Life and Death ..
It's the dawn of a new era. And I'm sure my many other fellow Malaysians feel the same way. Truth be told, I have not read the Malaysian news for some months. There was a time I read The Star and such daily- as you might recall the days when I was an avid writer to the Letter to the Editor section.colorado.gov However, as the months and years went by, the news got more and more discouraging. The racism, corruption, abuse of power. So I heeded a mentor's advice- a fellow Malaysian who left our Tanahair many years before me: "You've left- best to not know what's going on and follow the news. It brings only heartache".
So true. Except there was no running away; the abuse of power got so bad that Malaysia came up even here numerous times. My American friends were in disbelief- the sheer magnitude of the 1MBD scandal, getting even the Justice Department here involved. They asked: why isn't Najis et al in jail? How are they still in power? Well, last week, you, my fellow Malaysians, in an act of unity never before seen, toppled the corrupt BN and its leaders. The shockwave resonates even here; some of us got together to have a celebratory dinner- no teh tarik where we live but we celebrated over a chilled margarita on a warm spring afternoon.
And it's no exaggeration to say that it felt like it was a new chapter, like the air was fresher, and the future seemed brighter. If you're Malaysian, I'm sure you know what I mean. And that's from someone who left Malaysia 19.9 years ago (yes, it will be 20 in a few months). For decades, BN played racial politics, fanning the fires and using the divide-and-conquer strategy. For decades, we were known by our kaum/agama rather than our similar bangsa- it was inspiring to see the opposition movement was led by people of all backgrounds- skin color Life (and Death).. did not matter. And to see that even our Malay compatriots saw through race, to vote away the corrupt UMNO. The next step, this is undiscovered country. It has been a while, but now I can again proudly declare that I am Malaysian.
So I thought if I moved closer to a building, I might be able to connect. Consequently, I am sitting here enjoying the ocean air while listening to the cars whiz by just feet from where I'm sitting. Yes, I forgot to mention that I'm about 1/4 mile from the beach. Yesterday was "one of those days". Mother lost her voice and had ceased even whispering so as to rest her voice. Of course, this also means we did the entire concert last night without Mother's beautiful voice! But yesterday, some of us had a really sweet time together, praying and sharing how God is working in our lives. He absolutely does use trials like this one to to strip us of our pride and self-sufficiency and teach us to rely on Him alone. Right now He is doing a work in us. He's doing a work in me, and I'm grateful, even though it's really painful at times! Thank you all for your prayers! God is answering. He's moving and working above what we could ever ask or think. To G O D be the glory!
Religion is politics, and politics is a religion. They may differ to some, but they are certainly bedfellows, for they are so closely intertwined that they can be said to be ‘as one’. Religion is very political. Just ask anyone in a religious organization if the people in it are practicing politics. Let us take one of the most famous of the religious figures - the man we call Jesus Christ. He had 12 disciples, to which he was their master, or teacher of his philosophy or wisdom -- for ‘philo’ and ‘sophia’ are the Greek words for the ‘love of wisdom’.
When we read from the gospels how his disciples acted towards him and interacted with each other we see that they became political very quickly. His group also found contention with other religious-political organizations such as the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees - each a faction within a party, and having their own belief systems and interpretation of scripture, often arguing amongst one another. Not much has changed in over 2000 years. He and his disciples very quickly found that they were at odds with the most powerful political groups of his time -- the controlling powers of Judaism and the controlling powers of Romanism.
Rome believed in the power of Caesar and the Roman Empire, and Judaism in the power of Jehovah and Israel. And, as the story goes, because he opposed them both, they killed him for that opposition. Throughout the ages religion and politics have caused innumerable conflicts both great and small. The caustic reactions of those who adhere to opposing philosophies have turned the world upside down in all cultures and creeds. Some would argue that this has been a necessary evil and one which over time has brought us to the global civilization we now know, yet one must ask one’s self, ‘At what cost?
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Civilization is not so civilized when we see it in this light. The first thing to be sacrificed for the sake of the controlling powers is the very foundation of truth, the ‘love of wisdom’. The proverbs speak of wisdom as the ‘principle thing’ -- the foremost element, the precious object that should be uppermost in all our minds, and sought with all of our heart. It has been said that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Such a thing has so great a seed of disaster in it that it can bring a nation to its knees in a few short years.
In less than a decade a great nation has been reduced from prosperity to poverty, and the only wisdom that seems to be produced by those in control is that which is earthly and demonic -- selfishness and greed. It is a great evil to see the rich get richer, and the poor poorer on the backs of the very people who believed so fervently the religious and political rhetoric that issued from the marriage of the two. When this man Jesus finally returns, will he find faith and hope on the Earth? We need a new vision -- hopefully one without religion and politics. For the two systems that the powers say we must have to be civilized so far neither has worked out to the advantage of humanity. Author's Bio: Harry Connor Jr has had over 30 years experience in the study of the esoteric, ancient manuscripts, and the scriptures. Always seeking the 'truth' by peeling back the onion skins of delusion, his writings are often controversial, yet uplifting, for he is forever the optimist.eeoc.gov Please Register or Login to post new comment.
Liberating the Bible, A Pastor's Guided Tour for Seeking Christians, because a reissuing of that book is in the works to have it come out again at a lower price. I came across these lines in the stop at the Gospel of John. I find the thoughts I expressed here to be immensely important. They do nothing less than redefine what Christianity is, and they do that in a way that makes it so much more powerful, so much more life giving, for us today. So I'm posting them here.khanacademy.org I hope you find them as meaningful as I do. Thomas C. Sorenson 2018. All rights reserved. Incarnation is the major theme of John, but there are at least two other themes that we must consider in order to understand just what the Gospel of John is all about.
The first is the concept "believe." The second is the concept "eternal life." Both concepts are widely misunderstood. It turns out that they don’t mean what we generally take them to mean. Both are good examples of the importance of understanding the original Greek for understanding some of the central themes, phrases, and concepts of the New Testament. In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ mission is to get people to believe in him. We see this aspect of the Gospel of John in the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16 There Jesus says that God sent him to earth "so that everyone who believes in him" might have eternal life.
What does the word believe mean to you? In common parlance today to believe usually means something like to accept the truth of some proposition without conclusive proof that the proposition is true. We believe what we take to be true but cannot firmly establish to be true. To believe means to hold the opinion that something is true. Today to believe is mostly a mental, cognitive activity. It is an action of the mind in accepting something as true. It was not always so. It may be helpful in understanding what pistis meant and what believe means in our translations of John if we trace the translation history of pistis as it came into English as believe. The first step was the translation of the Greek pistis into Latin.
In the creeds it was translated as "credo." You may be familiar with the first line of the Nicene Creed in Latin (many of us are). It goes " Credo in unum deum," always rendered in English are "I believe in one God." The Latin word credo has as its root the Latin word cor, which means heart. Credo, in its original meaning, preserves the original meaning of pistis as to give one’s heart to.wikipedia.org It is a good translation of pistis into Latin. Jump ahead several centuries, and people began to translate the creeds and the Bible into English.
