How do we define values ? One way is to look for the common feelings and motivations among us and give them certain names. This is the way we define love, mercy, passion, grief, and so forth… But then things become so relativistic because our feelings are not exactly the same. Also our experiences in life are totally different. Say for example, love, for a grown up man, is a true commitment, as for a young teen, it is a more sexually oriented feeling. And even our prospective for grown-ups and teens is not standardized. So my example is not going to make sense to most of you!
We got used to live with relative definitions. But every now and then we wonder,”what is the standard? What is absolute?” Then we try to generalize our definitions to give it a stronger base. Still it is not enough because life has no meaning with relativism!
It is our beliefs that set the reference for absolute definitions. But if our beliefs are based on materialistic evidence, we will end up with more confusion. They are relative beliefs!! Therefore they are self-contradicting! I think that is why the bible said,”1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2For by it the elders obtained a good report. 3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear…”(Hebrew 11). If you continue reading this chapter, you will see how different biblical characters had done amazing things and moved on in their ways. I am sure that life had a true meaning for them.
I read that other day about these old writtings known as the Gospel of Judas. It didn’t trouble me at all that it praises Judas Iscariot and account him as a saint for what he did. However, it raised some thoughts in my mind. One of them is related to Judas himself and the other one is related to those who believed in his sanctity.
First, let me talk about Judas. Judas was not only one of Jesus’ disciples, but I bet he was one of the smartest. He must had been honest too. The reason I am saying so is that he was assigned to be responsible for all the finances. He must had performed miracles. Remember when Jesus had send out all Hs disciples, He ordered them to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, rasie the dead, and cast out demons (Matt 10:8). Judas had the best experience anyone can ask for. But at the end he betrayed his Master. One can say the devil tricked him, but many times Jesus warned him. Even till the last moment Jesus told him,”what you do, do quickly.” After all of this, he still persisted on pursing his plan. The bible mentioned that satan entered him. Did satan enter him against his will? No, it was his choice . Though he did not choose it explicitly, he took the way that leads to so.
I can analyse Judas character and give a very reasonable explanation to what he did, from a psychological point of view. But I find it more beneficient to learn something out of this stroy than to satisfy my intense intellectual desire to analyse Judas. After all this time with his Master, I am sure that Judas had a very strong motivation to do what he did. otherwise, he wouldn’t have done it. His mistake was that he did not reveal his motivations, his thoughts.. I am sure the whole thing started with simple and innocent ideas. But since he covered these thoughts, they started to ferment. When reading the bible, you will notice how many times Jesus gently provoked Judas to expose his hidden thoughts, but Judas kept silent. Assuredly, Jesus loved Judas and when He was prophecising about the one who will betray Him, He was mainly worried about Judas. But as a loving Father, He did not want to hurt Judas’ feelings. He did not confront him,but He was waiting for Judas to speak up. But Judas kept silent. He may had some talks with the Pharisees but he kept silent in front of those who cared about him.
Sometimes Satan wants us to keep silent especially when some of our thoughts need fermentation. He will fight us with discomfort feelings when we try to speak up and reveal ourselves to those who really care out us. Remember that God’s way is always bright. It is always light and it does not fear darkness. If we are afraid to reveal our desires fearing that we may lose them, then they are not from God. They cannot live in light.
To be continued….
Be simple in your dreams and you will be content..
Be simple in your faith and you will see how powerful it is..
Be simple in your prayers and it will change your life gradually…
Be simple in your thoughts so that your faith can breath…
Be simple in your words and they will more powerful…
Be simple when lookin at yourself and you will feel the meaing of humbleness…
Be simple when lookin at others and you will learn how to love them…
Be simple in accepting the church’s teaching and it will raise your spirit.
Be simple before God and He will fill you with His wisdom…
In my life, I learnt more from simple people than I did from philosophers.
DEAR ALL,
This time I have a question without a clear answer….Recently, I learnt something from Tony; I learnt that i shouldn’t post ideas unless it is clear to to me…. This time I am not gonna answer.. i will pose the question to learn from you. The question is:
“What is the meaning of satisfaction and self-content? ”
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
A very wise man once told me, ” The only way to measure your self-pride is through your dreams.” I know it may not look resonable to you, but give your mind a chance to digest it. Give it some thought and you will find out how deep this statement is… Really our dreams, including the spiritual ones, reflect our self-pride. I think that is why humble and modest people, of course the real ones not the fake ones, are always happy. They have simple dreams, they are satisfied with what they have… They are even free to let it go, if these dreams don’t come true… Now I started to understand why the church talks a lot about modesty and meekness… I think they are the real way of happiness and freedom….
