Significant

"Non nobis solum nati sumus"

[modernworldapologetics]

Anonymous asked:

A lot of Christians say that Christianity is a lifestyle, not a religion. So my question is… what about other religions where believers consider the religion to be a lifestyle, and not a religion, such as Buddhism? Can one be a Buddhist Christian?

No, one cannot.  There are two main reasons for this.  1.) Christianity is, in fact, a religion, and 2.) Christianity and Buddhism contradict each other.  Which basically means that, in order to be a blending of the two, one would have to not be very good at being at least one of them.  This is true, to varying degrees, with every religion being paired with Christianity.

Make no mistake here.  Christianity is a lifestyle.  And it is a relationship, which is another common ‘Christianity is a [x], not a religion’ statement.  But to a certain extent, both of these attributes of Christianity are rooted in the fact that it is a religion.  We hold very specific views on God, mankind, the physical universe, metaphysics, death, and the afterlife.  And these views then turn around and color our approach to everything else.  Our lifestyles are changed, not because we’ve been told to change them, but because our decisions and interests and goals are run through a filter shaped entirely by our theology.  Our relationship with God is based entirely on our understanding of who God is, and who we are in relation to Him, and what He’s done to reach out to us (it was the atoning death and resurrection of Christ.  Always like to have that mentioned somewhere).  Our relationships to others are based on our relationship with God and our understanding of who we are, individually and collectively.

The problem that comes from trying to blend Christianity with any other religion or pseudoreligion is that they do not have the same core or goal.  No matter how similar the pavement on the sidewalks look, they are not the same sidewalk.  You can actually go word for word through the Bible, taking every instance in which we are given behavioral commands, and build an entire lifestyle of exactly that - no contradictions, no changes, just straight up what the Bible says to do or not do - and still be teaching something that directly contradicts Christianity.  Why?  Because what we do isn’t the point.  Our goal is not peace.  It is not kindness, or happiness, or goodwill toward men.  It is not right behavior, or even right thought about behavior.  The goal of every Christian, the core of who we are, the very power that drives us in everything, has nothing to do with us.  Everything is about bringing glory to the One True God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, King of All Creation, Supreme Judge and Ultimate Righteousness, One God in Three Persons, in which the Son came to Earth as the man Jesus Christ to reveal God Himself to us and save us from our own sin because we can’t do it ourselves.  And if anything in a belief system contradicts that, if anything else is the goal, or the center, or the driving force, then it directly contradicts Christianity and is completely incompatible.

-Tim

[lovelungi]

Important 

[lovelungi]

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

J.R.R Tolkien

Barcelona is full of light, of love and of good. This evil that has come into her midst, this darkness will not extinguish her light. Light will always shine in darkness, the darkness cannot and will not overcome. 

[lovelungi]

No More

I will tell you about selfish people. even when they know they will hurt you, they walk into your life to taste you because you are the type of being they don't want to miss out on. you are too much shine to not be felt. So when they have gotten a good look at everything you have to offer. when they have taken your skin, your hair, your secrets with them, when they realize how real this is, how much of a storm you are and it hits them. That is when the cowardice sets in. That is when the person you thought they were is replaced with the sad reality of what they are. That is when they lose every fighting bone in their body and leave, after saying you will find better than me. You will stand there naked with half of them still hidden somewhere inside you and sob, asking them why they did it. Why they forced you to love them when they had no intention of loving you back. And they will say something along the lines of I just had to try. I had to give it a chance. It was you after all.

But that isn't romantic. It isn't sweet. The idea that they were so engulfed by your existence that they had to risk breaking it for the sake of knowing they weren't the one missing out. Your existence meant that little next to their curiosity of you. This is the thing about selfish people. They gamble entire beings, entire souls to please their own. One second they are holding you like the world in their lap and the next they have belittled you to a mere picture, a moment, something of the past. one second. As if the human heart means that little to them. isn't it sad and funny how people have more guts these days to undress you with their fingers than they do to pick up the phone and call. Apologize, for the loss. And this is how you lose her.

-Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey

[fabianpoduweddings]

LOL- Ich liebe dich!

[lovelungi]

Daily dose of TRUTH!

[lovelungi]

a land of Kings and Queens

Africa.

Oh the images that one word brings to the Western world. The skewed perceptions brought up by nonobjective history books and media reports. How they equate the value of the African people to civil wars, diseases, hunger, wild animals, mud huts and “backward” living, and AIDS. To break some of these misconceptions, let me tell you: I come from an Africa you’re not used to hearing about; an Africa with contemporary sky-scrapers, million-dollar mansions, tarred roads; an Africa where luxury cars and domestic workers are the norm — all of these, ‘indulgences’’  of the so-called “First World” nations.

But why on earth should I evaluate my worth as an African by Euro-centric standards?

Trapped in the claws of a dilemma, I often wonder how “they” can define something so complex. I’m African and I appreciate my heritage with the utmost love and unwavering sentiment. I live in an ancient land of Kings and Queens, and born of a people whose beauty and essence will never truly be defined by magazine covers and supermodels. My home is a wide expanse of space, with snow-capped mountains, luscious green forest, undulating sand dunes and thundering waterfalls. I am a descendant of a people that discovered chemistry; a people who built granite temples that glistened under the rays of the blazing and beautiful African sun. I hail from a land where bedtime stories are not read from commercialized children’s books, but are told by grandmothers sitting in the dim darkness before flickering flames, as the sound of nature haunts the night. I come from a land where the spirit of music beats like a drum – powerful and strong; a place where every melody tells a story and every story teaches a moral; a place where every name has a meaning. In my heart is an indivisible tie to a land where life is nothing without love and love means nothing without God.

I have come to realize that my African ethnicity is a great privilege. Being African is not defined by race, religion, gender, geography or politics, but by ideologies rich in morals, ethics and culture. In essence, being African is a state of mind – the ability to exude nobility, purity and strength.

Africa is a land of endless beauty and resources, and blessed with a beautiful people.

- Kufakunesu Mawira

[lovelungi]

Of Butterflies and Second Chances

“I tell of hearts and souls and dances... Butterflies and second chances; Desperate ones and dreamers bound, Seeking life from barren ground, Who suffer on in earthly fate The bitter pain of agony hate, Might but they stop and here forgive Would break the bonds to breathe and live And find that God in goodness brings A chance for change, the hope of wings To rest in Him, and self to die And so become a butterfly.”

-Karen Kingsbury

[lovelungi]

Times

I hear You say,

"My love is over. It's underneath.

It's inside. It's in between.

The times you doubt Me, when you can't feel.

The times that you question, 'Is this for real? '

The times you're broken.

The times that you mend.

The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.

Well, My love is over, it's underneath.

It's inside, it's in between.

These times you're healing, and when your heart breaks.

The times that you feel like you're falling from grace.

The times you're hurting.

The times that you heal.

The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.

The times of confusion, in chaos and pain.

I'm there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.

I'm there through your heartache.

I'm there in the storm.

My love I will keep you, by My pow'r alone.

I don't care where you fall, where you have been.

I'll never forsake you, My love never ends.

It never ends."

[lovelungi]

An all time favourite...

Having a Coke With You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz,      Bayonne, or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona, partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier      St. Sebastian; partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for      yoghurt partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and      statuary it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything      as still as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front      of it in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in      the world Except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally, and anyway it’s      in the Frick which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together      the first time and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care      of Futurism just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that      used to wow me and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when      the sun sank or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider      as carefully as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you      about it. -Frank O’Hara