humanity(5/1)
Humanity is created in the image of god
đź’¬ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Humanity is created in God’s image.…
What was special about her was in those who loved her
Mr Capaldi believed there was nothing special inside Josie that coudn’t be continued. He told the Mother he’d searched and searched and found nothing like that. But I believe now he was searching in the wrong place. There was something very special, but it wasn’t inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her. That’s why I think now Mr Capaldi was wrong and I wouldn’t have succeeded. So I’m glad I decided as I did.…
What is the five fold ministry
The acronym APEST describes five spiritual gifts that Christ embodied and distributed to humanity. It’s not the only list of spiritual gifts, but it’s the one that seems most to describe the architecture of a church community, since these are given for the building up of the Church. But what are they exactly? 5Q Central describes the five gifts by the question, “What would this gift do with a bar of chocolate?…
God wants more humans
Sometimes it’s thought that the Hebrew Bible is more judgment-focused while the Greek Bible is grace-focused, but it just takes more pondering to see it in the first 3/4 of the Bible. For example, in the Noah story, the LORD reflects on the human condition and determines that humans from Noah’s generation will be no better than those wiped out in the flood for filling the earth with violence. Nevertheless, He promises to never again destroy all living things with a deluge.…
How does the holy spirit change humanity
The first two-thirds of the Bible’s storyline is waiting breathlessly for the human who will finally be the true image of God, defeat the serpent and deal with the wake of destruction caused by human failure and foolishness. But after Jesus, the story’s culminating point, the wait for a new human is over. However, the new humanity inaugurated by Jesus has many mysteries. One of these mysteries is how it will be any better than its forebears.…
Ruminations on existence
In prayerful meditation over my lunch walk, the Spirit and I ruminated over Thomas Merton’s words in the opening fifty pages of New Seeds of Contemplation. The waters are very deep and I am at great risk of misinterpretation, but this is what light I seem to have gained: The eternal I AM, who is no “thing” but creates all things and therefore defines reality, sustains all. Yet “sustain” is poor language, for it isn’t that He made it and then keeps it going.…