The answer is surprisingly yes!! Here is the statement:
” God is limited by His infinite attributes”
Let me give you an example! If I say that God can’t lie, it is a limitation. But does it degrade from Him, absolutely not. God can’t lie beacause His infinite attributes do not agree with this.
Let me take another biblical example: if you read the Gospel according to St. Mark chaper 6 from 1 to 6:
(Quoted in English then Arabic)
” 1And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. 2And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. 4But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. 5And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching. ”
1 وَغَادَرَ يَسُوعُ ذلِكَ الْمَكَانَ وَعَادَ إِلَى بَلْدَتِهِ، وَتَلاَمِيذُهُ يَتْبَعُونَهُ.
2 وَلَمَّا حَلَّ السَّبْتُ، أَخَذَ يُعَلِّمُ فِي الْمَجْمَعِ، فَدُهِشَ كَثِيرُونَ حِينَ سَمِعُوهُ، وَقَالُوا: «مِنْ أَيْنَ لَهُ هَذَا؟ وَمَا هَذِهِ الْحِكْمَةُ الْمَوْهُوبَةُ لَهُ، وَهَذِهِ الْمُعْجِزَاتُ الْجَارِيَةُ عَلَى يَدَيْهِ؟
3 أَلَيْسَ هَذَا هُوَ النَّجَّارَ ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ، وَأَخَا يَعْقُوبَ وَيُوسِي وَيَهُوذَا وَسِمْعَانَ؟ أَوَلَيْسَتْ أَخَوَاتُهُ عِنْدَنَا هُنَا؟» هكَذَا كَانُوا يَشُكُّونَ فِيهِ.
4 وَلكِنَّ يَسُوعَ قَالَ لَهُمْ: «لاَ يَكُونُ النَّبِيُّ بِلاَ كَرَامَةٍ إِلاَّ فِي بَلْدَتِهِ، وَبَيْنَ أَقْرِبَائِهِ، وَفِي بَيْتِهِ!»
5 وَلَمْ يَقْدِرْ أَنْ يَعْمَلَ هُنَاكَ أَيَّةَ مُعْجِزَةٍ، غَيْرَ أَنَّهُ لَمَسَ بِيَدَيْهِ عَدَداً قَلِيلاً مِنَ الْمَرْضَى فَشَفَاهُمْ.
6 وَتَعَجَّبَ مِنْ عَدَمِ إِيمَانِهِمْ. ثُمَّ أَخَذَ يَطُوفُ بِالْقُرَى الْمُجَاوِرَةِ وَهُوَ يُعَلِّمُ. >
I want you to focus on verses 5 and 6. Verse 5 said that He couldn’t do mighty works, it didn’t say He did not or He did not want to. It said literaly He couldn’t. How could not Jesus do a mircale??? Isn’t He God? Definitly He is. Then what is wrong?? The answer is, nothing is wrong. Verse 6 explains every thing right away: Jesus could not do a miracle because of their unbelieve… He is the one who set the rule… He can’t break it, not out of weakness, but, out of prefection… It is his infinite justice that limited Him…
God can’t do evil things not out of weakness but out of perfect righteousness.
I wanted to complete Tony’s idea about how we are limiting God by rules.. We will really limit God if you employ our own logic to make Him perfect.. BUT God revealed Himself to us in His Son. He showed us Himself in the bible. He told us about Himself… These things that He told us about are absolute facts.. They are not going to confine Him.. What will really confine HIM is our rejection to His clear statements that He repeated more than once…I d like to give another example here:
When He talked about Himself as the only way of salvation…. When He talked several times about the necessity of faith for our salvation….
But our self-righteousness does n’t accept it, our logic will start assuming postulates about different cases that doesn’t look fair if it were judged through Jesus words. Then what will do? We will act as Gods by twisting His words to others words that satisfy our sense of fairness.
And the Truth will set you free
Dear All,
First of all, I’d like to thank Rami for this idea. It is nice to have such blog to post our thoughts and ideas. I’ll post the first question: Do you beleive in an absolute truth? For some of you, this question means a lot. For others, may be, it didn’t ring a bell. Anyways, now you have the question and if you have an answer for it, please post it!.
Miena