Lets talk about death. As probably the oldest here, It would be reasonable to  assume  think about it a lot. No, not so much. Not after I figured it all out: the convictions to follow...

But I'll start out with a question to those who wish to discuss the subject:

Why would someone who believes they are going to heaven be fearful of death?

"Oh death, where is thy sting?"

Or, from "Porgy and Bess' "Tired of livin' afraid of dyin' "

Jesus is quoted as saying that he came that we have life and live it more abundantly.

What do you think of this???

In Matthew 13, Jesus explains the parable  of weeds among the wheat  to the disciples.

sower - Jesus

field - world

good seed- children of the Kingdom

weeds - children of the evil one

enemy - devil

harvest - rapture

reapers - angels

furnace of fire -all causes of sin and all evil-doers.

Is this the take on this parable by the writer?

Did Jesus really say this?

I mean if you believe in a sort of heaven, have you ever dreamed you were there?

I had a dream recently (described in my Crazy Dreams thread in Social) where I had a chance to walk through a gateway to the "beyond" but there was no telling what was there. One might find a sort of dreamworld, or one might find, there was no conciousness at all beyond that point, so I wasn't about to go thorugh and find out. There would be no coming back. I was in a sort of half way world, floating, and everything was light and bright and pleasant and dreamy.

Quite some time ago, I told Geo that he had helped me out with a nagging issue I had with the metaphor of "many paths to God."

I promised him that I'd write an article expanding on the idea, and, several months later, here it is -

Destinations and Journeys - why neither "many paths to God", nore "one path to God" are the right metaphor

What does this mean to you. i don't know where the quote comes from.

"God's in his heaven; All's right with the world"

Just a pithy statement or does it mean something to you?

Someone sent me this via e-mail today:

I wish Heaven had a phone so I could hear your voice again I thought of you today but that is nothing new. I thought about you yesterday and days before that too. I think of you in silence, I often speak your name. All I have are memories and a picture in a frame. Your memory is a keepsake, from which i'll never part. God has you in his arms.. I have you in my heart.

Having observed the different ways of life of many Christians and their observations of the Bible, I want to ask you all this question. Keep in mind, there is a difference.

Do you live to go to Heaven? Or do you live to evade Hell?

I have no answer to that question myself, because I live for neither one. It used to be both answers for me actually, but that is no longer the case.

My firsr try at a 'thread' --

I've been reading a little about heaven, the concepts from ancient Egypt on...

The number of concepts and description are amazing.

I don't believe in any of 'em but parts of all...it's a nice concept, probably with dim beginnings when man first realized/feared  death.

Some things I like : The Taoist unconcern thinking that being and non being are merely  opposites...