tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746468652435913462.post6647197417760807224..comments2023-09-20T09:39:24.282-04:00Comments on Spirit in the Wild Wood: Witnesses, Part Threededhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04110715735805987539noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746468652435913462.post-61464132255889283432012-01-03T06:24:55.371-05:002012-01-03T06:24:55.371-05:00Carey,
I concur with Phil.
Pride in self for wh...Carey,<br /><br />I concur with Phil. <br /><br />Pride in self for whatever reasons is the pitfall. Feelings of love and recognition for others' achievements as a basis for giving praise to the Lord is not a sin. Somehow grabbing God's glory for ourselves is a wrong motive, no matter how it is expressed. <br /><br />We cannot escape feelings of pride over those dear to us. What we do with those feelings is the issue.dedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04110715735805987539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746468652435913462.post-48437646049351723592011-12-25T10:05:53.849-05:002011-12-25T10:05:53.849-05:00Carey, the two kinds of pride is something C.S. Le...Carey, the two kinds of pride is something C.S. Lewis wrote about; one is healthy, one is not. One way to look at it: there is a "pride" that is focused on others--an appreciation of them for who they are or what they have achieved, like being proud of your wife and kids. But there is another "pride" which is focused on the self--resenting any praise given to anybody else, insisting on pre-eminence for one's own self, seeking one's own desires even at the expense of others. This is the sort of pride which, as Lewis wrote, made the Devil become the Devil. Unfortunately, the English language uses the same word for both meanings. I have not taken time to look up whether ancient Greek used two different words, but it would not surprise me if they did.postmodern redneckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07279009105618761553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746468652435913462.post-28343913478489466112011-12-21T06:37:50.927-05:002011-12-21T06:37:50.927-05:00That "pride of life" phrase always confu...That "pride of life" phrase always confuses me. I'm proud of my kids, my wife who is so excellent in her work, and proud of my friend who so faithfully endures the slings and arrows of adolescent inconsistencies day after day, five days a week 180 days a year so that the next generation can skillfully negotiate the obstacle course of literacy in this 21st century.careyrowlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17958687878367659875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746468652435913462.post-55158641447008813012011-12-18T07:38:00.311-05:002011-12-18T07:38:00.311-05:00Carey, thanks for the comment!
I agree with you. ...Carey, thanks for the comment!<br /><br />I agree with you. You identify the practical applications of the themes I assert. Perhaps I should have called them organizing criteria rather than speak as if I were trying to capture the text and make it heel to my version of Truth.<br /><br />It isn't that either of us is right or wrong. Both perspectives and the expressions of these are needed to understand in the fullest. <br /><br />I didn't mention and perhaps needed to that the same identification of the three temptations works when looking at commandment number one: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Strength references a use of our will in the other three. Thus the applications of avoiding the actions of the flesh and bringing forth instead the fruit of the spirit is fully the practical application expected and needed.<br /><br />The three "sins of the world" are the corrupting side of the practical things that are called for in a living a holy life. But in using these to coincide with what happened in the Temptation of Christ, I did not intend to communicate I had interpreted these various moments in the desert as carrying a finite meaning. The Scriptures have life because the speak truthfully in a variety of ways, thus becoming accessible to a wide variety of personal experience and connection to ultimate meanings.<br /><br />The mind and its decisions are corrupted by the Pride of Life. The body is the source of corruption from the lust of the flesh, and the heart is corrupted by the lust of the eyes was not meant to say "... and take no other meanings extracted to be true." There are more things to do with organizing principles than declaring the reason for identification is to determine what corrupts them.<br /><br />Separating all this out is not really possible anyway. I have tried to establish there is a red and blue and yellow, when in fact, all of life is made up of secondary and tertiary colors full of hue and tints in unending varieties.<br /><br />Truth is infinite as it is part of the essence of God.dedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04110715735805987539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746468652435913462.post-69233821372921327202011-12-18T05:09:13.107-05:002011-12-18T05:09:13.107-05:00While I appreciate your (over?)simplifying trifold...While I appreciate your (over?)simplifying trifold classification, I find Paul's nine-point list of the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21)more instructive, insofar as they specify exactly what behaviours we should strive to overcome in this life: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing.<br /><br />As for Jesus' refusals against the temptations in the desert--they constitute three simple exemplary life-lessons:<br />1. Understand and acknowledge that God the Creator (not the systems of men) is the ultimate source of our sustenance and well-being. This simple distinction makes all the difference in the world pertaining to what directions our life-decisions produce for us.<br />2. Don't kill yourself; don't ever give up on life.<br />3. Don't be on a power trip; rather, administer earthly responsibilities in a way that is appropriate to God's sanctifying purposes.careyrowlandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17958687878367659875noreply@blogger.com