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It implies saying a special Magical Prayer. Or having a Born-Again Experience. The problem is we were not really sure what we were supposed to do. We didn't quite relate to the testimonies of those who explained their experiences to us. It involved something like running up the aisle and falling down to your knees at the invitation during the service, then sometimes getting baptized out of personal desire. I never really got the clarification myself.
I am certain what there is to do, I am certain what the parables are telling a person to do like purchasing oil, but if I tell Christians, they don't believe it because they don't want to believe it.......You are talking about scriptures that are speaking of Gentiles who take the narrow way in becoming a priest, and of course the narrow way is the veil into the holy of holies where one would have to scrape and squeeze past a 400 pound veil into a room that has no door.
This invitation to the Gentile to become a Levite is to the few, not the majority and of course the majority have no desire to become a Levite, and there is only one single way for a Gentile to become a Levite and this is what Christians wont accept.
A million Gentiles can appoint themselves as priests all day long, but if God doesn't appoint them himslef, you have a million Gentiles claiming to be priests who are not priests because they did not fulfill the requirements for a Gentile to become a priest and there are requirements, it is not set up where just anyone can become a priest, but that is what the world believes.
The difference between a Gentile fulfilling the requirements and a Gentile who doesn't fulfill the requirements is oil.
If God appoints a Gentile to become a Levite, he immediatly pours oil on that person's head because God will not have his appointed priests to remain in ignorance, they are his appointed Levites and that oil is for learning very fast.......
There are many scriptures that are speaking about just 1 section of the temple, of the kingdom, but when people read them withought the knowledge of those 3 sections, it looks like Jesus is sending everyone else to hell.
For instance,'' No liar, murderer or thief or the sexual immoral shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.''
This is speaking of the Zoe kingdom that is made up of high priests, it isn't speaking of the saved Gentiles in the court, it is only speaking of the Zoe kingdom.
Since I was a young child I had always been taught that Jesus loved me. I had always sung "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" and "Jesus Loves the Children of the World" with conviction. But now suddenly they were telling us that it wasn't enough to love God and Jesus. We had to have a Born Again Experience where we acknowledged our sins, tearfully apparently, and ask for forgiveness. And that would become the Moment of Salvation.
Apparently loving Jesus wasn't salvation enough.
Also, when you sing "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" and "Jesus Loves the Children of the World" there is the fact that Jesus lived two thousand years ago, and everyone who lived two thousand years ago died and are incapable of loving anyone, to consider. "The Bible tells me so," that the Earth one stopped rotating on command from Joshua, hordes of dead people came up out of their graves, according to Gospel Matthew, and that God is an omnipotent Being who makes mistakes. Among other preposterous claims.
In other words, perhaps it's time to outgrow the childish notions that are found in the Bible.
"Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are." Stars are not "diamonds in the sky" at all. They are giants balls of mostly hydrogen and helium undergoing thermonuclear reactions, very very far away. It's possible to grow up and actually know things. But it does require putting our childlike assumptions behind us.
In other words, perhaps it's time to outgrow the childish notions that are found in the Bible.
...
I don't disagree. But there are mature notions found in the bible as well, and those can be of worth to people. And, perhaps I should also say that there are often many worthwhile things wrapped up in stories for children.
I don't disagree. But there are mature notions found in the bible as well, and those can be of worth to people. And, perhaps I should also say that there are often many worthwhile things wrapped up in stories for children.
The same can be said for the religious texts of every religion. But when those religious texts are being used to perpetuate ignorance, it's time to put them aside and move on.
Wikipedia
The Golden Rule
The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one's self would wish to be treated. It is a maxim that is found in many religions and cultures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule
Notice how the Golden Rule covers most situations, no long involved sacred texts required.
(Btw, in, "Life in the World Unseen"...the first thing I noticed : that a simple, sweet, young woman,
hadn't gone to church.. sure, she believed in a God...was in the exact same place as a priest. Ha!
This is on the Other Side...)
So tell us your idea, thrill....btw, how ya been?
Wait!...The second widow didn't open a door? Do we get a prize?
The difference is the first woman was so into Jesus and so grieving for his appearance that her mind created a Jesus to visit her. Happens all the time when widowed spouses grieve for the deceased spouse. But we both know Jesus didn't literally appear to her.
How do we know? Because if Jesus literally appeared to her he'd have to appear to all Christians because he doesn't favor one Christian over another and grant them special visits.
Or does he?
