So here comes the third
part of the series, I hope that after finishing this post you will understand
what the title has to do with it.
"You shall not misuse
the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses
the name" (Exodus 20:7)
So firstly let’s talk about
some Names that God has. There is a whole list, but I’ll pick out some in order
not to write too much. For example we have ‚JEHOVAH-ROHI‘ (Psalm 23:1) ‚The
Lord my shepherd‘. This name is beautiful because it shows how much God wants
to look for us, how much he cares. Like a Sheppard he doesn’t want any of his
flock to get lost. A second one is ‚JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH‘
(Ezekiel 48:35)‚The Lord who is present‘ which says that, unlike Nietzsche said,
God isn’t death, but Nietzsche is instead. And last but not least ‚EL-SHADDAI‘(Genesis
17:1,Psalm 91:1) ‚God Almighty‘, which sums ist up pretty well.
But let’s talk about what
the verse really means, because this is really bad for me. It means every time
I say something like 'oh my god', or 'holy shit' or anything along those lines,
I do wrong, and God can hold me responsible for that. The thing is, I'm not
really good at holding back such things, they slip out of my mouth without me
even realizing what I just said. God wants us to respect him, respect his holy
name. I wouldn't shout 'Oh my Carolina' either, would I? To know his name, to
say it out loud, is a privilege and we need to honor him with it, which usually
is just really hard.
I thought that this
was the end, that I couldn't say more about this part when a different thought
hit me. What if God not only wants us to keep his name out of some things, like
swearing, but wants to be credited on others? Maybe it's not just we should not
misuse it, but on the same time use it when it should be used. In the name of
the Lord there is so much, a song says there is freedom, love, acceptance...
The list could go on forever. Plus God wants to be involved with us. He is the
creator of everything, he made you and me. Is it impossible that he wants to
hear a thank you from time to time? He had a lot of work in making this earth,
so maybe he wants us to acknowledge what he did. Sure, he doesn't need it, but
I don't need compliments either, but still you can make me happy with it. As we
saw earlier, his name is more than powerful and so we should stop talking about
coincidences or even fortune, because in the end it’s about God’s plan, it’s on
his purpose. He should be given the credit for it.
Isn't this part of
worship, giving honor to the one who deserves it? I guess so. For a long
time worship to me was just singing, or maybe playing an instrument, but there
is much more behind that as I found out in a conversation some weeks ago. Maybe
I’ll write about ist in another post, but I guess that we now have finished
what I had to say about the third commandment.
Cheerio
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
No pictures allowed
To be honest I'm already
pretty sick of my little series, but I should learn to be committed to
something, and obviously I need a little practice to do so. So let's talk about
the second commandment.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousands of generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20, 4-6)
So in order to talk about this properly I will divide the verses. First you shall not make yourself an idol. I guess this applies as well to any kind of imaginary picture, at least that's what I was thought as a kid. The thing is, as soon as I hear those words I can see how God is portrayed in the Simpsons, an old man, long beard, but you can never see his face. I guess most of us see God as some kind of old man, as he is revered to as 'the father' in the bible. In fact, God doesn't have a gender, he is genderless and by having images we limit his possibilities to be more than just a human being. There is this book called 'The shack' by William P. Young in which God looks like the typical Gospel singer, a not very slim black lady. In another, he is a 17th century English woman. I guess that has shaken up the image a little. On the other hand I get where those wrong pictures come from, I mean it says in Genesis 1, 26-27: "Then God said: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God who created him; male and female he created them". The question that comes to my mind is, did he create man physically like him or mentally/ emotionally. As human beings it's difficult for us to accept that certain things we cannot understand. We want to know how God looks like, even though we can't get it right anyway.
I really like how the Arabians have solved the problem. They don't have pictures of any humans in their mosque, just flowers and ornaments. Essentially I think they won't give you any room for wrong inner idols, unlike the old masters who draw Jesus and Moses in their paintings.
The other thing I wanted to talk about was the past when God admits to be jealous. I mean that's what I'm talking about when wondering if we are emotionally made after him, as seems to be having feelings. He is jealous, get's sad or happy, and shows love. He is definitely having those emotions in a greater range than we do, but still, I can see how we connect. Plus I want to add, and correct me if I'm wrong, that through Jesus' blood we can get set free of God's anger punishing our children and up until the fourth generation. He died for our sins, so we can escape our parent's mistakes.
