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“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
~ Job 39:4-7
A lunar eclipse from March 2007. A lunar eclipse can last a few hours, total coverage being about an hour.
Lunar eclipse
Humphreys and Waddington of Oxford University reconstructed the Jewish calendar in the first century AD and arrived at the conclusion that Friday April 3 33AD was the date of the Crucifixion.[23] Humphreys and Waddington went further and also reconstructed the scenario for a lunar eclipse on that day. They concluded that:
"This eclipse was visible from Jerusalem at moonrise. .... The start of the eclipse was invisible from Jerusalem, being below the horizon. The eclipse began at 3:40pm and reached a maximum at 5:15pm, with 60% of the moon eclipsed. This was also below the horizon from Jerusalem. The moon rose above the horizon, and was first visible from Jerusalem at about 6:20pm (the start of the Jewish Sabbath and also the start of Passover day in A.D. 33) with about 20% of its disc in the umbra of the earth's shadow and the remainder in the penumbra. The eclipse finished some thirty minutes later at 6:50pm."
Moreover, their calculations showed that the 20% visible of the moon was positioned close to the top (i.e. leading edge) of the moon. The failure of any of the gospel accounts to refer to a lunar eclipse is, they assume, the result of a scribe wrongly amending a text to refer to a solar eclipse.
In Acts 2:20, the Apostle Peter mentions in the context of a prophecy from Joel that "the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood"[Acts 2:20]. A "moon of blood" is a term also commonly used for a lunar eclipse because of the reddish color of the light refracted onto the moon through the Earth's atmosphere. Commentators are divided upon the exact nature of this statement by Saint Peter.
The investigation by Humphreys and Waddington concluded that the moon turned to blood statement probably refers to a lunar eclipse, and they showed that this interpretation is self consistent and seems to confirm their conclusion that the crucifixion occurred on April 3, 33. However, they fail to address the preceding reference to the darkened sun.
en.wikipedia.org...
Originally posted by r2d246
Like I could know everything about the colonel secret chicken recipe (even the secret recipee), but without tasting the chicken, I'd never know if it's the best or not.
Now just get on your knees and pray. Yes, close your eyes get on your knees and pray. Forgetting yourself, forgetting all you've been taught, good or bad. Just forget all of that for one lousy minute of your whole life okay!!
Originally posted by NewAgeMan
Rationally, the idea of an unmerited grace "from above" both sums up and caps off everything else whereby Jesus is the cake you can both have and eat as well. It's the one thing capable of restoring a person's sense of humor and their own heart-felt compassion, making of a hardened heart (heart of rock) into a heart of flesh.
Originally posted by daskakik
Originally posted by r2d246
Like I could know everything about the colonel secret chicken recipe (even the secret recipee), but without tasting the chicken, I'd never know if it's the best or not.
The problem with christians is that they don't taste any other chicken and still want to proclaim that their brand is the best. You'd never know what is the best without praying/meditating/carrying out rituals for other religions and weighing the outcome against praying to Jesus.
Now just get on your knees and pray. Yes, close your eyes get on your knees and pray. Forgetting yourself, forgetting all you've been taught, good or bad. Just forget all of that for one lousy minute of your whole life okay!!
Usually doesn't work and if/when it does it isn't because of Jesus.
edit on 15-9-2012 by daskakik because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by daskakik
Originally posted by NewAgeMan
Rationally, the idea of an unmerited grace "from above" both sums up and caps off everything else whereby Jesus is the cake you can both have and eat as well. It's the one thing capable of restoring a person's sense of humor and their own heart-felt compassion, making of a hardened heart (heart of rock) into a heart of flesh.
Unmerited grace from above?
Maybe it was the only thing that worked for you, but I fail to see how that makes it anymore special than the other things that have brought these things into peoples lives.
It's enough to bring any sane and rational seeker to their knees both laughing and crying and laughing some more, imho.
