›

What does the Lord ask of you

jay_emmjay_emm Kerygmania Host
edited March 6 in Kerygmania
As we leave ordinary time and enter lent (borrowed time?), the thought of "what the Lord asks of us" is nearer the surface.

So particularly with regard to verses/passages that have inspired organisations or you (keep in mind privacy) to do stuff for lent or life, or you really where a message is hammered home, let's look at that.
What does the bible say god commands

As a fitting introduction, given how Jesus introduces it and the rest of the thread should flesh it out, we can open with Deuteronomy 6
"4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.".
I'm hoping the thread will bring out all those components.

(ETA fixed title, DT)

Comments

  • TheLamentTheLament Shipmate Posts: 15
    edited March 5
    Spiritual elders of various sorts, clergy and lay, point me towards the Sermon of the Mount. Probably because I'm complete crap at it.

    Matthew 5:22 is probably foremost in my mind this Lent: "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire." I am reading a non-Biblical work which has much to say on anger which, God willing, will be helpful also.

    “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). As someone, tmi?, who had a crap time at school and lives a life much alone, these spiritual advisers are encouraging me to form friendships and receive help as much as as I can potentially give it to others also.
  • LatchKeyKidLatchKeyKid Shipmate
    The title comes from Micah 6
    ‘With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before God on high?
    Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
    with calves a year old?
    Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
    Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’

    ‘With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before God on high?
    Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
    with calves a year old?
    Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
    Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
    He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you?
    but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

    I don't have much to do with any church calendar, but this is a guiding principle to try and attain.
    If I don't it's a sin, but I see sin in archery terms of missing the mark, which most of my arrows do, and it means I should try harder. If I hit the mark every time it means I'm not having a hard enough challenge.
  • jay_emmjay_emm Kerygmania Host
    That verse was definitely in my head as I was composing (especially with the current times here and abroad).
    Though I also didn't have a "the answer" in mind.
    I do like the wide variety and repetition of "love (human group)" and will post in that.
  • HarryCHHarryCH Shipmate
    Perhaps the typo in the title could be fixed.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

    Seems to me that seeking to know God in Christ is the way to go.
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited March 6
    jay_emm wrote: »
    As we leave ordinary time and enter lent..
    “I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
    Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
    and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
    Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
    But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

    Amos 5:21-24 (ESV)
    What do you do when you love the Feasts and Fasts? Love Liturgy? Yet justice, love... are missing from your life?

    I am speaking to my priest on this. He is a good man, corrects my tendencies toward extremism and things too lofty for me, and other issues, but I feel we are on 2 different planets at times. In some attempt at humility, I always try, try, and place the issue with me*, but at the same point we do seem to have very different mentalities. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. And the parish is good for me.

    One priest gave me advice, "Just do good to others. Get on with it. Even when you don't want to. Especially then." I think good advice. But at some point I think God, who I know loves me beyond measure, must be tired of the hypocrisy.

    * I realise this can lead to dark places...this is not that; I have left a spiritual Father in the past as that relationship was unhelpful (from my side; I fell in love with him! And he was too advanced for simple me!)
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited March 6
    Just to add, if any have any read The Ladder of Divine Ascent you may recall "insensibility" which is my affliction, among others ("deadened feeling, which from long sickness and negligence lapses into loss of feeling").

    On that extremism I spoke of, I include a lengthy paragraph from it below. St John wrote he suffers from this, so what better Saint could I have?

    ---
    He who has lost sensibility is a brainless philosopher, a self-condemned commentator, a self-
    contradictory windbag, a blind man who teaches others to see. He talks about healing a wound, and does not stop irritating it. He complains of sickness, and does not stop eating what is harmful. He prays against it, and immediately goes and does it. And when he has done it, he is angry with himself; and the wretched man is not ashamed of his own words. ‘I am doing wrong,’ he cries, and eagerly continues to do so. His mouth prays against his passion, and his body struggles for it. He philosophises about death, but he behaves as if he were immortal. He groans over the separation of soul and body, but drowses along as if he were eternal. He talks of temperance and self-control, but he lives for
    gluttony. He reads about the judgment and begins to smile. He reads about vainglory, and is vainglorious while actually reading. He repeats what he has learnt about vigil, and drops asleep on the spot. He praises prayer, but runs from it as from the plague. He blesses obedience, but he is the first to
    disobey. He praises detachment, but he is not ashamed to be spiteful and to fight for a rag. When angered he gets bitter, and he is angered again at his bitterness; and he does not feel that after one defeat he is suffering another. Having overeaten he repents, and a little later again gives way to it. He blesses silence, and praises it with a spate of words. He teaches meekness, and during the actual teaching frequently gets angry. Having woken from passion he sighs, and shaking his head, he again yields to passion. He condemns laughter, and lectures on mourning with a smile on his face. Before others he blames himself for being vainglorious, and in blaming himself is only angling for glory for himself. He looks people in the face with passion, and talks about chastity. While frequenting the world, he praises the solitary life, without realizing that he shames himself. He extols almsgivers, and reviles beggars. All the time he is his own accuser, and he does not want to come to his senses—I will
    not say cannot.
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited March 6
    Just to explain (and forgive the multiple posts): I didn't post that to get sympathy, concern, etc -- but just to show where I am at. It is not just I do not like someone.
  • W HyattW Hyatt Shipmate
    Climacus wrote: »
    One priest gave me advice, "Just do good to others. Get on with it. Even when you don't want to. Especially then." I think good advice. But at some point I think God, who I know loves me beyond measure, must be tired of the hypocrisy.