Cheerio
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousands of generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20, 4-6)
So in order to talk about this properly I will divide the verses. First you shall not make yourself an idol. I guess this applies as well to any kind of imaginary picture, at least that's what I was thought as a kid. The thing is, as soon as I hear those words I can see how God is portrayed in the Simpsons, an old man, long beard, but you can never see his face. I guess most of us see God as some kind of old man, as he is revered to as 'the father' in the bible. In fact, God doesn't have a gender, he is genderless and by having images we limit his possibilities to be more than just a human being. There is this book called 'The shack' by William P. Young in which God looks like the typical Gospel singer, a not very slim black lady. In another, he is a 17th century English woman. I guess that has shaken up the image a little. On the other hand I get where those wrong pictures come from, I mean it says in Genesis 1, 26-27: "Then God said: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God who created him; male and female he created them". The question that comes to my mind is, did he create man physically like him or mentally/ emotionally. As human beings it's difficult for us to accept that certain things we cannot understand. We want to know how God looks like, even though we can't get it right anyway.
I really like how the Arabians have solved the problem. They don't have pictures of any humans in their mosque, just flowers and ornaments. Essentially I think they won't give you any room for wrong inner idols, unlike the old masters who draw Jesus and Moses in their paintings.
The other thing I wanted to talk about was the past when God admits to be jealous. I mean that's what I'm talking about when wondering if we are emotionally made after him, as seems to be having feelings. He is jealous, get's sad or happy, and shows love. He is definitely having those emotions in a greater range than we do, but still, I can see how we connect. Plus I want to add, and correct me if I'm wrong, that through Jesus' blood we can get set free of God's anger punishing our children and up until the fourth generation. He died for our sins, so we can escape our parent's mistakes.
Cheerio
Saturday, February 9, 2013
There is only one
The first of the Ten Commandments
is quite an easy one, at least that's what I thought. The bible says: "You
shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20.3). An annotation adds that we
shall not have any gods beside him either.
It sounds so simple, but then I think of all the stuff that is important to me. I spent quite a time on my computer for example. To be honest, I guess I spend more time on the internet than I do anything else, meaning I have less time with God than I do with a machine. Isn't it the way that we always have something more important to do than sit down and read the bible? Sometimes it might happen then that we put it very high in our list of priorities, like a goddess. I can't be the only one, right?
Another thing is that I believe in one God, but then I'm a curious soul. For example the way Hinduism works is really interesting. You have thousands and thousands of goddesses, but in the end it's just one God in different bodies. That's genius. And you can pray to the one that fits your situation the most. It's really fascinating.
And let's talk about horoscopes and superstitions. First, I do not believe in astrology, but whenever I get to that part in a newspaper, my curious side wants me to read what it says about Pisces and I still wonder if it's true. Sadly I have to admit that I can relate to the stereotypes that are given for my zodiac. To this day, this has given me loads of questions, it's really stupid. The thing is, the first Commandment orders me not to read them, but I'm just not strong enough not to. Another thing is the whole 11:11 thing. There is a saying that when you check your watch on a number like 14:14 then somebody is thinking of you. I'm positive that this is complete rubbish, but whenever it happens I am like "it would be so cute and what if and bla". My mind knows about the superstition and tells me that there is a chance, even though it's pretty childish. Oh and please don't let me get started on the whole karma/destiny stuff, which makes me confused and insecure since forever. I know so many people who do not believe in a God, but believe in destiny, which makes me wonder who writes your destiny then?
A different side of things opens when you think of the three monotheistic religions that we have. As the name says all three, namely Judaism, Islam and Christianity, believe in one God. I've had the discussion before, and this question comes up regularly, do those religions believe in the very same God? Some people say that only Judaism and Christianity 'share' him, while others are positive that we talk about three different ones. The rest shares my opinion and says, they are the same, but God is shown from a different perspective. The old testament of the bible is as well part of the Jewish Holy Scripture, and the Quran confirms the existence of most of the bibles prophets and their stories. For me it's obvious that at least when it comes to the one and only God, the three of us do agree.
As you can see, it's just one sentence and it has to do with a lot of different topics. I feel like I missed out half of the points I wanted to add, and still I wrote down those that were most important to me. I would've never imagined that there is so much to it, but obviously there is. In the end we can say that whether there is/are a/some/no god(s), in the end we are free to choose whatever we believe in.
Cheerio
It sounds so simple, but then I think of all the stuff that is important to me. I spent quite a time on my computer for example. To be honest, I guess I spend more time on the internet than I do anything else, meaning I have less time with God than I do with a machine. Isn't it the way that we always have something more important to do than sit down and read the bible? Sometimes it might happen then that we put it very high in our list of priorities, like a goddess. I can't be the only one, right?
Another thing is that I believe in one God, but then I'm a curious soul. For example the way Hinduism works is really interesting. You have thousands and thousands of goddesses, but in the end it's just one God in different bodies. That's genius. And you can pray to the one that fits your situation the most. It's really fascinating.
