Many of the statements in this paper are also noted as coming from a person only identified as ‘Ibid’ in the footnotes. I am not skeptical of Ibid’s view, but I would like to find his/her article and read it for myself.
修女教导我们，生命的旅途可以用两种方式走过 － 倚靠人性或是憑信恩典。恩典不試圖取悅自己，它懂得接纳他人对它的輕視，遺忘，和憎恨;它也懂得如何去接受侮辱和傷害。相反的，人性只恋于取悅自己，只希望得到他人的青睐，得到世人的瞻仰，信服，得到自身的满足，愉悦。当这世界所有的光輝都环繞着它时，它却依旧心存不满，心存憂愁。对于它而言，只有当世间萬物都向它微笑以对时，它才能真正感受到被爱。
-永生樹
A little bit of early church history
8 - Every Breath by Gungor. The strange beat that is at the beginning of the track is actually an audio clip of their first time hearing their baby daughter’s heart beat. How sweet!
Some of my favourite quotes from the documentary “The Philosopher Kings”:
“By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.”
-Socrates
“What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.”
-Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”
-Arthur Ashe
“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.”
-Jean-Paul Sartre
“There will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers.”
-Plato
I like how the documentary portrays that everybody, no matter how young or old, how rich or poor, has stories to tell and wisdom to share. Some of the most remarkable and moving stories come from experiences of failure and brokenness, hardships and trials. They have the potential to put the rest of us to shame, jolt us from our disillusions of life and face life as it is. Who is the true philosopher? Who should be enthroned?
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
Where did I find you, that I came to know you? You were not within my memory before I learned of you. Where, then, did I find you before I came to know you, if not within yourself, far above me? We come to you and go from you, but no place is involved in this process. In every place, O Truth, you are present to those who seek your help, and at one and the same time you answer all, though they seek your counsel on different matters.
You respond clearly, but not everyone hears clearly. All ask what they wish, but do not always hear the answer they wish. Your best servant is he who is intent not so much on hearing his petition answered, as rather on willing whatever he hears from you.
Late have I loved you, O beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you; now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.
When once I shall be united to you with my whole being, I shall at last be free of sorrow and toil. Then my life will be alive, filled entirely with you. When you fill someone, you relieve him of his burden, but because I am not yet filled with you, I am a burden to myself. My joy when I should be weeping struggles with my sorrows when I should be rejoicing. I know not where victory lies. Woe is me! Lord, have mercy on me! My evil sorrows and good joys are at war with one another. I know not where victory lies. Woe is me! Lord, have mercy! Woe is me! I make no effort to conceal my wounds. You are my physician, I your patient. you are merciful; I stand in need of mercy.
Is not the life of man upon earth a trial? Who would want troubles and difficulties? You command us to endure them, not to love them. No person loves what he endures, though he may love the act of enduring. For even if he is happy to endure his own burden, he would still prefer that the burden not exist. I long for prosperity in times of adversity, and I fear adversity when times are good. Yet what middle ground is there between these two extremes where the life of man would be other than trial? Pity the prosperity of this world, pity it once and again, for it corrupts joy and brings the fear of adversity. Pity the adversity of this world, pity it again, then a third time; for it fills men with a longing for prosperity, and because adversity itself is hard for them to bear and can even break their endurance. Is not the life of man upon earth a trial, a continuous trial?
All my hope lies only in your great mercy.
St Augustine, Confessions
1 - Toe - Goodbye / グッドバイ (CUT_DVD with Toki Asako)
(Source: youtube.com)
It’s strange. We often talk about life and death, but this time I have it reversed - death then life. Life then death sounds like the natural process. We are born, we live, we die. But the Bible tells us we are dead in sin the moment we are born, spiritually dead that is.
Death in itself is proof of sin. Separation from God from the moment we are born is proof of sin. That is why Paul goes to great length to discuss why there is death even though the law has not been given from the time of Adam to Moses. (Romans 5:12-14). A general result demands a general cause. I think I gave a terrible example during intro and probably misled a lot of people. But the point is not really about whether if we are in Adam’s position, we may have reversed the propensity to eat the apple. It is that empirically, from what the rest of the Bible says and from observation of the world today, we know that something must have gone wrong in the beginning and something must have affected us in a way we are born. Why else do we need to be ‘born again’ to see and enter the kingdom of God?
Jesus Wept
We were discussing about Jesus and Lazarus during Seo’s bible study and we came to one of the most interesting sections of the Book of John, where Jesus’ emotions became fully portrayed and exemplified. Here’s a section of some commentary and from this, we can probably see much better the interplay of death and life from God’s perspective:
John 11:33-34. In great contrast with the Greek gods’ apathy or lack of emotion, Jesus’ emotional life attests the reality of His union with people. Deeply moved may either be translated “groaned” or more likely “angered.” The Greek word enebrimēsato (from embrimaomai) seems to connote anger or sternness. (This Gr. verb is used only five times in the NT, each time of the Lord’s words or feelings: Matt. 9:30; Mark 1:43; 14:5; John 11:33, 38.)
Jesus himself is angry at the reign of sin and death. Why was Jesus angry? Some have argued that He was angry because of the people’s unbelief or hypocritical wailing. But this seems foreign to the context. A better explanation is that Jesus was angry at the tyranny of Satan who had brought sorrow and death to people through sin (cf. 8:44; Heb. 2:14-15). Also Jesus was troubled (etaraxen, lit., “stirred” or “agitated,” like the pool water in John 5:7; cf. 12:27; 13:21; 14:1, 27). This disturbance was because of His conflict with sin, death, and Satan.
11:35-37. Jesus’ weeping differed from that of the people. His quiet shedding of tears (edakrysen) differed from their loud wailing (klaiontas, v. 33). His weeping was over the tragic consequences of sin. The crowd interpreted His tears as an expression of love, or frustration at not being there to heal Lazarus.
John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures, Jn 11:33–37 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-).
Knowing how angry at the reign of death and sin God is, you know it isn’t the state He wanted the world to be. And we know that God’s story will never end that way. Therefore, just as sin reigned through the disobedience of one man, Adam, so grace would reign so much more through the righteousness and obedience of one Man, Jesus Christ!
The Acorn and the Oak
We talked about death, but what about life? Time and again I’m inspired by the acorn. It’s hard to imagine that something so puny contains God’s grand design of the kind of life He wants this acorn to have.
“Think of the self that God has given us as an acorn. It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God’s intention when He made the acorn was the oak tree. His intention for us is “..the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ.” Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes. When you look at the oak tree, you don’t feel that ‘loss’ of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God’s purpose for you life, the less terrible will the losses seem.”
Elizabeth Elliot, from Passion and Purity
The result of grace is this - the forgoing of the past and the losses which seem so overwhelming, cherishing the love relationship we have with God, and having the abundance of a new and full life. Adam never knew the love and grace of God. If he did, would he have taken the apple in disobedience? Now after all these exposition, I hope you’re ready to answer this question: If you never knew the love and grace of God, would you have taken the apple? Factually speaking, I would.
It’s not cheap at all.
