Zarovian Sermon On That Which BLinds The Soul.
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:06 pm
Today we speak of those things which do blind the soul, Anger, pride, lust, selfishness, those things which are the spirit of Rebellion against God, and which are the Antithesis of the teachings of Christ Jesus.
Anger carried in the heart doth destroy , and rage blinds one to the way of life, devouring those who have it. Wrath and anger are sometimes needful, or appropriate, in a case when evil descends upon us, but to carry forever anger within you, it is not good. Anger is a consuming fire, which doth burn form within, if used in a furnace , it can heat and power the resistance to an act against one, but, if allowed to go unabated, it spreads, consuming the very soul.
Pride is but an overt sense of self, and the sin form which all others arise, or so it hath been said. Pride causes one to not concern oneself over others, to have an elevated view of oneself, to prevent one form admitting error, or to loving another. All must in the end focus upon the pride itself, and live in service to it, Being proud is being only concerned with that which elevates you, and not caring what anyone else thinks of you, for you have yourself. It makes you willing to manipulate and destroy others for your own gain, and makes you incapable of enjoying others, or other things, or life.
Selfishness causes you to disconnect form the world around you, and from God, and to think only f yourself. Your immediate needs and wants, your desires, and what you feel. As with pride, your only concern is yourself, and you will manipulate others to gain your own way. Selfishness turns all ones attention onto oneself.
Rebellion, they all stem from, and cause, rebellion. They are a part of company within that great spirit, that leads astray from God and his Son and our Saviour Jesus the Christ. For in them, we see the machinations of separation. Anger destroys relationships and causes strife, Pride causes one to rip others for ones own ends, and selfishness causes one not to think of others.
When these things work together, they ensure rebellion, from God and his ways, and secure only a lonely, miserable life for those engaged in the practices. For how can we feel loved if we are separated from those who would love us? How can we love one another when we live in anger toward them? Or bare them malice? How can we love another, and live in peace with them, when we care not for them, for we think ourselves to grand to care? How can we live in security with them, loving them, and one another working for everyone’s interests, if we care only for ourselves and seek only our own gain?
We should abandon those things, and others, to seek instead their opposites. Forgiveness and peace, rather than Anger, Humility, rather than Pride, selflessness, rather than selfishness.
We do this by learning to not look upon ourselves or only within ourselves, and by not focusing on ourselves, and instead on that which is outside of ourselves, seeing only how we can intrarelate and serve it. We focus on our source, God, and his will for us.
To teach us these things, God has placed in our world certain means of observing nature that show these ends, and given men insights to form great thoughts based upon them, and a spiritual intuition to lead them to certain conclusions. HE then selected a Chosen people, whom he could mould into a certain way, and from tm he gave us the Law, and later the Prophets, who would teach us the truth.
These predecessors had insights, and some direct inspiration to God, especially the Prophets of Israel, whom God gave divine Inspiration, and who wrote books, giving us his message, along with scribes to record history for our learning. And finally, he sent the Lord, Jesus Christ, to be the great example, and a pattern for our own lives. HE taught us the moral and ethical teachings, and how to live our lives. He lead a perfect life, one of a teacher and humble servant. He dedicate himself to the work of God, and, in truth, was very God and Very man, giving all humanity access to God the Father through him.
It is by observing Christ Jesus that we observe God. It is by seeing who he was that we see how we are mean to be. It is by listening to his teachings that we learn how to live. It is by his life we have life, and through him we have access to the Father.
By Jesus, all men can see God, and know him directly. The veil was removed, and now we have direct access.
By his death on the Cross, he showed us also his great love for us, and he atoned for the sins of the world, by, instead of us living by Gods standard, he lived by ours, and paid the very price of Death, becoming a curse, hung from a tree, in order to end the animosity between God and man, for in that act, he took the abuse we wanted to hurl at him, and all the anger, resentment, and malice we had for each other, and for God, and even for ourselves, was given its channel, through him.
And he died, and along with him our sins.
And he rose, on the third day, to revive in us a new life, in which those sins now had transformed into new life, with the past over and done with, and the future bight, build, of course, on that past, for he still bore the marks of the nails, and the lashes, and the scars, but healed, recovered, revived in a new spirit, no longer to walk in anger and spite, with the light of Love replacing the Darkness of Fear and hatred.
