chegg

On a side note, I found this interesting...... Christianity: Satan is a Created Being, Created by Jesus: Isaiah 14:12-15; Revelation 12:9; Colossians 1:15-16. Mormonism: Jesus and Satan are Brothers: Gospel Through the Ages, p.15

I am still unsure Nungali. You only get 2 blessings on the karmic-scale-of-good-posts. :wub: What if I were to insult the holy spirit then say "oops, sorry about that holy spirit, I hope I wasn't out of line with those insults. I repent, I repent, I didnt mean it, please forgive me, I dont want eternal damnation" According to scripture, it doesnt matter what I say, pray or do, I would now be eternally damned, end of story. That, right there, is some really serious stuff. If the holy spirit widthdraws, it can't/won't re-establish the connection for some reason ?

Hi Lino, what do you belive in ? Just curious. I havn't had any experiences with chakras and I dont really bother doing practices for them. The buddhist's, hindu's, new agers, etc., talk about them all the time. Even some Christian mystics warn against intentionally energizing certain chakras prematurely as these should be left up to the holy spirit for activation (it supposedly knows what it best for you).

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Hi cat, excellent question ! You get 5 blessings on the karmic-scale-of-good-posts ! :wub: :wub: The first thing I would do is ask myself "Would my life be better without this friend ?" You could get buddhasophical and ask "What does it mean to have a friend ? Does a 'friend' really exist or did humanity just make up the word 'friend' ? Are friends just attachments ?" I reckon every friend will have a certain degree of insincerity, a degree of evilness. Its up to you to use your power of discernment and decide whether (i) to put up with it, (ii) try to assist that friend and point out these insincerities, or (iii) press the ejector seat button and say "bye, bye, luv" .

"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."

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From a christian (with a touch of mysticism) perspective: "it is impossible to grasp this mystery by human reason" - St. Spyridon [1] [2] That statement above should basically shut me up. But I will go on....... We could however, make an attempt at crudely describing a few properties exhibited by GOD. What do we hear from others about GOD? (i) He is the creator [bible]. (ii) He creates in his own image [bible]. (iii) He is the everlasting life/light [1] [2]. (iv) He has a 'will-pleasure' (not a desire) to manifest himself everywhere i.e., to manifest his total wisdom, total love and total almightyness. [1] [2]. (v) He has Manifested himself within himself. [1] (vi) Grace is also an attribute of God (Ex. 34:6; 22:27; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2) [1] (vii) God is not a respecter of persons. (Deut 10:17; Job 34:19; Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11; Eph 6:9). [1] (viii) God is not biased. [1] (ix) God has no partiality. [1] Part (vii) gave me a wierd kind of feeling, sort of like "dont get too chummy with me bro". As far as having a direct experience of a soveriegn God goes, one couldn't possibly ever put it into words. I couldnt tell you what a banana tastes like. You would need to experience it directly for yourself. And so it is with God. Incidentally, I like St. Spyridon's summary..... "Listen, philosopher, to what I tell thee: we believe, that the Almighty God from out of nothing did create by His Word and His Spirit both heaven and earth, and all the world both visible and invisible. The Word is the Son of God, Who didst come down upon the earth on account of our sins; he wast born of a Virgin, He lived amongst mankind, and suffered and died for our salvation, and then He arose, having redeemed by His sufferings the Original Sin, and He hath resurrected with Him the human race. We believe, that He is One in Essence and Equal-in-Dignity with the Father, and we believe this without any sly rationalisations, since it is impossible to grasp this mystery by human reason" Love to the Bums :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:

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God gave us 'free will' ( I use this term loosely) and so god does not interfere with our decisions. To teach us lessons,however, he also gave us the law of cause and effect so we can realise that the hurting of others is bad and can come back and bite us on the backside. This will eventually wake us all up. Or as someone else put it...... "Each one of you now, according to the Law of Cause and Effect, is in the place the Total Wisdom (god) has placed you. You are not there by chance. You are obeying the Divine Plan placed in the circumstances, family, community and nation necessary to learn your next lessons. In general, what are these lessons? To be patient -To be tolerant - To love. To love even those who stand against you. Let me put it a different way; to be a good Christian, or a good Buddhist, or a good Muslim. It's all the same. This is what we are teaching." (source: http://tinyurl.com/kf737lr) I guess some people wake up early, some take time and some are really, really, really, really slow.