When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
-Matthew 11
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me? what does that mean?
Are you the messiah?
the blind see
the lame walk
lepers are clean
the deaf hear
the dead are raised
good news is proclaimed to the poor...
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me
something doesn't fit...
Why would you say that?
John was in prison. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the messiah or should he expect someone else.
What is hope?
What does it mean to have hope for sight?
Hope to walk
hope to be clean
hope to hear
hope to be raised
hope of good news
...hope of being freed from prison...
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me
What if I have hope that Jesus will do something and He does it?
What if I have hope that Jesus will do something and He doesn't?
Would I stumble on account of him?
Would I expect someone else if Jesus didn't do as I hoped?
Is that what hope is? Is hope just wishful thinking? Is hope something more unconditional?
Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilisation as long as civilisation is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more.
-Mere Christianity Chapter 10 Hope C.S. Lewis
It's like Toni had told me Saturday. Fill my well with anything but God and I will forever be thirsty. Like a house on sand. Fill my well with God and the other things seem to fall into place. Give up my life and there, and only there, can I find it. I shall never have marriage as long as marriage is my main object. I must learn to want something else even more.
The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.
-Mere Christianity Chapter 10 Hope C.S. Lewis
Something has evaded me. It's like as I drove further and further west in my car 2 weeks ago I had this longing for the foreign land. The mountains were more than I imagined. The trip was more fulfilling that I had thought...but something had evaded me. Dessert for the eyes. I cannot make a diet of desserts. It will not sustain me. Cake batter is an amazing treat but the entire bowl is quite another thing. Like walking closer and closer towards a mirage, once I reach the spot where it was supposed to be the illusion has vanished from this spot but it has reappeared further down as if I will truly reach the oasis the next attempt.
Jesus says hope is not "The Fool's Way" assuming Jesus will break you out of whatever prison you find yourself in. Jesus says hope is not "The Way of the Disillusioned Sensible Man" stumbling on account of Him and expecting someone else, or worse no one at all.
Instead we must hope without conditions. We must not stumble while in captivity with expectations. However we must hope as the blind and expect sight.
Hope is something more.
I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of Jesus.
How do I find the balance? How do I hope without caution and yet not become bitter with disappointment?
I trust you Jesus
free her heart
heal Bea
heal me
Blessed Feathers - Holyoke Springfield
-Matthew 11
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me? what does that mean?
Are you the messiah?
the blind see
the lame walk
lepers are clean
the deaf hear
the dead are raised
good news is proclaimed to the poor...
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me
something doesn't fit...
Why would you say that?
John was in prison. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the messiah or should he expect someone else.
What is hope?
What does it mean to have hope for sight?
Hope to walk
hope to be clean
hope to hear
hope to be raised
hope of good news
...hope of being freed from prison...
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me
What if I have hope that Jesus will do something and He does it?
What if I have hope that Jesus will do something and He doesn't?
Would I stumble on account of him?
Would I expect someone else if Jesus didn't do as I hoped?
Is that what hope is? Is hope just wishful thinking? Is hope something more unconditional?
Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilisation as long as civilisation is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more.
-Mere Christianity Chapter 10 Hope C.S. Lewis
It's like Toni had told me Saturday. Fill my well with anything but God and I will forever be thirsty. Like a house on sand. Fill my well with God and the other things seem to fall into place. Give up my life and there, and only there, can I find it. I shall never have marriage as long as marriage is my main object. I must learn to want something else even more.
The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.
-Mere Christianity Chapter 10 Hope C.S. Lewis
Something has evaded me. It's like as I drove further and further west in my car 2 weeks ago I had this longing for the foreign land. The mountains were more than I imagined. The trip was more fulfilling that I had thought...but something had evaded me. Dessert for the eyes. I cannot make a diet of desserts. It will not sustain me. Cake batter is an amazing treat but the entire bowl is quite another thing. Like walking closer and closer towards a mirage, once I reach the spot where it was supposed to be the illusion has vanished from this spot but it has reappeared further down as if I will truly reach the oasis the next attempt.
Now there are two wrong ways of dealing with this fact, and one right one.
(1) The Fool's Way. He puts the blame on the things themselves. He goes on all his life thinking that if only he tried another woman, or went for a more expensive holiday, or whatever it is, then, this time, he really would catch the mysterious something we are all after. Most of the bored, discontented, rich people in the world are of this type. They spend their whole lives trotting from woman to woman (through the divorce courts), from continent to continent, from hobby to hobby, always thinking that the latest is "the Real Thing" at last, and always disappointed.
(2) The Way of the Disillusioned "Sensible Man." He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine. "Of course," he says, "one feels like that when one's young. But by the time you get to my age you've given up chasing the rainbow's end." And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much and represses the part of himself which used, as he would say, "to cry for the moon." This is, of course, a much better way than the first, and makes a man much happier, and less of a nuisance to society. It tends to make him a prig (he is apt to be rather superior towards what he calls "adolescents"), but, on the whole, he rubs along fairly comfortably.
It would be the best line we could take if man did not live for ever. But supposing infinite happiness really is there, waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow's end? In that case it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our supposed "common sense" we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it.
(3) The Christian Way. The Christian says, "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.
-Mere Christianity Chapter 10 Hope C.S. Lewis
Jesus says hope is not "The Fool's Way" assuming Jesus will break you out of whatever prison you find yourself in. Jesus says hope is not "The Way of the Disillusioned Sensible Man" stumbling on account of Him and expecting someone else, or worse no one at all.
Instead we must hope without conditions. We must not stumble while in captivity with expectations. However we must hope as the blind and expect sight.
Hope is something more.
I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.
Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of Jesus.
How do I find the balance? How do I hope without caution and yet not become bitter with disappointment?
I trust you Jesus
free her heart
heal Bea
heal me
Blessed Feathers - Holyoke Springfield