James

aspen · May 6, 2019

JellyJam said:
I met this older man at a bus terminus one day. He was dressed in a plain white shirt, and light blue pants. A voice in my head said "Talk to this guy"

So I sat down next to him and said hello.

He then asked me, how my day was.

I didn't really want to say good, because that simply was not true.

So I said neither good or bad.

He smiled at me and told me the strangest thing.

Look around you he said, look at these people. All they can think is what's good or evil.

That's their problem he said, that's their war. It's just positives and negatives for them.

Then I asked him what his name was.

He said, James.

Then he stood up because his bus had arrived.

Then just before he left he said one last thing.

In the end, they do it to themselves.

Labeling creation good and evil is a bad habit called eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Our opinion does not make anything good or evil - it just wastes time. God calls us to love, which the double edged sword that cuts across dualism. Christ was not dualistic, but Christians, especially of the fundamentalist ilk lean that way.

JellyJam · May 6, 2019

aspen said:
Labeling creation good and evil is a bad habit called eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Our opinion does not make anything good or evil - it just wastes time. God calls us to love, which the double edged sword that cuts across dualism. Christ was not dualistic, but Christians, especially of the fundamentalist ilk lean that way.

Loved the idea of it, didn't understand it, so please reinvent every you said.

aspen · May 6, 2019

JellyJam said:
Loved the idea of it, didn't understand it, so please reinvent every you said.

In the story of Adam and Eve there was a tree that they were not suppose to eat from, but A&E made a choice to relabel the tree ‘good to eat’ and from then on they were caught into a cycle/habit/curse of labeling everything good/evil based on how it served their private needs. The world became black and white/good and evil; their minds were effectively dualistic. The story describes our blindness - we are ‘cursed’ to lean towards labeling rather than experiencing life. We are armchair quarterbacking our own lives from the bench. Christ came to save us from this fate and the guilt that was blocking our relationship with God. In fact, I interpret the animal clothing that God made for A&E as our ego/false self. Christ didn’t have the clothing/ego or the curse of living in a dualistic mindset. He loved everyone from his true self to their true self - he had an uncanny ability to see through all the BS and spin generated by the people he met and he tried to teach them how to love as we were created to do - true self to true self

JellyJam · May 6, 2019

aspen said:
In the story of Adam and Eve there was a tree that they were not suppose to eat from, but A&E made a choice to relabel the tree ‘good to eat’ and from then on they were caught into a cycle/habit/curse of labeling everything good/evil based on how it served their private needs. The world became black and white/good and evil; their minds were effectively dualistic. The story describes our blindness - we are ‘cursed’ to lean towards labeling rather than experiencing life. We are armchair quarterbacking our own lives from the bench. Christ came to save us from this fate and the guilt that was blocking our relationship with God. In fact, I interpret the animal clothing that God made for A&E as our ego/false self. Christ didn’t have the clothing/ego or the curse of living in a dualistic mindset. He loved everyone from his true self to their true self - he had an uncanny ability to see through all the BS and spin generated by the people he met and he tried to teach them how to love as we were created to do - true self to true self

Sorry for the irrelevancy of this YouTube clip, but this is totally where I am.

aspen · May 6, 2019

JellyJam said:
Sorry for the irrelevancy of this YouTube clip, but this is totally where I am.

But I even ‘reinvented’ what I wrote! Haha

JellyJam · May 6, 2019

aspen said:
But I even ‘reinvented’ what I wrote! Haha

Yeah I'm going to reply soon, I just got this monkey on my back.