And let's talk about horoscopes and superstitions. First, I do not believe in astrology, but whenever I get to that part in a newspaper, my curious side wants me to read what it says about Pisces and I still wonder if it's true. Sadly I have to admit that I can relate to the stereotypes that are given for my zodiac. To this day, this has given me loads of questions, it's really stupid. The thing is, the first Commandment orders me not to read them, but I'm just not strong enough not to. Another thing is the whole 11:11 thing. There is a saying that when you check your watch on a number like 14:14 then somebody is thinking of you. I'm positive that this is complete rubbish, but whenever it happens I am like "it would be so cute and what if and bla". My mind knows about the superstition and tells me that there is a chance, even though it's pretty childish. Oh and please don't let me get started on the whole karma/destiny stuff, which makes me confused and insecure since forever. I know so many people who do not believe in a God, but believe in destiny, which makes me wonder who writes your destiny then?
A different side of things opens when you think of the three monotheistic religions that we have. As the name says all three, namely Judaism, Islam and Christianity, believe in one God. I've had the discussion before, and this question comes up regularly, do those religions believe in the very same God? Some people say that only Judaism and Christianity 'share' him, while others are positive that we talk about three different ones. The rest shares my opinion and says, they are the same, but God is shown from a different perspective. The old testament of the bible is as well part of the Jewish Holy Scripture, and the Quran confirms the existence of most of the bibles prophets and their stories. For me it's obvious that at least when it comes to the one and only God, the three of us do agree.
As you can see, it's just one sentence and it has to do with a lot of different topics. I feel like I missed out half of the points I wanted to add, and still I wrote down those that were most important to me. I would've never imagined that there is so much to it, but obviously there is. In the end we can say that whether there is/are a/some/no god(s), in the end we are free to choose whatever we believe in.
Cheerio
Friday, February 1, 2013
The Ten Commandments - A little series
Ok, don't give me that
look. I know how you might look at your page right now, I mean, I've already mentioned my believes in other posts before. Yeah I
know, it's old fashioned and you think it's boring, but before you leave
angrily, let me just explain what I've planned. It's not all bad, believe me.
I have no intention to turn my blog into a religious place, that's not me. My believes are part of my life, but I am not a saint. This little series is not made up to make you change your mind about Christianity, I'm not into forcing people to change, it's not even informative, no, I want to invite you to laugh at the things I did that have a relation to the commandments, and to read about the thoughts that I have. I might not even write about all, because I don't have a genius kick-ass story about all of them, we will see where this goes.
I'm no specialist; I am still the same girl, who happens to have an opinion on everything. Don't take me too serious please. This post is an introduction to the topic, so I will explain two more things.
First a little back-story for people who don't know anything about them. The commandments were ten rules, written down on stone plates, given to Moses on the mountain Sinai. I don't think they were the first rules the Israelis got from God, but the story is somewhat interesting. To this day they are one of the most well known commands, as some of them are similar to ethical rules and even some official laws. Just take it as a kind of history and politics lesson, ok?
On the other hand I guess you should know by now that I get my ideas out of recent events, so why do I write about them now? Well I had an argument with my father yesterday, and I got really mad. I don't want to talk too much about it now, I'll keep it short. I just remembered the one commandment that says something like honor your parents, and how I can't do it. Then I remembered more and more of them and I realized how madly I fail at fulfilling them.
The good thing for me is though, that I don't need to get them all correct and stuff. If you want to know why, let me know somehow, but I don't want to spoil this blog to much about faith, I'm no preacher babe. And if you think this idea is crap let me know too, I don't get feedback and I want to improve.
So yeah, first part will start in the next post I write, except something unexpected happens, I’ll let you now anyway.
Cheerio
I have no intention to turn my blog into a religious place, that's not me. My believes are part of my life, but I am not a saint. This little series is not made up to make you change your mind about Christianity, I'm not into forcing people to change, it's not even informative, no, I want to invite you to laugh at the things I did that have a relation to the commandments, and to read about the thoughts that I have. I might not even write about all, because I don't have a genius kick-ass story about all of them, we will see where this goes.
I'm no specialist; I am still the same girl, who happens to have an opinion on everything. Don't take me too serious please. This post is an introduction to the topic, so I will explain two more things.
First a little back-story for people who don't know anything about them. The commandments were ten rules, written down on stone plates, given to Moses on the mountain Sinai. I don't think they were the first rules the Israelis got from God, but the story is somewhat interesting. To this day they are one of the most well known commands, as some of them are similar to ethical rules and even some official laws. Just take it as a kind of history and politics lesson, ok?
On the other hand I guess you should know by now that I get my ideas out of recent events, so why do I write about them now? Well I had an argument with my father yesterday, and I got really mad. I don't want to talk too much about it now, I'll keep it short. I just remembered the one commandment that says something like honor your parents, and how I can't do it. Then I remembered more and more of them and I realized how madly I fail at fulfilling them.
The good thing for me is though, that I don't need to get them all correct and stuff. If you want to know why, let me know somehow, but I don't want to spoil this blog to much about faith, I'm no preacher babe. And if you think this idea is crap let me know too, I don't get feedback and I want to improve.
So yeah, first part will start in the next post I write, except something unexpected happens, I’ll let you now anyway.
Cheerio
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