    I like that advice.

    One minister gave me advice that has helped me: when you compel yourself to act in a way that you wish you felt like acting, it's not hypocrisy. I think such times are pleasing to God because they mean we are turning toward him, which is a necessary step before we can become closer to him.

    Actually, I see it as an essential aspect of spirituality - being willing to act against our inclination to follow our faith.
  • W HyattW Hyatt Shipmate
    ... being willing to act against our inclination because of our faith.
  • questioningquestioning Shipmate
    W Hyatt wrote: »
    Climacus wrote: »
    One priest gave me advice, "Just do good to others. Get on with it. Even when you don't want to. Especially then." I think good advice. But at some point I think God, who I know loves me beyond measure, must be tired of the hypocrisy.

    I like that advice.

    One minister gave me advice that has helped me: when you compel yourself to act in a way that you wish you felt like acting, it's not hypocrisy. I think such times are pleasing to God because they mean we are turning toward him, which is a necessary step before we can become closer to him.

    Actually, I see it as an essential aspect of spirituality - being willing to act against our inclination to follow our faith.

    This reminds me of something I heard recently. A woman was saying, "I look at a person and think, 'How dare she dress like that in public?' Then I think, 'She can dress however she darn well pleases!' And then I feel like a hypocrite.

    Someone else responded, "My mother always used to say, 'Your first response is your conditioned one. Your second response is the one you are claiming as your own and growing into.' There's no hypocrisy in that.

    I found the mother's response tremendously life-giving.
  • HarryCHHarryCH Shipmate
    As put in a Disney film: "Do the next right thing."
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    questioning wrote: »
    W Hyatt wrote: »
    Climacus wrote: »
    One priest gave me advice, "Just do good to others. Get on with it. Even when you don't want to. Especially then." I think good advice. But at some point I think God, who I know loves me beyond measure, must be tired of the hypocrisy.

    I like that advice.

    One minister gave me advice that has helped me: when you compel yourself to act in a way that you wish you felt like acting, it's not hypocrisy. I think such times are pleasing to God because they mean we are turning toward him, which is a necessary step before we can become closer to him.

    Actually, I see it as an essential aspect of spirituality - being willing to act against our inclination to follow our faith.

    This reminds me of something I heard recently. A woman was saying, "I look at a person and think, 'How dare she dress like that in public?' Then I think, 'She can dress however she darn well pleases!' And then I feel like a hypocrite.

    Someone else responded, "My mother always used to say, 'Your first response is your conditioned one. Your second response is the one you are claiming as your own and growing into.' There's no hypocrisy in that.

    I found the mother's response tremendously life-giving.

    I think this is very important. A lot of ills in society come from people settling for their conditioned response. And a lot of needless guilt from other people even having the conditioned one. And finally a lot of nonsense from people claiming never to have the conditioned response, which causes the guilt in the second group.
  • jay_emmjay_emm Kerygmania Host
    A bit like not experiencing temptation and not giving in to temptation.

    I do like how the command to "Love your neighbour" appears in so many places and variations. It's mentioned and built up in Leviticus 19:18 (and despite still being in the wilderness* in the same chapter love the foreigner v33), Paul has it as the whole law summarised (Galatians and Romans). Matthew repeats it 3 times. It's obviously important and yet I'm quite bad at it.

    *Or at least set then, and just as radical it were written in the monarchies or exile
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    For what it’s worth, they had foreigners among them even as they left Egypt—these are the people referred to as a “mixed multitude” in Exodus 12:38.
Sign In or Register to comment.