bartox fountain

spirit=consciousness

2011-11-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

These days, I identify spirit with consciousness, awareness, mindfulness. Consciousness is the depth experience of the universe even if it only occurs in animals on this planet. If that is the case, it is a strictly biological phenomenon. But, as you say, it is built on unconscious or pre-conscious structures. Spirituality occurs when we are aware of our awareness, conscious of our consciousness, mindful of our mindfulness. It is so simple we often miss it in our complexity. In the gospel of john it talks about the river of water of life. Water is cool and refreshing. But often, we take water for granted. We want something more and we miss the wonderful qualities of water. Consciousness is like that. It is cool and refreshing and deeper than we are usually aware of. So we miss it, we forget about it, we lose touch with it and the simplicity of it. We need something simple to bring us back to ourselves, be it the sounding of a bell, the laughter of a child, a breeze, or a sense of compassion that surfaces from within us that we did not know was there. So we come back to the spirit which is our consciousness, the wellspring of life.

2011-10-17T16:29:00.001-07:00

On another website, someone claimed that Jesus said things and did things which imply he was God. If he wasn't God, he would never even imply them. There are many places in the Gospels where people worshiped him. He cited Matthew 14:33 and 28:9:

Mt 14:33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”

Mt 28:9 And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
Why did he not reject that worship? He himself said that we should worship only God (Mt 4:10). If he wasn't God, why did he receive the worship?

In response to this I noted that the word translated as worship is proskyneo which sometimes describes only a respectful bow to a superior not the religious worship of a deity. However, the contexts in which the word appears in Matthew do seem to warrant the translation "worship". After all, the Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as the virginally conceived Son of God. The significance of Jesus as "God with us" is invoked by citing Isaiah 7:14 in chapter 1 verse 23. Jesus is worshiped in Matthew by the magi, a leper, a Canaanite woman, the mother of Zebedee's son's and the disciples as you have pointed out.

However, Mark and John say nothing about the disciples worshiping Jesus in their versions of the "walking on water "story. Luke doesn't mention the story at all.

The other three gospels all recount the "women at the tomb" story. But the others don't mention that the women worshiped Jesus. According to Luke, the women didn't see Jesus at the tomb at all.

None of the other gospels include the story of the magi. Mark tells the story of the Canaanite woman and of the leper but does not say they worshiped Jesus. The mother of the sons of Zebedee is not mentioned in the other gospels.

So it appears that Matthew may have added the detail about people worshiping Jesus to support his case that people received Jesus as "God with us" and that Jesus accepted worship as an appropriate response. It is less likely that the historical Jesus understood himself to be God.

ACME RHYTHM AND BLUES

2010-11-14T18:20:00.000-08:00

Acme RHythm and Blues performs Lets Stay Together

2010-11-14T18:19:00.000-08:00

2010-09-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

Within the superabundance of life giving and restoring forces even misfortune has a sun-like glow and engenders its own consolation.

2009-08-02T22:27:00.000-07:00

2009-04-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

2009-04-08T02:59:00.000-07:00

As I face surgery tomorrow, my dearest wish is to be able to keep on playing music again in the near future. I love you all.

2009-03-03T20:21:00.000-08:00

2009-03-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

2008-12-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

2008-11-30T19:34:00.000-08:00

For the record, the Who played at Code 1 in Fort Lauderdale on March 23, 1968. Contrary to what another Limestone Lounge writer said , they were fantastic!