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Post by hollygail on Sept 28, 2016 3:56:27 GMT
Welcome!! You have entered a space where all people are invited to gather to discuss matters of Spirituality, in mutual respect and friendliness: "Considering...Spirituality." Here, the focus is on personal spirituality and not dogma. We welcome with open arms people from any, all, and no religious/faith backgrounds, and those who practice spirituality on their own, to join us for a discussion centered on a higher consciousness. Each day there will be a quote, question, or discussion prompt presented for all to ponder and respond to.
**In maintaining an atmosphere of comfort and trust, we do not allow proselytizing (the effort of trying to convert others) or the denigrating of the religions and viewpoints of others. We also avoid bringing up topics such as politics, hot button social issues, or anything that can be considered divisive**
As this was a WW board, we also discuss our personal wellness, including our weight management program. We share our struggles and our triumphs regarding such as well as discuss things like family, friends, jobs, hobbies, outside interests, etc... We strive to build each other up with loving support in a positive manner. Let us not ever tear one another down in any way, shape or form.
Regular thread starters for the time being are:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: Gary / Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Holly
Yet if anyone is so inclined, please feel free to start a new thread by beginning with the title: "Considering ... (topic)," post this introduction (by way of copy & paste) then follow that with a post putting forth a question and/or quote (with or without some explanation) for us to ponder today. The topic can be inspired by your personal faith, but please do remember that anyone from other spiritual paths should be able to answer it.
Shalom, Love & Light, Blessed Be, Namaste... |
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Post by hollygail on Sept 28, 2016 3:57:23 GMT
This week, we’re reading Deuteronomy 29:9–30:20, in which Moses describes the Covenant between God and the Israelites, urging the Israelites to uphold the Covenant and honor the Torah so that they may be rewarded with life in the Land of Israel. Summary follows.
Moses continues his last speech before the Israelites. "You are standing before God in order to enter into the Covenant of God and take the oath that God makes with you, so that God may fulfill God’s promise to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is not with you alone, but with those who are here and those who are not here that God makes this Covenant and oath." [we interpret this section sort of this way: every person who was ever born and every person who ever will be born who is Jewish, whether by birth or by choice, is included.]
Moses continues, "You remember how we dwelt in the land of Egypt as slaves and saw the Egyptians worshipping their idols. If any of you turns your heart away now from our God to serve these foreign gods, there could be among you a root that will someday ripen as a poison. God will not be willing to forgive those who know of this Covenant but follow their own selfish heart. God’s anger will rise against those people and God will blot out their name and set them apart as evil.
"Future generations will see the devastation in the land and all the nations will ask, ‘why has God done this to this land?’ It shall then be said that the people forsook the Covenant of God that God established with them when God brought them out from the land of Egypt. They served other gods who did nothing for them. For this reason did God remove them from the land in great outrage.
"There are secret things that belong only to God. The words of this Teaching, however, are revealed. This Teaching is ours and our children’s forever.
"And it will come to pass when all these words, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, will come upon you and you will take it to heart. In the midst of all the nations to which God has exiled you, you and your children will return to your God and hearken to God’s voice with all your heart and with all your soul. Then God will turn back to seek out your exiles and have compassion upon you and will gather you together from among all the peoples to which God has scattered you. Then God will do good to you and multiply you even more than your ancestors.
"God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love God so that you may live. Then God will place all these curses upon your enemies and upon those who hate you. Meanwhile you will return to God’s commandments. Then good will be the work of your hands and good will be your livestock and the fruits in your field. For then you will be listening to the voice of God and following what is written in this Book of the Teaching."
"For this commandment that I command you today," Moses insists, "is not beyond your understanding, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, nor in the seas beyond your reach for the Word is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. [this section is one of my favorite parts of the entire Five Books of Moses!]
"See, I have set before you today life and good, and also death and evil, inasmuch as I command you today to love God, to walk in God’s ways and to keep God’s commandments, so that you may live and multiply. God will bless you in the land to which you are coming to take possession. But if your heart shall turn in a manner that forsakes God and serve other gods, then I have announced to you this day that you will quickly perish, that you will not last long in the soil of this promised land.
"I have called heaven and earth today as witnesses against you. I have set life and death before you, blessing and curse. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live [another of my favorite parts of the entire Five Books of Moses!] to love your God. Cling firmly to God, for that is your life and the length of your days, to dwell upon the soil that God swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
q/q: What do you think are "the secret things that belong to God?" What are some questions that you would like God to answer about these secrets? What difference would the answer make to your life? And what do you make of my favorite sections, "See, I have set before you today life and good, and also death and evil…”? How do you “choose life”? and “"For this commandment that I command you today," Moses insists, "is not beyond your understanding, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, nor in the seas beyond your reach for the Word is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart.” What learnings are in your heart as well as in your mouth?
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Post by glrogers67 on Sept 28, 2016 17:39:00 GMT
First of all I just got my car back from the shop. An oil leak messed up several things and rodents got under my hood and chewed some wires... It was a mess, but now fixed for $739!