Originally posted by daskakik
reply to post by NewAgeMan
What is a sane rational seeker?
Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by daskakik
We who are growing in Christ might not yet be perfect. We are a work in progress relative to an ideal of perfection and we claim spiritual progress (growth) not perfection, although that's not an excuse either to fall woefully short of the mark.
Originally posted by NewAgeMan
Originally posted by daskakik
reply to post by NewAgeMan
What is a sane rational seeker?
Someone with a sense of humor capable of really getting a great joke at the expense of all their own prior ignorance, capable of laughing, and crying and then having the tears wiped away from their eyes. I've had this experience and I'm sure so have many others who've been "whacked" by God at some point or another which for God probably amounts to the mere lightest touch, but for us blindsides us with a truth and an understanding which previously could only be described as residing in the domain of an unknown unknown or what we didn't even know that we did not know, and now do, like having the scales fall from one's eyes, that kind of thing. I would imagine that it's happened to more than just a few people - sane, rational and BRAVE seekers will to risk all in the face of a society and a "civilization" gone mad (it was the same in Jesus' day..), that's the model of perfection, to be utterly committed to the truth and reality at any and all cost except of course at the cost of truth and reality itself. In other words that you are not unwilling to undergo a complete and total paradigm shift AND have an experience of a new domain of limitless possibility and absolute liberation (in the space of absolute forgiveness) and therefore new knowledge since all knowledge is the knowledge of experience, that you never possessed before. There is a way to validate this stuff, and the other poster's right, that you have to "dive in" and the only way to be there with (them) is to go there and be there and just go ahead and have the experience of being in an intimate relationship with the creator, even if the totality of God's nature cannot ever be known, to posit his existence and then to enter into that relationship is certainly possible, and with Christ as the gateway, to even consider it openly and honestly is to discover some new pasture. This has nothing whatsoever to do with "religion" but everything to do with the Light the Life and the Love that already frames us in a loving embrace and a song of songs -- if only we knew as Jesus knew..
Originally posted by daskakik
reply to post by MamaJ
In my experience this has not been true.
What do expect me to say?
In any case Jesus isn't the only way so claiming it to be an absolute truth is incorrect.
Originally posted by MamaJ
I say I know and you say you know. Our knowing is different. Does the truth lie in between us?
I see it all connected to the many entities we call Jesus. Do you? If not, why? I do..... Why don't you make the connections as I have?
If I claim I see something you do not see why do you refuse an explanation for what is unseen by you?
Do you see the universe as mental? I do. Why do you not see what I see?
Why stay in the dark where there is light?
Jesus reveals himself, yet you do not see him? Are you asleep? Are you awake and looking, if so then look where it's the brightest in all expressions and creations and you will see him in all his glory.
I understand we have different perceptions in regards to the world each of us lives in.
Being compassionate is an understanding and my way of showing you another light of which is found.
This thread is offering you another light in which to see Jesus.
God is everywhere! Lol it's amazing when you see it.
You know those pictures where the entire picture is clouded but when viewed long enoigh a complete picture emerges? So does God. He is very revealing for those who look hard enough. Seek and you find, right?
I loved hide and go seek when i was a kid and still love seeking that which has been hidden. The difference is i can see that it never did hide, i was just not looking at it hard enough, and for the record, I was never afraid of the dark. Lol
The great thing about Jesus is Buddha and other great teachers do in fact lead you to a road where.... Guess who is there? Jesus!
There are many roads but they all lead to the fork in the road. Which do you take? Like a puzzle where you get from point a to z..... There are other roads but they will lead you to the one.
All the glory of what we see has already been projected from the beginning before the foundation of the earth was ever laid.
If it weren't for the WORD, we would not be communicating with words.
If it weren't for the WORD, we would not have an experience we call life.
Take the English alpha- bet. Jesus represents the three. C? See?
Words are soooo powerful. Ponder words for today and see how you can make them connect and come alive.