JellyJam · May 6, 2019

aspen said:
In the story of Adam and Eve there was a tree that they were not suppose to eat from, but A&E made a choice to relabel the tree ‘good to eat’ and from then on they were caught into a cycle/habit/curse of labeling everything good/evil based on how it served their private needs. The world became black and white/good and evil; their minds were effectively dualistic. The story describes our blindness - we are ‘cursed’ to lean towards labeling rather than experiencing life. We are armchair quarterbacking our own lives from the bench. Christ came to save us from this fate and the guilt that was blocking our relationship with God. In fact, I interpret the animal clothing that God made for A&E as our ego/false self. Christ didn’t have the clothing/ego or the curse of living in a dualistic mindset. He loved everyone from his true self to their true self - he had an uncanny ability to see through all the BS and spin generated by the people he met and he tried to teach them how to love as we were created to do - true self to true self

Actually if your current understanding of this dual nature in us to label everything good & evil is true, then Jesus is not for you.

Matthew 12:33-35 33"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

See here, that Jesus is teaching people that they must make their fruit good.

But then he says this about himself in comparison to God.

Luke 18:19 19"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-except God alone.

Strange, no?

stunnedbygrace · May 6, 2019

aspen said:
In the story of Adam and Eve there was a tree that they were not suppose to eat from, but A&E made a choice to relabel the tree ‘good to eat’ and from then on they were caught into a cycle/habit/curse of labeling everything good/evil based on how it served their private needs. The world became black and white/good and evil; their minds were effectively dualistic. The story describes our blindness - we are ‘cursed’ to lean towards labeling rather than experiencing life. We are armchair quarterbacking our own lives from the bench. Christ came to save us from this fate and the guilt that was blocking our relationship with God. In fact, I interpret the animal clothing that God made for A&E as our ego/false self. Christ didn’t have the clothing/ego or the curse of living in a dualistic mindset. He loved everyone from his true self to their true self - he had an uncanny ability to see through all the BS and spin generated by the people he met and he tried to teach them how to love as we were created to do - true self to true self

Wow...because of something I discovered yesterday, and what I awoke thinking of today, this has really helped me.

It all involved a certain person and something she always does and she keeps doing. As a result, everyone is always getting real angry and throwing fits at her.

I decided to talk to her about it and, much to my surprise, she LITERALLY does not know she's doing it.

So, what everyone thinks is her being bad, maybe evil even, ...never mind I can't yet explain it, but your post helped me Aspen. Funny though, I was getting ready to ask you to further explain too and then you did.

farouk · May 6, 2019

stunnedbygrace said:
Wow...because of something I discovered yesterday, and what I awoke thinking of today, this has really helped me.

It all involved a certain person and something she always does and she keeps doing. As a result, everyone is always getting real angry and throwing fits at her.

I decided to talk to her about it and, much to my surprise, she LITERALLY does not know she's doing it.

So, what everyone thinks is her being bad, maybe evil even, ...never mind I can't yet explain it, but your post helped me Aspen. Funny though, I was getting ready to ask you to further explain too and then you did.

The way we are and the way we perceive ourselves is so often very different. Scripture is a wholesome mirror which contains Good News how by faith we may be transformed because of the work of Christ.

stunnedbygrace · May 6, 2019

Yes, farouk, but not only that how we see ourselves and how we really are is different, but as Mark said, this applies to how we see others too. We see them through a skewed lens as well. Good and bad is seen through US and our feelings and opinions, rather than through God.

And on further thought of what mark said yesterday, (just went to look for his post and realized I'm in the wrong thread!) - will try to find it, sorry guys, carry on.

stunnedbygrace · May 6, 2019

Oops, yes its this thread and it was Aspen who said it, not marks.

So Aspen, my thoughts this morning are that you and marks in his thread were talking about related things. He talked about how we want to be viewed as good, so if we know others view what we are doing as bad, we keep doing it, but are vocally against it.

I'm certainly not making sense, am I?? I need to let it percolate before I will be coherent.

aspen · May 7, 2019

This is the Johari window:

The Johari window is a technique that helps people better understand their relationship with themselves and others. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955, and is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise.

Basically it offers 4 different perspectives of self described by this diagram

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James

aspen

“"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few

JellyJam

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aspen

“"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few

JellyJam

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aspen

“"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few

JellyJam

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JellyJam

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stunnedbygrace

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farouk

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stunnedbygrace

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stunnedbygrace

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aspen

“"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few

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