The second widow didn't open the door because nobody knocked. Not Jesus, not even the meter reader. Tough break. Life is a batch.
The same can be said for the religious texts of every religion.
That may be true, or at least many religions if not all.
Quote:
But when those religious texts are being used to perpetuate ignorance, it's time to put them aside and move on.
Sure, they can be put aside. I know I have, to a degree. On the other hand, it's probably impossible to put aside a book, entirely, that one was raised hearing constantly and so it is ingrained, literally a part of one's psyche. So, seeing those things from a different perspective is a healthy way to go, in my experience. Like I said, find whatever nugget of worth that might be wrapped up in the story. There's plenty wrapped up in the Jesus narrative that is worthwhile.
Everything in the Jesus narrative is just repeating history with every word and every action he comes showing man how to walk in the word, to walk in the prophesies that he walked in because they are about man, and Jesus only walked in them because he was a man, everyone has to be the Passover lamb, everyone must sacrifice the lips of a Sukkot bull.
Everything Jesus did was already planned because there was already a set plan in place of 7 years.
Jesus had to come as a prophet like Moses and so everythjng he did mirrored what Moses did. When the multitudes were following Jesus as they followed Moses, Jesus set them in order according to Temple plan as if he was shadowing Moses without a Tabernacle and instead of people being put in order about the 4 sections around the temple, he put them in order around himself as if they were around the temple.
There is nothing original with Jesus, he mirrored the life of Joseph exactly, he mirrored the life of Moses, of Boaz, of Joshuah, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Abel.
His whole life was just repeating history but not only him, it is for all people to walk as he walked.
The first Passover was about a lamb, and then when they came up to the mountain, this evolved and God appointed all priests to stand as Passover lambs, and this evolved and expanded to all Jews where Jesus came saying,'' Eat of my flesh.'' Jesus was only able to say this because he was a Jew, and it is something any Jew or priest would say when they are speaking of the symbolism and evolution of a Passover....
This has now evolved showing how a person dies daily in a Passover lifestyle, and it is the dying to one's own selfish desires that allows Jesus to live instead of them, they become the Passover lamb. Jesus was showing how that all people should die.
1. But we both know Jesus didn't literally appear to her. 2. Because if Jesus literally appeared to her he'd have to appear to all Christians because
he doesn't favor one Christian over another and grant them special visits.
Or does he?
3.The second widow didn't open the door because nobody knocked. Not Jesus, not even the meter reader.
Ok. 3. made me Lol
2. is nuts....I can love all 5 of my kids....but the one that writes the letter with the invite,
puts out the flowers and Vodka for me...gets the personal visit...per and simple.
1. No we don't...anybody from the Other Side can drop in on any one, anytime. So there
I'm picturing a lonely widow sitting alone at a dining table, so lonely she could die. She prays this verse, "Jesus, you said you'd come and sup with me if I just called on you. I hear your voice at the door. Come in and dine with me please."
She's done all the church stuff all her life--sung hymns at service, prayed, taken part in church drives and other activities and generally immersed herself in Christian life. Magically, Jesus appears and he looks just like all the pictures of the Caucasian bearded long haired Jesus she's come to know. She recognizes him instantly and invites him in. He enters and sits with her and chats with her and they have a grand time.
Her neighbor next door is in the same boat--widowed, lonely. But this widow has never gone to church and has never even though of Jesus until this moment. She also prays this prayer and waits for Jesus to come to her door to knock. And she waits. And she waits. And she waits. And she waits all night but Jesus never knocks. Exhausted she stumbles into her bedroom and takes a bottle of sleeping pills with a 5th of Bourbon.
What's the difference between these two women?
One is experiencing a psychotic break with reality, and the other one is severely depressed.
I love this verse...I don't read Revelations...but saw this somewhere.
...if any hear my voice and open the door, I will come into their house and eat with them, and they will eat with me ... 3:20
Any other verses you know of saying God wants a personal relationship with us?
Hannibal?
I know of, 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know'.
Jer 33:3
While typing that, I found it interesting and note worthy He didn't stop at "great things'...saying, 'AND' .
I think it's big for God, ha, to add ....unsearchable.
Those of the kingdom of heaven have no need to ask, for God knows every need. (Matthew 6:30-34) First one must seek "His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you". As for praying to God, he apparently does not hear the prayers of a sinner. (John 9:31) In order for one to repent, they must know what they need to repent from. That is hard for the hypocrite and the doubleminded.
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Woman obviously had a deathwish. 