I think some of the "secret" things of God have to do with powers He has that we don't. For example, the power to resurrect our own bodies or the power to control weather or to move mountains. Some "secret" powers of God have been shared with some of us who hold the priesthood and those who are temple worthy. I believe the things God has reserved to Himself would be misused my mortal man, and besides if He shared everything with us we wouldn't need to develop faith. He has shared with His priesthood the power to heal, but reserves to Himself the power to control when we die. Even then, the power to heal is not universal - some illnesses are meant to be to humble us, and also to protect some of His most valiant fighters against Satan. Would I like some of these "secret" powers God has reserved unto Himself? Sure, but I would probably misuse them.
God blesses those who keep His commandments. What comes to mind here is that God has reserved promised lands to those who follow Him. The Jews are promised Israel as their promised land. In the Book of Mormon, the Americas was their promised land, and today the United States is our promised land. From Ether 2:9 in the Book of Mormon:
9 And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.
From our Doctrine and Covenants regarding the United States:
1 Hearken, O ye elders of my church, saith the Lord your God, who have assembled yourselves together, according to my commandments, in this land, which is the land of Missouri, which is the land which I have appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints.
2 Wherefore, this is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion.
Our Article of Faith 10 states:
10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
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Post by hollygail on Sept 29, 2016 4:00:14 GMT
Monday night, the mother of a 45-year old friend of mine went into her daughter's room to check the windows and say good night, even though the daughter had gone to bed earlier. She found her on the floor, unconscious. The paramedics came within minutes of her 9-1-1 call to take her to a hospital which is maybe 3 miles from my house. It seems the emergency room doctor explained to the mother that the daughter's brain had been deprived of oxygen for about a half hour, maybe 3/4 of an hour, which means considerable brain damage. He led the mother to believe her daughter was (more or less) brain dead. Around 4 in the morning, the community rabbi (I have no idea who called him; the mother was in no condition to figure that out) contacted my rabbi (because my friend had been a member of my congregation until moving to the Los Angeles area to finish her undergraduate work, then to UCLA for graduate studies) to say she wasn't expected to pull through, and that the mother specifically said I and one other woman were friends of her daughter's. My rabbi emailed me and the other woman; I opened my email Tuesday morning between 6:30 and 7, and said something like OMG (out loud), causing DH to run into my office to find out what was wrong. I went to morning minyan at 7:30 and not only said her name during the prayer for the ill but included that she had had a stroke (the information I was given, possibly or probably erroneous) and wasn't expected to pull through, so everyone there knew what I was going through. After minyan, I went to my exercise class, but left even before the instructor arrived. I drove to the hospital.
I spent almost all day with the mother. I was on the phone and texting with my own rabbi and the former rabbi of my congregation who herself had been close friends with the unconscious woman. This former rabbi of my congregation is currently a chaplain and gave me some pastoral advice. I asked at the nurses’ station for a chaplain to come to talk with the mother. He came (really, really tall man, well over 6') and talked with me first. I filled him in on some of the background of the family (Roman Catholic, daughter converted to Judaism more than ten years ago, had been in the Introduction to Judaism class I taught; plus I filled him in on some of the strife dealing with the husband/father who currently lives in a nursing facility suffering with PTSD, Parkinson's, some kind of dementia, anger issues). Then he went to talk with the mother. He was incredible! He was gentle and found a way to get beyond the mother's denial and blaming, so that she was able to respond to a question of his about what she might do if and when faced with her daughter's death. I was blown away! I had been with her for hours, and couldn't make any headway whatsoever with her, and here was this stranger who spent maybe 15 minutes with her and was able to accomplish so very much!
Fast forward to today. I arrived around 8:15 (minyan was quick today). The mom told me that they were going to remove the life support when the rest of the family arrived. I had planned to be there for less than an hour, but wound up staying until after the death was official. I got someone at the nurses’ station to put in a call for a chaplain, and the same man was on duty this morning (I was really glad for that!). Long story short, the woman who had been the rabbi who converted my friend, who is currently a hospice chaplain (!!!) came (I had sent a single text to a number of individuals saying the plan was to remove life support shortly and to come "now" if at all possible) and she and the hospital chaplain met and chatted for a little while with each other and with the mother. He left and the rabbi stayed, but she had appointments she couldn't change, so had to leave by 10:00. The remainder of the family arrived between 10:30 and 11:something. All life support was removed at 11:35 (I had asked the respiratory person to wait for the chaplain who was down the hall in another patient's room); official time of death was 11:50. If I hadn't known the 11:35 time, I would have said it took maybe 5 minutes.
There was so much love and so much support in that ICU room. It was extremely hard for me to be there yesterday and today, and at the same time I knew I couldn't be anywhere else.
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Post by glrogers67 on Sept 29, 2016 6:27:32 GMT
Thanks for the updates, Holly. I feel I "know" your friend / student and the mother from your descriptions.
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