The special mag we had on Jesus had an excellent illustration that addresses the claim that Jesus was God in the flesh:
"Some workers make a request of their supervisor, but he says that he does not have the authority to grant it. If his statement is true, the supervisor has wisely displayed an awareness of his limitations. If it is not true - if he can grant the request but chooses not to - he has been deceptive. Now, how did Jesus respond when two of his apostles desired positions of prominence? He told them, "This sitting down at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." If Jesus were really God, would that not have been a lie? Instead, by deferring to the One with greater authority, Jesus set a beautiful example in modesty - and he showed he was not equal to God."
Thursday, April 22, 2010
An Opinion is Valuable as a Contribution
Been thinking about this one - 1 glaring fault of mine is that I am opinionated. Something I heard made me think about when this is a fault - because obviously opinions are valuable in all kinds of settings. The statement I heard was that opinions are valuable when we offer them to someone and we offer them as a contribution to the other person. Otherwise, it is just me being "self-righteous". So I have been practicing this.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
What Really Is An Apology
I heard something interesting. When we hurt someone, the person is not looking for compensation - they are wanting to be healed. An honest, sincere apology is not a compensation, it is first aid - it heals. An insincere, forced apology is a "compensation". And a stiff apology is just another insult on top of the original insult.
Friday, April 16, 2010
3 Clever Stories
W had to attend a communications seminar at his work - and I have been listening to the audio CDs they gave to him. At one point there is a discussion about 3 Clever Stories that we start telling/using when we are having a problem with a person to justify our withdrawal from them/working things out. The purpose of our Clever Stories is to make us feel good about doing "bad" - about not getting to "dialogue" with them, about blaming someone else rather than taking responsibility for what we individually can do in the situation. And we assign motive.
The first is Victim. You know this one - "It's not my fault". The second is Villain - it's all YOUR fault, it's all YOUR vices." This one lets us feel no responsibility. It makes a "I'm a Victim" story more convincing. I contains certain elements of truth, but blows it out of proportion. The third and last is Helpless - "there are no alternatives", and we often become silent/withdraw from the person(s) or become or what the authors call violent - we hurl insults, bully, namecall, etc.
Sometimes we do all three at the same time. I thought it was an interesting way to sort it out, and of course was reminded of Matthew 18 - that when we have an issue with someone or know that someone has issue with us Jesus says to go do what? Have dialogue with them about it . . .
The first is Victim. You know this one - "It's not my fault". The second is Villain - it's all YOUR fault, it's all YOUR vices." This one lets us feel no responsibility. It makes a "I'm a Victim" story more convincing. I contains certain elements of truth, but blows it out of proportion. The third and last is Helpless - "there are no alternatives", and we often become silent/withdraw from the person(s) or become or what the authors call violent - we hurl insults, bully, namecall, etc.
Sometimes we do all three at the same time. I thought it was an interesting way to sort it out, and of course was reminded of Matthew 18 - that when we have an issue with someone or know that someone has issue with us Jesus says to go do what? Have dialogue with them about it . . .
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Slaughter Was Very Great
Our CO's final talk on Sunday was about the Last Days. He focused on 4 things - 1) events 2) attitudes 3) political circumstances 4) the situation among God's people.
In the "Events' section, at one point he focused in on Matt 24:7, "nation rising against nation", and asked, "But on what scale would this be?" He took us to Rev 6:4 (the four horsemen account) - there the fiery-colored horse was granted to "take peace away from the EARTH." Also, the scripture says that the slaughter would be great - and he pointed out the difference between a battle 200 years ago with a solider and a sword or a pike or a musket - that it is hard to kill someone with a sword, and in a battle, how many men could you kill in hand to hand combat - and then pointed out that when, for instance, the machine gun was used, the slaughter was great - think about the soldiers coming ashore at Normandy and being gunned down . . .or bombs - in Dresden, 100,000 killed, think about Hiroshima.
Was thought provoking and really evidence where we are in time.
In the "Events' section, at one point he focused in on Matt 24:7, "nation rising against nation", and asked, "But on what scale would this be?" He took us to Rev 6:4 (the four horsemen account) - there the fiery-colored horse was granted to "take peace away from the EARTH." Also, the scripture says that the slaughter would be great - and he pointed out the difference between a battle 200 years ago with a solider and a sword or a pike or a musket - that it is hard to kill someone with a sword, and in a battle, how many men could you kill in hand to hand combat - and then pointed out that when, for instance, the machine gun was used, the slaughter was great - think about the soldiers coming ashore at Normandy and being gunned down . . .or bombs - in Dresden, 100,000 killed, think about Hiroshima.
Was thought provoking and really evidence where we are in time.
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