just how many times can one die?

could it be that the biggest deception we have been caught up in is the focus on a single point of conversion?

 

we faithfully remember the exact day, time, and event when we first believed… and we carry this as a banner of our dignity and rite of passage into eternal security and present and future salvation

 

but strangely there is no account of Jesus ever taking any individual behind the Wailing Wall, handing him a “4 Spiritual Laws” booklet and telling him to, “repeat after me….”

yes, Jesus spoke of being ‘born again’ but that was once in a specific confrontation with a religious ruler named Nicodemus… and in the epistles Paul writes conceptually of being ‘born again’ to a living hope…

 

but both Jesus Christ and Paul the apostle spoke of dying daily, not only once… and communion (proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus) is not done only once as a lasting and final eternal event, but as something extremely important to be done as often as we eat together…

 

… and this “dying daily” idea was spoken of by both in graphic detail

 

the metaphor of life and death points to a seed which is planted inside soil and grows…. like a natural seed the seed of the spirit may indeed seem to have a measurable chronological beginning but that seed like the natural seed faces life and death every second of its life from that point on

from the very beginning it is involved in a perpetual struggle for life and this struggle is what brings the strength of character and establishes the longevity and fruitfulness of the life

 

just the same as a seed that dies, falls to the ground and germinates does not immediately become or remain a fully formed mature life form could the same be said of the spiritual seed?

 

perhaps the biggest problem could be that one single eternal and immutable event can so easily result in an ushering in a of a rite of privilege… and there are no “rites” and privileges other than loving, serving and dying to ones self… at least this is what Jesus and Paul seem to be suggesting to my mind

and if this attitude of rite, rights and privilege is established could this be a root contribution to the apparent shallowness of true spirituality in our lives?

 

so many Christians (and followers of other belief systems for that matter) claim to believe yet so few seem to read let alone study the scriptural texts and even fewer seem to understand it

 

and it seems very apparent that most feel fully content to be told from a pulpit what to and what not to do

 

… and maybe the spiritual leaders really like it this way?

 

personal rite and privilege conveniently instills an attitude of superiority and elitism and tends to leave one feeling totally qualified, guaranteed recipients of absolute benefits with no responsibility nor personal application required

 

… perhaps much like the Apartheid system injected into the “White” minority in recent South African history and that which is being injected into the “Black” majority in the present

 

what could it mean to “die daily?”

 

in our modern world of instant gratification and self actualization, individual rights, demands and democratic freedom how would this all work itself out?

 

and with all the feel good sentiment abounding from our TV’s and pulpits (religious and political) does this not seem like a huge negative, … a heavy bring-down?

 

or maybe these passages need to be erased from our scriptures…?

 

…. or maybe these emo-depressive meme-spinner Jesus and Paul characters need to be fully exposed and defrocked for the negative killjoys they clearly are?

 

…. or could it be that by thinking and believing we died once and that is enough we now are really well and truly dead?

 

 

 

 

to receive is everything

we hear so much about the inalienable constitutional right of individuals to RECEIVE respect, honour, fairness, dignity, equity, etc.

… yet I very seldom if ever seem to hear of the responsibility of individuals to GIVE rights, to extend these rights to others…

it is said that it is more blessed to give than to receive, … but it seems that these days to receive is everything

so what’s your take on giving?

“Mi Raza”, (My Race) – first published in Patria (16 April 1893)

I was introduced to this article (via a friend) and I found it on Wikiquote
http://www.thefullwiki.org/Jos%C3%A9_Mart%C3%AD

It is by  José Julián Martí Pérez (28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895) who was a leader of the Cuban independence movement as well as an esteemed poet and writer. He is revered as a great national hero, and often referred to as El Apostol de la Independencia Cubana [the Apostle of Cuban Independence]

I think it very pertinent for us today ….

My poems please the brave:
My poems, short and sincere,
Have the force of steel
Which forges swords.

My Race (1893)

“Mi Raza”, first published in Patria (16 April 1893)

• “Racist” is a confusing word, and it should be clarified. Men have no special rights simply because they belong to one race or another. When you say “men,” you have already imbued them with all their rights.
  • Variant translation: Men have no special right because they belong to one race or another: the word man defines all rights.

• Everything that divides men, everything that specifies, separates or pens them, is a sin against humanity.

• To insist on racial divisions, on racial differences, in an already divided people, is to place obstacles in the way of public and individual happiness, which can only be obtained by bringing people together as a nation.

• What right do white racists, who believe their race is superior, have for complaining about black racists, who see something special in their own race? What right do black racists, who see a special character in their race, have for complaining about white racists? White men who think their race makes them superior to black men admit the idea of racial difference and authorize and initiate black racists. Black men who proclaim their race — when what they are really proclaiming is the spiritual identity that distinguishes one ethnic group from another — authorize and incite white racists. Peace demands of Nature the recognition of human rights; discrimination is contrary to Nature and the enemy of peace. Whites who isolate themselves also isolate Negroes. Negroes who isolate themselves incite and isolate whites.

• In Cuba, there is no fear of a racial war. Men are more than whites, mulattos or Negroes. Cubans are more than whites, mulattos or Negroes. On the field of battle, dying for Cuba, the souls of whites and Negroes have risen together into the air.

• Ostentatious men who are governed by self-interest will combine, whether white or black, and the generous and selfless will similarly unite. True men, black and white, will treat one another with loyalty and tenderness, out of a sense of merit and the pride of everyone who honors the land in which we were born, black and white alike. Negroes, who now use the word “racist” in good faith, will stop using it when they realize it is the only apparently valid argument that weak men, who honestly believe that Negroes are inferior, use to deny them the full exercise of their rights as men. White and black racists would be equally guilty of racism.