It's not random, it's from romans 9. The greek word "skandalon" means the stumbling stone, which is the metaphore used for Jesus in the book of Romans.
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
Jesus- he's Scandilous really. A revolutionary, and that causes people to stumble. And in the course of it--see him for who he is, what his message really means, and the impact that he should have in our lives.
I refuse to see Jesus as anything less than he is, something that I need to work on. I refuse to settle for the sunday school version of Jesus that I been fed. Jesus is far more than that. A revolutionary! Hense the picture of Jesus that i have on the blog...I thought it was fitting.
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