Og

Interesting interpretation. I would consider the coat comment to have to do with transcendence in the same way that the "love thy enemy" and "hate your family" comments speak to removing the powers of fear and desire from your life.

As for the washing of the hands thing, I have no idea what it means and I assume that it is some sort of cultural thing that is lost in translation.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

Cathy Jean Mockwitz

"Lawyers...regardless of which side of the pendulum they are on...believe that they are here to save sinners. After all...no man(male or female) can gain access to The Father(Judge) except through them. Please note: There will be a large fee for this Gypsy service, and if the Lawyer is not on good terms with
The Father(Judge)...the fee for this Gypsy service will go up...possible landing you in jail. Do not fear...there are many saviors involved in the Gypsy Jails."

Cathy

Cathy Jean Mockwitz

"My Father wrote a manuscript about Lava making one's hands clean. For some strange reason... the pretenders who live in areas of fire gods(volcanoes) have never found this humorous. Oh, well. Not everyone comprehends sacred manuscripts or sacred poetry."

Cathy

greywolf90

oops, i answered the poll before i read the post. i meant that i did accept jesus when i was a christian. anyways, i agree with ogs answer. rather than trying to find some invisible god in the heavens, we should look for the god within ourselves. i can imagine that this would give us a better understanding of ourselves and help us rise to our fullest potential.

__________________
"for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."- Hamlet

Herra1

The Coat.
It is about submission to someone who has the power.
Its okay by me if You WANT that kind of submission.
But what about those, who dont ? Platos rebublic, is nice(?) place to live other than someone whose artist.

Washing hands.
NO, it is NOT a "cultural thing", by dawg.
It is THE most usefull thing to find in whole bible, and JESUS, is saying that HIS followers DONT have to do it.
The actual scripture place where God says, that "You have to wash Your hands before eating," i cannot find.
But to be a sponsor to eating without washing hands in a time when all did eat with hands (When was the fork invented ? btw) is NOT very divine.

Og

Guess we'll just have to disagree. I believe that this is an expression of how to find freedom even when you're oppressed by a power that you are unable to fight. I think this is much like the way the Tibetan prisoners in the Gulags of China respond after they are let free. They say "I was in danger of losing my freedom when I felt a loss of compassion for my oppressors." They embody this "give them your coat as well" attitude and yet still fight to regain their homeland.

I think you are wrong in your interpretation of this quotation from the bible. I think it's MUCH more in line historically with the buddhist ideas that must have influenced christianity.

Ok. Not sure what you're saying in this argument. I don't know by what basis you're saying that this is not a cultural thing. I'm also not very sure what this means today for modern christians.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

Herra1

This is for You, Cathy Jean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6TzioaNJyw

Herra1

NO, They are fighting a fight that is all ready lost.

You just submit.
To a higher power, without asking, is that power legit.
For a slave it is okay. I understand.
But to be a slave, it is something You have to make consious choice.
You have to allso have a choice what You want to be, free, or a slave.


It means, modern day Christians dont wash their hands before eating.

Og

I disagree. I think the real slavery that Jesus speaks to is that of fear and desire (or good/evil or whatever). I think that this is what the story of the coat and the "go the extra mile" (the associated parable) speak to.

It means to make every situation you were in as if you had chosen it yourself. It is to own your life and not blame it on those around you.

As for the stuff about washing hands, I'm happy to ignore this one. Why is this relevant. I am not arguing about the divinity or infallibility of the contents of the bible. I know for a historical fact that there are many stories in the new testament that are not in the oldests texts that we have (i.e. the stoning of the adulteress is one).

I also think that modern day christians live with many many more logical schisms than some silly one about washing their hands.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
Satchitananda - True Being, Pure Consciousness, and Bliss
Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.
You & I, no distinction.
Mettā & Namaste

GX

I have never prayed that prayer nor do I care to. It is a bunch of BS if you ask me. What are you doing here Donatus? Looking for converts? Are you protestant or catholic? I know croatians are catholic but you sound very fundamental "born again" protestant christian. You are much better off preaching to your ustash (croatian WW2 nazi movement) countrymen than posting here. I suggest you go to a "Thompson" concert and preach there as that band is definitely an ustash band and you will find a lot of potential converts there.

For the record, I do not wish to offend any croatian members here and wish to state that most croatians are great people and are not ustash. However, they do still exist over there and I am just merely making a preaching recommendation for Donatus.