And thus why he ultimately came. To get our minds off ourselves, and onto him. By looking at Jesus, we look at something other than ourselves. Our anger, our hatred, our malice, our contempt, our sense of over inflated ego and self worth, our selfishness and petty pride. All of it comes in the end from focus on ourselves, and not looking at anything else. We look only inward, at Our own petty desires and our own demands and our own lusts and aspirations and wants, seldom seeing past this to others. But in Jesus, we see something else. We see both the rawness of humanity, both in its cruelty, and in its gentleness, and a victim to pity and love and sympathise with, and we see God, forgiving us of our sins.
We see God, and man, in Jesus, and we see someone to follow and how will provide for us, and someone we must take care of. We see a suffering servant, in need of our love, and respond this suffering with love and sympathy. We see a powerful teacher slain for crimes he didn’t commit. We see pain and agony, and even fear. But, through it all, Love, the love he had for us, the love even to say, Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.
We see a broken, crippled humanity, and yet, humanity at its strongest. And if we think back, did not Jesus say, we shall, if we follow him, do greater things than he? He is our example, our pattern, and in this one act, he was in solidarity with humanities worst principles and yet it highest ideals. Are we capable of overcoming fear, and performing, even at the knowledge of certain death, a great act of heroism? Of course. He showed us how. He inspires us in how.
Can we love one another? Of course. He loved us enough to die for us in this cruel way. We must love one another.
But the trick to loving one another is to not focus all our energies inwardly, or this corrupts us, we cannot even love ourselves, we see only that which we want, and that which we do not have, or that which we have and how to use it. We see even then not ourselves, but only the desires which rule over us, in isolation. But by looking at Jesus, looking upon this shattered victim of the Cross, now risen into new life, we can set aside our past sins, and walk in new life. But that is what it in the end means, by looking at Jesus we no longer look at ourselves. By looking at him, we no longer turn inward, and we look outward, at him, and form him, to both God, and to others of our fellows. This, in the end, is the supreme goal. Thus, if nothing else can be so taken, we should take this, to look outward, at others, and not inwardly to ourselves. When we do this, we shall know love, and true contentment.
At this I close. God bless all, and Amen.
Anger carried in the heart doth destroy , and rage blinds one to the way of life, devouring those who have it. Wrath and anger are sometimes needful, or appropriate, in a case when evil descends upon us, but to carry forever anger within you, it is not good. Anger is a consuming fire, which doth burn form within, if used in a furnace , it can heat and power the resistance to an act against one, but, if allowed to go unabated, it spreads, consuming the very soul.
Pride is but an overt sense of self, and the sin form which all others arise, or so it hath been said. Pride causes one to not concern oneself over others, to have an elevated view of oneself, to prevent one form admitting error, or to loving another. All must in the end focus upon the pride itself, and live in service to it, Being proud is being only concerned with that which elevates you, and not caring what anyone else thinks of you, for you have yourself. It makes you willing to manipulate and destroy others for your own gain, and makes you incapable of enjoying others, or other things, or life.
Selfishness causes you to disconnect form the world around you, and from God, and to think only f yourself. Your immediate needs and wants, your desires, and what you feel. As with pride, your only concern is yourself, and you will manipulate others to gain your own way. Selfishness turns all ones attention onto oneself.
Rebellion, they all stem from, and cause, rebellion. They are a part of company within that great spirit, that leads astray from God and his Son and our Saviour Jesus the Christ. For in them, we see the machinations of separation. Anger destroys relationships and causes strife, Pride causes one to rip others for ones own ends, and selfishness causes one not to think of others.
When these things work together, they ensure rebellion, from God and his ways, and secure only a lonely, miserable life for those engaged in the practices. For how can we feel loved if we are separated from those who would love us? How can we love one another when we live in anger toward them? Or bare them malice? How can we love another, and live in peace with them, when we care not for them, for we think ourselves to grand to care? How can we live in security with them, loving them, and one another working for everyone’s interests, if we care only for ourselves and seek only our own gain?
We should abandon those things, and others, to seek instead their opposites. Forgiveness and peace, rather than Anger, Humility, rather than Pride, selflessness, rather than selfishness.
