this has turned into interesting thread..never a dull moment here!
I re-read Juditha opening post and wish to give her credit to peak our interest. long time ago I realized something ironic..the original poster can feel strange when their thread goes wandering off to Kalamozoo, but my perspective is that it was supposed to wander off and its perfect.
Juditha, you mention swirling clouds during the rapture. this is an image or a symbol for what folks try to grasp. I would say the rapture is in truth something that happens to the individual heart in it's own time and place, like an inside job rather than an entire culture, country or the entire body of Christ for instance. I say this from my perception that there is division in the churches and that the rapture is another word for new agers expression of the shift in consciousness..a very slow progressive journey taking centuries of time in a linear sense. although I concede there are some (blinded by the light) can receive a jolt of electricity and change their dirty low down ways quite suddenly! that is somehow hilarious to me although it must have been a rude awakening as well as painful and quite near death's door.
my opinion I am my worst enemy and my best friend, no one can save me from my own beliefs, and if I believe in heaven or hell I will gravitate to locations where I see these images around me that I am where I believe I am. all the more important to focus on what beliefs bring in harmony within yourself, and as many say here this is a lovely and loving place, so long as we focus on that it remains so.
we here on earth are making it all up. so the now moment is important to recognize what we are thinking and feeling in the now, as the now becomes tomorrow, if you recieve the gift of tomorrow as, well, death can be sudden if that's on your map.
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I don't see us as sparring Caryn. any book I read I have to take what's useful in it and toss the rest as not useful or until I can eventually catch the deeper meaning that has been interpreted by another person exactly like me, who can also misinterpret. I don't discredit the entire bible. if u accept every single word written by anybody at all as infallible and absolute truth a person could fall into a sheep mentality or a blind faith mentality. the bible is only a book to me like all the others. the symbology takes years to decipher, even the scholars can forget its about love and the golden rule. as far as I'm concerned if someone wrote a book that said "do unto others as you would have done unto you" or "love one another as you love yourself" and they wrote no other words, then it should be a best seller but that will never happen!
I don't see why Christians or non Christians or whatever label one chooses to put on themselves can't talk though and maybe that day is coming, then we'll have that peace on earth idea the bible talks about.
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quote from Caryn: Jesus cried out “Lem zabachthani”
“My wounds will be kept open by those who defame me”
A every so slight difference making a huge difference. Ah the confirmation hurts.
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was wondering about the above statement Caryn if u could tell me why you say the confirmation hurts. I'll give my interpretation which might not be the same as yours, but might be fun to compare.
when J says my wounds will be kept open, I think I have that correct to mean suffering would continue on the earth among the body of Christ, but in a wider sense, all of humanity is "the body." the 2nd part "by those who defame me" means this to me: J had Christ consciousness. he spoke of PUL. those who suffer are suffering according to traditional religious concept because they have denied that J is "the way, the truth and the light as there are bible passages that say these words although I'm not a scholar. defame could mean to actually put someone down in judgmental way.
what has gotten misinterpreted down thru the centuries is that J's way is the only way. Christians have pride and yet they will point at a non christian and say that person is the one with pride. J never said it's my way or the highway, or you are going to roast in the fire, because his love was big enough to encompass even non believers.
the main thing I want to thank J for, personally if possible! is that he left the holy spirit with us...to me the holy spirit can unite all of us by a "knowing" and such a state of peace and understanding and love that you can pick up any literature at any time of the century and have bells going off what the truth of it is and how god is impersonal yet personally tailor made for each at the same time.
thanks for sparking us off Juditha..u may be one of these