The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
Suzi (06-03-21)
Thank you, that article is really clear and easy to understand....
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
Paula (06-03-21)
Mark 14:32-36
[32] They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” [33] He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. [34] “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” [35] Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. [36] “Abba , Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
A change for today. I couldn’t make head nor tail of the reading in today’s passage or teaching in the Lent booklet on Luke, so decided to show you part of my reading from my personal daily bible study for today.
This has always been a favourite passage of mine. For several reasons. First, it shows that even Jesus, the son of God, was depressed. It says to me that it’s not sinful to be depressed. Whenever I’m in crisis, I’ve always known that the hardest thing is that God feels far away. When Jesus is dying on the cross, He shouts ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Yet, here, he still shows that he trusts completely in his Father.
“ Jesus, facing disloyalty, disappointment, distress and death, puts his trust in his loving heavenly Father and says, ‘Yet not what I will, but what you will’ (Mark 14:36c). He knows that God is his perfect Father, whom he can address as ‘Abba, Father’ (v.36a) – an intimate way of addressing him, almost like ‘Daddy’ or ‘Papa’.
He knows that God is all-powerful. In many ways, he wants to escape ‘this cup’ (v.36b). However, he trusts that God knows best and is willing to submit to his will. It is the supreme example for us when we are fearful of what lies ahead.”
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
Suzi (08-03-21)
I've always loved this passage too. I found it really comforting when I was younger and feeling really overwhelmed, that actually that was OK because even someone who had such power as Jesus also became distressed and struggled too. He may have been the son of God, but also showed his human side too.
But I've always found Mark easier to read and understand than Luke..
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
Luke 17:11-19
[11] Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. [12] As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance [13] and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” [14] When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. [15] One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. [16] He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him---and he was a Samaritan. [17] Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? [18] Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” [19] Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
In the Old Testament, God’s instructions to the Israelites concerning leprosy stated that, once anyone with leprosy recovered, only the priests could declare them ‘clean’ (healthy). So, these 10 lepers obviously saw Jesus as a priest and begged for him to heal them (let’s gloss over the fact that only one, the Samaritan, actually returned to thank him). In the Book of Hebrews, in the New Testament, it states that:
Hebrews 2:17
[17] For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
Only Jesus, the great high priest, can declare us clean from our sins.....
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
Thank you. Whenever I've heard this the focus has been on the 9 who didn't return and praise God, but looking at it from the pov of the one who has changes the whole text. Thank you.
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
Paula (09-03-21)
Luke 17:20-35,37
[20] Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, [21] nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” [22] Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. [23] People will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. [24] For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. [25] But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. [26] “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. [27] People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. [28] “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. [29] But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. [30] “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. [31] On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. [32] Remember Lot's wife! [33] Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. [34] I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. [35] Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” [37] “Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”
Huh? Jesus says the kingdom is in their midst. But then refers to the signs that the ‘time is coming’. How can it be both? One term I often read about is that Christians are in the times of ‘now and not yet’. Both of these concepts refer to Jesus coming in first century Palestine to die on the cross. He is the ‘King’ so, wherever he is reigning, is where the kingdom is. We are in the ‘now’ because he first came to be the sacrifice and High Priest that makes us clean (as the lepers were in yesterday’s passage) before the Father. But Jesus will come again, at the end of time, in glory to judge the living and the dead, and herald in the kingdom of God. So we are in the period of ‘not yet’ until the return of Christ.
Revelation 11:15
[15] The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
I struggle with trying to work this out - the here and now and the in the future....
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
So did I, hugely, before starting my studies. The simplest way I can think of it is, we are in between the first and second coming - Jesus has come, 2000 years ago and is here with his people (through the Holy Spirit), but His return at the end of time has not yet happened.
Not sure that helps....
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
I think it does, but it's still difficult!-.gif ")")
Do a little of something that makes you happy every day!
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