My top ten Star Trek Selector results. I have no idea what this means though.
#1 Seven of Nine
#2 Commander Chakotay
#3 Neelix
#4 The EMH (doctor from voyager)
#5 Admiral James T. Kirk
#6 Admiral Spock
#7 Chancellor Martok
#8 Chief of Security Odo
#9 Admiral Montgomery Scott (Scotty)
#10 Commander William Riker
S. Brenda Elfgirl - I was told I am an elf in a parallel life, and I live in the Arizona desert exploring what this means. I've had this blog for a while and I write about the things that interest me. My spiritual teacher told me that my journey in life is about balancing "the perfect oneness of a sweetness heart and the effulgent soul". My inner and outer lives are like parallel lines that will one day meet, but only when there is a new way of thinking. Read on as I try to find the balance.
Thank you for viewing / reading my blog posts! I appreciate it!
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
My amatuer exegesis on Matthew 9:27-31.
The Healing of the Two Blind Men (Matthew 9:27-31)
Theological Discoveries – Discoveries made about God and what God is about in the passage.
1. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ healing ministries happened after The Sermon on the Mount. “The Messiah of the Word (the sermon) reveals himself as also the Messiah of the Deeds (the miracles)”. (The Gospel of Matthew by F.W. Beare, Harper & Row, 1981).
Jesus revealed himself as messiah in the Sermon on the Mount, and then followed up by revealing himself as a healer in performing miracles. God’s words are followed by actions.
2. When the two blind men acknowledged Jesus as “the son of David”, they acknowledged his lineage to David, and therefore to Abraham. “The promises made in ages past through the prophets have now been fulfilled in the person of Jesus, the long awaited ‘Messiah’, who is the born ‘son of David.”
Jesus is proof that God kept his promise to Abraham to send a “Messiah”.
3. In this healing, Jesus was fulfilling the prophecies of a Messiah who heals the blind in the Old Testament; Isaiah 29:18, Isaiah 35:5, Isaiah 42:7.
Jesus’ healing abilities fulfills the prophecies made in Isaiah about the “Messiah”.
4. In The Life of Jesus by Marcello Craveri (Grove Press, 1967), Craveri writes that “The most common diseases … were then (as they are still) those of the eyes caused by the dust and glaring sunlight”. Craveri also notes that “For all such diseases … the Hebrew people had a superstitious explanation: each one was really a kind of “uncleanness” incurred through the infraction of some ritual law. The idea of illness was therefore closely linked to punishment. Even death, according to Holy Scriptures, was an extreme consequence of sin. …Cure, therefore, was held to be possible only if God granted his pardon and remitted the penalty, and it was to be sought only through special rites of purification and through offerings to the Temple”.
Jesus’ healing of the two blind men was radical for the time. The blind men did not go through rites of purification, nor did they make offerings to the temple. The two blind men were healed because 1) they asked and 2) they believed in Jesus. Since blindness was considered a consequence of sin, Jesus’ healing says that through belief in him, the sins of these blind men were cleansed. And then later with the resurrection, Jesus again demonstrated that the extreme punishment of sin, death, can be conquered through belief in him, and belief in him alone.
5. The two blind men believed in Jesus and had faith in him, though they had not seen his earlier miracles. The two blind men’s faith was based solely on what they heard about Jesus through other people.
This passage is in contrast to what happened in John 20 with the disciple Thomas. “Jesus said to him (Thomas), ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” (John 20:29)
Faith is essential to be a follower of Christ.
Central Thought
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to save his faithful people.
Application
Faith in Jesus Christ will open your eyes to a whole new world and a whole new way of seeing.
The Healing of the Two Blind Men (Matthew 9:27-31)
Theological Discoveries – Discoveries made about God and what God is about in the passage.
1. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ healing ministries happened after The Sermon on the Mount. “The Messiah of the Word (the sermon) reveals himself as also the Messiah of the Deeds (the miracles)”. (The Gospel of Matthew by F.W. Beare, Harper & Row, 1981).
Jesus revealed himself as messiah in the Sermon on the Mount, and then followed up by revealing himself as a healer in performing miracles. God’s words are followed by actions.
2. When the two blind men acknowledged Jesus as “the son of David”, they acknowledged his lineage to David, and therefore to Abraham. “The promises made in ages past through the prophets have now been fulfilled in the person of Jesus, the long awaited ‘Messiah’, who is the born ‘son of David.”
Jesus is proof that God kept his promise to Abraham to send a “Messiah”.
3. In this healing, Jesus was fulfilling the prophecies of a Messiah who heals the blind in the Old Testament; Isaiah 29:18, Isaiah 35:5, Isaiah 42:7.
Jesus’ healing abilities fulfills the prophecies made in Isaiah about the “Messiah”.
4. In The Life of Jesus by Marcello Craveri (Grove Press, 1967), Craveri writes that “The most common diseases … were then (as they are still) those of the eyes caused by the dust and glaring sunlight”. Craveri also notes that “For all such diseases … the Hebrew people had a superstitious explanation: each one was really a kind of “uncleanness” incurred through the infraction of some ritual law. The idea of illness was therefore closely linked to punishment. Even death, according to Holy Scriptures, was an extreme consequence of sin. …Cure, therefore, was held to be possible only if God granted his pardon and remitted the penalty, and it was to be sought only through special rites of purification and through offerings to the Temple”.
