add. Otherwise, I would have never said it.)
With that; and knowing this; I need to share a verse with you that no one understands. It’s one of those things Jesus says that seems to come from left field, if not out of nowhere. It’s also one of those things that have forever seen scholars debating its true meaning. Why? Because no one knows, is why. And the reason they don’t is because they failed to develop a history with it. But we have, if only because we just did. See Matthew 18:3: “Verily I say to you, except you be converted and become as little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
However, there is yet more to this verse than you, or anyone else for that matter, knows: especially now that we know what we do about truth and intellect, and the way in which they grind against God and the Bible. See again, albeit for edification, Matthew 18:3. This being where what Jesus actually meant when he said what he did, comes home to roost: Verily [truly] I say to you, except you be converted and become as little children [meaning, more consciously ignorant and mentally simple,] you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Yet; and as hard as it might be to accept; there is more. And yes. It has everything to do with the dumbing down of our spiritual intellect. Or, if you prefer: that which I call the teeter-totter of tedium where, when intellect is up, religion is down, and when religion rises up, intellect is put out of its misery. To try and strike a balance between the two is the very definition of tedium. See Matthew 19:14, albeit for edification, where he added: “Do not suffer the little children from [learning about me:] for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
The oxymoron here has everything to do with the ills of religion. I mean, that is to say, do you know of another way to learn about something, without first having educated yourself on the subject? Now you know why Jesus says some of the more puzzling things that he does. It’s because he doesn’t want you knowing the nature of the truth he harbors, much less being able to reason your way out of it. Just because something seems one way when held a certain way if only because it has always been that way, doesn’t mean it can’t be presented in another fashion altogether, in order to better reveal its true nature.
Now, as for owning the trappings of a child-like intellect, see I Corinthians 13:9. This being where the apostle Paul said of it, as wrought for elucidation, “There are things we know in part, and things we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in pieces and parts will be done away with. 11 For when I was a child I spoke as a child, I reasoned as a child, and I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away those childish things.”
Now that you know my definition regarding the teeter-totter of tedium, your definition of a biblically inspired contradictory ideology is what, exactly?
Ah huh.
Now, as far as that sudden excursion out into left field goes, I give you Luke 22:46. This being where Jesus said to his disciples that were tired and sleeping: “Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”
According to the Bible, intellect tells me that sleep is a gateway to sin and that, to properly guard against it, one must never again sleep but instead, pray continuously. This must be true according to that foolishness thing said to please God, or why even bother with saying something like this? Oh! That’s right. Proverbs 14:24 tells us that it has everything to do with that emotional folly, as found in those child-like souls bound for heaven. Even if that means you have to wake them up from their blissful slumber, in order to get them to go back to sleep.
As far as shutting down that part of the brain responsible for religious reasoning goes; and just how far you can push people into “believing;” even if it’s pure nonsense, I give you Matthew 6:25. This being where Jesus said of it, as wrought for erudition: “Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than the sum of its parts, and the body than the clothes it wears? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you much better, than they? 27 Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit [a cubit is not quite the small matter Jesus makes it out to be, but is more akin to about eighteen inches] to his height? 28 And why take you thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. Yet, they toil not, neither do they spin. 29 I therefore say to you, that even King Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
Then there is Matthew 6:30 where he continues, saying: “Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is not, will not he take better care of you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ Or, ‘What will we drink?’ Or, ‘With what, shall we clothe ourselves?’ 32 Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. 33 Seek you first, before all these things, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things he will take care of for you.”!
Yes. Pure nonsense, Jesus said or no. Why? Because the world doesn’t work that way, is why. It never did. Not even when the first Neanderthal crawled out of its cave, and looked to the heavens out of desperation seeking guidance. It even killed MMA star Evan Tanner, as he set off into the high deserts of California to seek out a one-on-one with God. I say this because, although the story has now changed, this is what those who knew him best said when it first happened. They even warned him of the dangers he was undertaking.
Therefore; and given enough time; a story can be spun anyway you want because people forget, and tend to believe just because something was repeated often enough. So yes. Originally, Evan Tanner was on a spiritual quest as guided by verses like those written above, dirt bike ran out of gas leading to heatstroke as official cause of death or no. But what troubles those who knew him best, is that, deep down, they know he died in vain. I only wish he could have lived long enough to read this book.
Speaking of which…
You do pray for the betterment of things larger than yourself, right? If so, then ask yourself why is it that calamity after calamity continues to befall our world? It’s almost like God isn’t listening. Knowing this, ask yourself why we continue to delude ourselves with the notion that he’s somehow lending an ear because, if he were, we the people of this world would not continue to find our feet mired in muck as we trudge through this thing called life. We know this to be true, or those two hundred and fifty thousand hapless souls that died horribly during the great Asian tsunami of 2004, or even those like Evan Tanner, would still be alive. You know it. I know it. And you can bet that they most certainly would love to know it.
With that; and knowing this; I ask you: what good is a God, any god for that matter, without creating a need for itself? And yes. When the time is right, I will prove it using the Bible as my only source by wielding scripture as plucked from below the conscious reading level. Otherwise, as you know, I would have never said it.
What we discover then, as forged through our own personal endeavors, is that faith by its very nature is proportional to our lack of knowledge on any given subject. We take things as far as we can with what we have to work with, like chemo when it comes to the treatment of cancer, or the chasing of bluebirds when it comes to happiness, and then put everything into the hands of God regarding the outcome. Situations like this are even truer of those who happen to find themselves struggling for grip as life reaches out, and hands them the greasy part of the short end of the stick. See Proverbs 3:13, albeit for edification, “Happy is the [person] that finds wisdom, and them that get understanding.”
Yes: oxymoronic spiritual transfiguration indeed.
By the way: I have something special that I would like to share with you regarding the treatment of cancer. It saw its first discovery sometime in 1974, but has since been shelved by the medical community as pressured by big drug companies because it actually works.
