Search found 183 matches

by W4TVQ
September 29th, 2009, 6:49 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Rapture?
Replies: 21
Views: 63458

Re: Rapture?

I do appreciate the feedback, Georg. I know that there must be some good in this, or that some good may come of it ... but I think I am too close to it to be able to hang on to that as a live hope. I;'ve researched dysgeusia onthe web and it tells me that there is hope that it will clear up by itsel...
by W4TVQ
September 28th, 2009, 2:55 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Rapture?
Replies: 21
Views: 63458

Re: Rapture?

I think that, for now at least, the operative part of that prayer is Remind me Father, now, for I am weary of the world I see. Reveal what you would have me see instead That weariness at times is almost overwhelming. It seems epsecially so to me, having been through some brutal surgery, and now when...
by W4TVQ
September 22nd, 2009, 11:53 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Wittgenstein
Replies: 1
Views: 11884

Re: Wittgenstein

More light on this can be found in the book Philosophy In A New Key by Suzanne Langer. Semantics is fun.
by W4TVQ
September 16th, 2009, 6:56 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Rapture?
Replies: 21
Views: 63458

Re: Rapture?

just as, when we awaken from sleep, we know that our just-finished sleeping dream was not "real", however real it may have seemed at the time. I love how A Course In Miracles describes our awakenng from sleep, reminding us that one does not awaken a person abruptly from a nightmare, but c...
by W4TVQ
September 13th, 2009, 4:15 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Rapture?
Replies: 21
Views: 63458

Re: Rapture?

It's still a wonderment to me as well. I hear from so many sources, includng ACIM, the Buddha, assorted Eastern sages, etc., that what I am perceiving day by day is illusion, or, as you say, "neural fictionalization." And I am convinced that it is indeed just that. But then the question is...
by W4TVQ
August 29th, 2009, 11:19 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Rapture?
Replies: 21
Views: 63458

Re: Rapture?

I've always felt that the thrust of the pre-millennialist "rapture" concept was, and is, what I read on a T-shirt not long ago: "God always liked me better than you." Seriously, though, in a pre-modern cosmology, in which heaven is "up there," hell is "down there,&...
by W4TVQ
August 25th, 2009, 12:10 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Looking or Seeing? Hearing or Listening?
Replies: 5
Views: 18697

Re: Looking or Seeing? Hearing or Listening?

I wonder if the reason we fail to see beauty so many times is that it is part of an alternate universe with which we have only partial contact -- which we have variously identified in more lucid moments as "the spiritual realm" or "heaven" or "the Kingdom of God." I ten...
by W4TVQ
August 9th, 2009, 5:44 pm
Forum: The Sand Box
Topic: Dark Stuff
Replies: 5
Views: 18242

Re: Dark Stuff

What came to mind immediately, of course, was "you shall not tempt" (Matthew 4:5), but instead I replied that I use a seatbelt for the same reason I use a pants belt. "You see, ma'am", I said, "to God it doesn't make any difference whether my pants are up around my waist or...
by W4TVQ
July 20th, 2009, 12:26 pm
Forum: The Sand Box
Topic: Dark Stuff
Replies: 5
Views: 18242

Dark Stuff

I've always been fascinated by the physical sciences. IMO books like A Brief History of Time or Cosmos or The Immense Journey are books about God. Lately I'm particularly fascinated by such things as "dark matter" and "dark energy." No one has ever seen, detected, measured, or ot...
by W4TVQ
July 19th, 2009, 3:25 pm
Forum: The Sand Box
Topic: prayer
Replies: 11
Views: 31084

Re: prayer

It works exactly opposite down here in Southwest Florida: summer drives us inside to escape from the sweltering heat, gnats, :mad2: mosquitoes and, occasionally, thunderstorms.

We have four seasons here: summer, summer, summer, and tourist invasion.

:clever:
by W4TVQ
July 19th, 2009, 1:22 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: "religion"
Replies: 2
Views: 13107

Re: "religion"

The "gay" issue is current inthe Episcopal Church (to which I belong) as well. Our general convention just voted to recommend that the church extend the rites of marriage to commited same-sex couples. I suspect things will get ugly rather soon, on the issue. Some have already split away in...
by W4TVQ
July 14th, 2009, 8:40 pm
Forum: The Sand Box
Topic: prayer
Replies: 11
Views: 31084

Re: prayer

Hence I was on the path when I was actively doing all I could to be not on the path . I know exactly what you are saying, having trod that thorny path myself. I came into AA kicking and screaming, muttering darkly about the $#%!^&*! God Who let me get into such a mess (His fault, all His fault)...
by W4TVQ
July 13th, 2009, 1:52 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: "religion"
Replies: 2
Views: 13107

"religion"

I ran across this quote recently, reading The Phoenix Affirmations by Eric Elnes: [quote]Why is it that the word Christian , which should stand for people of extravagant grace and generosity, who are abundantly loving, who are aassociated with acts of courage, justice and compassion, has become syno...
by W4TVQ
May 30th, 2009, 6:29 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: From Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Replies: 7
Views: 22444

Re: From Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is easy to "praise the Lord" when the sun seems to be shining. A lot less so in the apparent dark. I have heard it suggested (I think, by St. John of the Cross, among others) that when we are struggling, when "thngs are tough," when all around us seems dark and the light is a...
by W4TVQ
May 16th, 2009, 3:09 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: From Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Replies: 7
Views: 22444

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I ran across this while reading excerpts from the works of Bonhoeffer, who, as you know, lost his life for standing in opposition to Hitler. The questions he reaises here are questions I have tangled with at times myself, and never come up with a "final answer." (Not that a "final ans...