I know some of you know exactly what that means and I ask you to ponder it and maybe even change yourself from having read it. I have started to.
"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere." 2 Corinthians 2:14
God bless you all this Sunday and into the coming weeks............
Z
26 comments:
Z - God bless you too - and have a great Sunday.
"Be STILL, and know that I am God."
Amazing.
The Lutheran Hour broadcast this morning was right on this post. I'm not a Lutheran, but it's always inspiring.
He spoke about the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster (well, now I know: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On) that was meant for issue in WW2 in England.
http://www.lutheranhour.org/sermon.asp
Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-15
The peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Ed, the Lutheran Hour is good...you're right.
I know you know it's "peace" and "be still", but so much beyond that; because it's how WE reflect Christ in our lives. If we're too busy, too angry, too frustrated, He will never reflect in us to others. There isn't really anything more important.
A post worth meditating on, z.
An idea that has been with us at least since the Buddha and any religion that doesn't help us moderate the internal conversation is only churning the waters.
I don't believe there is one path to that goal.
"I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing."
--- T.S. Eliot East Coker
:-)
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6
The mind, like a pond, reflects best when still and undisturbed.
God Bless
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
Abraham Lincoln
Image off still water connotes placidity. Images from disturbed do not necessarily connote disturbing things to me.
In the crashing surf we don't see the millions of images, but they are there. The oceans may not always be placid, but they are always interesting.
We need both the placid and the interesting to be truly thoughtful.
At least, that's my opinion.
Z said...T. S. Eliot had a really kind of troubling life but his Christian faith, sometimes regarded as a mixture of Catholic and Calvinist, seems to have kept him going.
Bob, I believe a troubled soul, showing outward lack of placidity and unsettlement, doesn't allow for us to reflect the Christ within us. I also think that being the kind of person some do see Christ in doesn't necessarily have to be uninteresting or dull!
Krabby...very close! Not quite the same meaning I hoped to impart.
Jen, excellent!
I won't be watching the memorial that's just started for the Navy Yard dead, but I'm interested how people grieve so differently.
I think I'd still want to be with family and friends and not at a public gathering........
Yet, some must get great solace from being with others who've gone through this and with the president's presence.
Is it not our responsibility as Christians to reflect the impression of Christ on us to others?
Hard to do when the impression is reflected off a distorted surface.
I'm reading Dying Out Loud about a missionary to Turkey. He made as much of an impression in his death, as in his life. In how his muslim friends saw how he faced death.
Some stereotypes die in this book.
It takes me back to my time in Turkey also.
Where I live, the clear lake probably has an alligator in it.
"The mind, like a pond, reflects best when still and undisturbed."
Correction:
The mind like a pool of water, reflects best when still and undisturbed.
It's been awhile since I had to recall it from memory. I don't who to attribute it to though.
Thanks
Thank you for that pithy quotation from Romans, Jen. It certainly gets right to the heart of the matter in very few words.
C.S. Lewis, whom I endlessly admire, said something very similar in these words:
"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
I was astonished at that quote supposedly from Abraham Lincoln, Anonymous, because Mr. Lincoln rustic background would have made it virtually impossible for him to anything about Art and Music at all, and precious little about Architecture. I know he was literate, and read a great deal for a man of his time and place, but if you've ever seen the depressing interior of his house in Springfield, Illinois, he and his poor wife, Mary Todd, could easily be known as icons of bad taste.
I don't believe he was a particularly pious or religious man either, though certainly not an atheist.
Whoever said that has a good point, of course, but it just seems odd coming from Abraham Lincoln of all people.
FT, in googling that phrase of anon, all results point to Abe.
FT...Lincoln's faith is really fascinating...Google LINCOLN AND CHRISTIANITY or LINCOLN AND THE BIBLE.
There are amazing quotes by him saying he totally believed the scripture, and they say he used the Bible to get through his depression, reading Job, etc. (if that didn't depress him, I don't know what would have!)
But then he says he'd never join a church (which is absolutely no denial of Christianity in my book, by the way, though I think participating in a church is invaluable to faith) and it's even said that, at times, he was an atheist.
Very interesting dichotomies!
Krabby, thanks for the different takes on it.
I was just hoping we could all talk about what that means...
Glad you came by!
Blessed are those who grieve, for what difference, at this point, does it make?!
/Hillary 5:4
I'm sorry I mentioned the Lincoln quotation, because it wound up diverting attention away from the much more important remark I quoted by C.S. Lewis, which I thought a real gem.
Lincoln was an astonishingly complex figure, and because he has been virtually canonized by hagiographical treatment, used subsequently by the Left to justify THEIR evil, self-righteous agenda, it is now almost impossible to separate myth and legend from the real Mr. Lincoln.
Pilate asked, "What is Truth?"
I doubt very seriously if anyone really knows.
I tend to go with Keats who said, "Beauty is Truth," but then we must agree on a proper definition of Beauty. And so it goes ...
FT...and I kind of hoped we'd talk about my post here at geeeeeeZ.
FT:
I wouldn't worry about it...it was interesting coming from his is all.
Anon and FT..it's true that Lincoln is a REAL enigma. So much written about him but who really knows?
I saw the recent film and liked it a LOT more than I thought I would, by the way. Very well done
Ahhh...that's it...that's the word...perfect..an enegma!
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