We do this by learning to not look upon ourselves or only within ourselves, and by not focusing on ourselves, and instead on that which is outside of ourselves, seeing only how we can intrarelate and serve it. We focus on our source, God, and his will for us.
To teach us these things, God has placed in our world certain means of observing nature that show these ends, and given men insights to form great thoughts based upon them, and a spiritual intuition to lead them to certain conclusions. HE then selected a Chosen people, whom he could mould into a certain way, and from tm he gave us the Law, and later the Prophets, who would teach us the truth.
These predecessors had insights, and some direct inspiration to God, especially the Prophets of Israel, whom God gave divine Inspiration, and who wrote books, giving us his message, along with scribes to record history for our learning. And finally, he sent the Lord, Jesus Christ, to be the great example, and a pattern for our own lives. HE taught us the moral and ethical teachings, and how to live our lives. He lead a perfect life, one of a teacher and humble servant. He dedicate himself to the work of God, and, in truth, was very God and Very man, giving all humanity access to God the Father through him.
It is by observing Christ Jesus that we observe God. It is by seeing who he was that we see how we are mean to be. It is by listening to his teachings that we learn how to live. It is by his life we have life, and through him we have access to the Father.
By Jesus, all men can see God, and know him directly. The veil was removed, and now we have direct access.
By his death on the Cross, he showed us also his great love for us, and he atoned for the sins of the world, by, instead of us living by Gods standard, he lived by ours, and paid the very price of Death, becoming a curse, hung from a tree, in order to end the animosity between God and man, for in that act, he took the abuse we wanted to hurl at him, and all the anger, resentment, and malice we had for each other, and for God, and even for ourselves, was given its channel, through him.
And he died, and along with him our sins.
And he rose, on the third day, to revive in us a new life, in which those sins now had transformed into new life, with the past over and done with, and the future bight, build, of course, on that past, for he still bore the marks of the nails, and the lashes, and the scars, but healed, recovered, revived in a new spirit, no longer to walk in anger and spite, with the light of Love replacing the Darkness of Fear and hatred.
And thus why he ultimately came. To get our minds off ourselves, and onto him. By looking at Jesus, we look at something other than ourselves. Our anger, our hatred, our malice, our contempt, our sense of over inflated ego and self worth, our selfishness and petty pride. All of it comes in the end from focus on ourselves, and not looking at anything else. We look only inward, at Our own petty desires and our own demands and our own lusts and aspirations and wants, seldom seeing past this to others. But in Jesus, we see something else. We see both the rawness of humanity, both in its cruelty, and in its gentleness, and a victim to pity and love and sympathise with, and we see God, forgiving us of our sins.
We see God, and man, in Jesus, and we see someone to follow and how will provide for us, and someone we must take care of. We see a suffering servant, in need of our love, and respond this suffering with love and sympathy. We see a powerful teacher slain for crimes he didn’t commit. We see pain and agony, and even fear. But, through it all, Love, the love he had for us, the love even to say, Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.
We see a broken, crippled humanity, and yet, humanity at its strongest. And if we think back, did not Jesus say, we shall, if we follow him, do greater things than he? He is our example, our pattern, and in this one act, he was in solidarity with humanities worst principles and yet it highest ideals. Are we capable of overcoming fear, and performing, even at the knowledge of certain death, a great act of heroism? Of course. He showed us how. He inspires us in how.
Can we love one another? Of course. He loved us enough to die for us in this cruel way. We must love one another.
But the trick to loving one another is to not focus all our energies inwardly, or this corrupts us, we cannot even love ourselves, we see only that which we want, and that which we do not have, or that which we have and how to use it. We see even then not ourselves, but only the desires which rule over us, in isolation. But by looking at Jesus, looking upon this shattered victim of the Cross, now risen into new life, we can set aside our past sins, and walk in new life. But that is what it in the end means, by looking at Jesus we no longer look at ourselves. By looking at him, we no longer turn inward, and we look outward, at him, and form him, to both God, and to others of our fellows. This, in the end, is the supreme goal. Thus, if nothing else can be so taken, we should take this, to look outward, at others, and not inwardly to ourselves. When we do this, we shall know love, and true contentment.
At this I close. God bless all, and Amen.