Jesus’ healing of the two blind men was radical for the time. The blind men did not go through rites of purification, nor did they make offerings to the temple. The two blind men were healed because 1) they asked and 2) they believed in Jesus. Since blindness was considered a consequence of sin, Jesus’ healing says that through belief in him, the sins of these blind men were cleansed. And then later with the resurrection, Jesus again demonstrated that the extreme punishment of sin, death, can be conquered through belief in him, and belief in him alone.
5. The two blind men believed in Jesus and had faith in him, though they had not seen his earlier miracles. The two blind men’s faith was based solely on what they heard about Jesus through other people.
This passage is in contrast to what happened in John 20 with the disciple Thomas. “Jesus said to him (Thomas), ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” (John 20:29)
Faith is essential to be a follower of Christ.
Central Thought
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to save his faithful people.
Application
Faith in Jesus Christ will open your eyes to a whole new world and a whole new way of seeing.
Monday, October 07, 2002
I spent the night creating separate plot lines for all the characters in my screenplay, while listening to the talking heads deconstruct the president's speech. I still don't know what I feel about the country going to war with Iraq. I wish there was an easy diplomatic solution, but there isn't one. I've already scenes reports on the Net saying that the Iraqis have started destroying evidence of their activities, and moving everything to the off limits presidential palaces. The Iraqis have proved over and over again that they're not to be trusted, and that they will do everything they can to thwart the UN inspectors. I don't expect their behaviour to change.
With that said, I do agree that Sadam must be contained. But to go in without world or UN approval is not a good thing. I don't think our military is prepared to fight and on the ground house to house war. Too many budget cuts over the years, have decimated the once almighty powerful US military. A military I might add, as evidenced by the Pentagon witnesses before the attack on Afghanistan, is still unprepared as they were in Vietnam, to fight a terrorist style war. My biggest fear is that the cost of war with Iraq will irreperably harm the US economy, as the war in Afghanistan in the 1980's crippled the Soviet economy and hastened the collapse of the communist government. The US won the Cold War by default, because the russian economy tanked. It was not a triumph of democracy as Reagan declared at the fall of the Berln Wall, but a triumph of economic principle. Spend too much money, and you go bankrupt. It applies to individuals as well as countries.
But if we don't go to war, I'm afraid the alternative would be fo us to just sit around and wait for a terrorist to attack us again. And I don't think that's a viable alternative either.
One thing is for sure, whether we fight Iraq or not, the terrorists attacks will never stop. But perhaps what I will say, is that I prefer the country remain in action in the fight against terrorism, and not give into fear or complacency or the naivete that if we just leave other countries alone, they will leave us alone. 9/11 proved that we can no longer remain naive and trust the world like a wide eyed innocent, who thinks that if we're peaceful, we won't be harmed, that if we just stopped making war with other countries, it will solve all our foreign policy problems. NOT!!!!
With that said, I do agree that Sadam must be contained. But to go in without world or UN approval is not a good thing. I don't think our military is prepared to fight and on the ground house to house war. Too many budget cuts over the years, have decimated the once almighty powerful US military. A military I might add, as evidenced by the Pentagon witnesses before the attack on Afghanistan, is still unprepared as they were in Vietnam, to fight a terrorist style war. My biggest fear is that the cost of war with Iraq will irreperably harm the US economy, as the war in Afghanistan in the 1980's crippled the Soviet economy and hastened the collapse of the communist government. The US won the Cold War by default, because the russian economy tanked. It was not a triumph of democracy as Reagan declared at the fall of the Berln Wall, but a triumph of economic principle. Spend too much money, and you go bankrupt. It applies to individuals as well as countries.
But if we don't go to war, I'm afraid the alternative would be fo us to just sit around and wait for a terrorist to attack us again. And I don't think that's a viable alternative either.
One thing is for sure, whether we fight Iraq or not, the terrorists attacks will never stop. But perhaps what I will say, is that I prefer the country remain in action in the fight against terrorism, and not give into fear or complacency or the naivete that if we just leave other countries alone, they will leave us alone. 9/11 proved that we can no longer remain naive and trust the world like a wide eyed innocent, who thinks that if we're peaceful, we won't be harmed, that if we just stopped making war with other countries, it will solve all our foreign policy problems. NOT!!!!
Japan Nikkei -331.18 -3.67%
South Korea Seoul Composite -19.51 -3.00%
Taiwan Taiwan Weighted -150.73 -3.71%
What does this mean for the USA stock markets tomorrow? I'm afraid to think about it.
S&P Futures (Globex) Dec 2002 -740.00
Nasdaq 100 (Globex) Dec 2002 -850.00
I don't think tomorrow is going to be a very good day for the stock markets; pretty darn bloody on the street I would think!
South Korea Seoul Composite -19.51 -3.00%
Taiwan Taiwan Weighted -150.73 -3.71%
What does this mean for the USA stock markets tomorrow? I'm afraid to think about it.
S&P Futures (Globex) Dec 2002 -740.00
Nasdaq 100 (Globex) Dec 2002 -850.00
I don't think tomorrow is going to be a very good day for the stock markets; pretty darn bloody on the street I would think!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)