Beholding the Beauty

I was going to repost this, but I figured...I'll just link to it. :) Here.

EDIT (9/15/2010 4:08 p.m.): This is a work in progress, and generally paints with a very broad brush. However, please understand that my modus operandi with this article is to purposely narrow the semantic range of the words "spirit" and "soul" to their (apparent) usage in Gen. 2:7, and to try to understand and/or translate those exact words as used in the rest of Scripture from their meanings to be consistent with this new narrower range. -------------------------------- My current understanding of the nature of death and the Scriptural (or more accurately, Traditional, of which Scriptural is a part) definitions of the spirit, soul, and body, is as follows: That the "living soul" is the union of spirit (from God) and body (from dust). (Gen. 2:7) That death is the separation of that spirit from the that body, resulting in the corruption of said body, and the return of the spirit to God. (Eccl. 12:7) (This spirit is what is commonly referred to today as ...

This past Friday (Sept. 10) was my birthday. I did absolutely nothing to celebrate it. In fact, I was planning to take the day off; but circumstances (and the fact that I had already taken Monday off for Labor Day) dictated that I actually work, and I wound up working harder than the rest of the week combined (not longer, but definitely harder). Again, I was planning on a little celebration on Saturday, but got caught up in some more work that wasn't supposed to take that long. What's surprising to me, though, is that by saying this, I'm not complaining. :) I used to really look forward to my birthday; but this year, it was just another day — and I'm OK with that! I must be growing up or something. LOL

The Church is revealed to all as a brilliantly lit heaven, leading the faithful in the way of the light. Standing therein we cry aloud: make firm the foundation of this house, Lord.

I wrote the following in response to a forum discussion, and you can see it there as well. But it reads like a Blog Post, and I needed something to put on here, since it's been a while, so here you go. :) —————————— I think overall Scriptural use of the term "save" and it's derivatives is not as cut-and-dried as popular theology might have it. Or at least not enough to use it as a technical term in soteriological discussions, without further qualification. Let me throw these into the pot.... I Cor. 7:14-16 "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now they are holy. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save th...

Don't worry...I haven't forgot about this. I'm just really busy lately. And I don't really have much to say right now, either. But being busy doesn't help me come up with new stuff in the first place, so...hopefully the two will get fixed at the same time. :)

There’s something in the air out there, a growing realization that the “post-industrial” society probably can’t last. What’s more, people are starting to realize that it doesn’t even really make them happy, that they’re losing touch with many of the activities that make them feel human. This realization is creating a curious junction out there where the self-negating eco-hysterics of the far left meet and exchange ideas with the self-preserving survivalists of the far right. The underlying philosophies differ of course, but both groups seem to be praying for some kind of collapse or zombie apocalypse so that they can quit their crappy, numbing jobs on corporate campuses and start growing their own lettuce after the shit goes down. The left knows that keeping everything local is more practical and sustainable, and the right knows that humans are flawed and someone’s going to have to kill the bastards who want to steal the cauliflower. From here . Somewhat (but not too) relevant NOTE: I ...