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Uncommon Definitions of common words...

It is my contention that many perfectly good words have lost their meanings through either deliberate misuse or by hanging around religion too long. By hanging out with religion, these nice innocent words pick up "religiosity"; that gooey, syrupy, sickening, over-holy, feeling that I personally find repellent.

That being said, here are my definitions.


Righteousness
Morals
Religion
Worship
Spirituality
Faith
Sin
Greed
Envy/Jealousy
Law
Unconditional Love
Money
Justice
Individuality/Individual/Self
Love (Anger/Hatred/Fear)
Magic
Integrity
Idol(s)/Idolatry

Righteousness:
     Now here's a word just dripping with religion, it almost gags in your throat to say it. But let's see if we can't clean it up a bit.
     The problem with the word 'righteousness', is that we unconsciously associate it with 'self-righteousness', and there's that sick religious feeling again.
     But let's break it down and look at it's pieces.
     The first piece is 'right'. See, that feels better already. 'Right' just means correct, or meeting a standard. It does not have to hang around religion at all. There is a 'right' way to make a brick wall. See, no religion at all, but it's still 'right'.
     The 'ous' part just means full of , or abundance of. So at this point we have 'a lot of correct'.
     The 'ness' part just means a state of or condition.
     So, let's apply this word to that brick wall. If that brick wall was built with 'righteousness' it would be a wall that met a very high standard of correctness in it's entirety.
     Similarly, a 'righteous' person, or a person who showed 'righteousness', would just be a person who always tried to do things correctly or right. In other words their nature is predictable in that you can anticipate that they will always endeavour to do a process or task correctly.
     There now, doesn't that feel better?

Moral or Morals:
     Simply stated; an inner sense of right. If a person has a good sense of right, they have 'moral' sense. if they like and practice doing right, they are 'righteous' and their life is full of 'righteousness'.
     Another way to look at the word 'moral' is in the phrase "the moral of the story". What does that phrase refer to ?
     It would refer to a story that would teach you a principle about right or wrong.
     A story of this genre might end with a phrase such as "so, the moral of  the story is; the badly injured and hospitalized man learned to mind his own business".

Religion:
     I'm already mad, and I haven't even started.
     Religion is a system that is supposed to help you develop your own sense of moral reasoning, but instead tries to replace it.
     Religion is primarily an excuse for some people to control other people's lives and blame it on God.
     Religion is, in a word; embarrassing. Grown men dressed up in outfits that any self-respecting woman would not be caught dead in.
     Religion is the business of Worship.
     Religion is the exaggerated and artificial faking of the emotions of true worship (see below).

Worship:
     A very interesting word. Not at all what you might think.
     I started looking at this word with a little mind-experiment.
I imagined that God became a human and walked into my house.
    How would I react? I would like to think that I would show him to the best chair in my house, offer the best beverage and food I had and show great respect in the way I treated him.
     Now, imagine that I treated him religiously; I lighted candles and started chanting. What normal person would want to receive or give that in a relationship? No one would like to be in a close human relationship that you would describe as 'religious'.
     So true worship is about showing genuine respect.
     And here's the best part; Just for fun I looked up the word 'worship' in my old Webster's dictionary. As it turns out the word 'worship' actually comes from the old English phrase 'worth ship'. Perfect, yes? It's not a religious word at all, but a term of respect or 'worth'. If you place a high worth on God then you 'worth ship' or 'worship' God.

Spiritual or Spirituality:
     This one turned out to be amazing. Again I used a little mind experiment. I started by simply looking at my hand. And I thought "everything about my hand is physical, it's bone and flesh and blood and electrical impulses; physical". But if I take that same very, actually totally, physical hand, and pick a  clean fresh piece of  fruit and give that fruit to a starving child, somehow it becomes spiritual. Everything used and everything done was physical, and yet it became spiritual. And then I thought "Satan is a spirit, but he's not spiritual". My hand is physical and yet it can be spiritual. A conundrum. So I realized if you move something physical in a pattern that reflects the thinking or emotional nature of God, that's spiritual. Because you're reflecting the dominant emotional nature of God, or his spirit.      If I were to ask you to describe the 'spirit' of your Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, even your dog or cat, You would without hesitating describe their dominant emotional nature, that's what 'their spirit' always means. And yet, when we talk about God's Spirit, for some reason we do a 'disconnect' from the real meaning of that word, and it becomes this gooey religious word. Funny huh?
Actually when God describes his spirit in Galatians the sixth chapter he himself describes it in terms that are only emotional i.e. Love, Joy, Peace, Mildness, Goodness, etc.
      This is not to say that God's spirit is not an active force or power, actually everyone's spirit is their active or actuating force, your emotions are what motivate you, in fact, the word Emotion includes the word motion or motivate. Jesus himself illustrated Holy Spirit in a manner that showed it to be an active force. (John 20:22) But it will always manifest God's dominant emotional qualities, thus if you truly have God's spirit you will always manifest his emotional qualities, whether you have the more miraculous works or not. Those works are always consistent with his spirit, or dominant emotional nature. It is not a religious term, it is an emotional term.
      So having God's spirit means having his dominant emotional pattern and acting in harmony with it. Spirituality in this context is:  how you feel about the way God feels.  (if you regard God as a real person/friend, this will be a lot easier to grasp. Sometimes we make God so big that it makes it hard to approach him, make him small, just like Jesus did when he was with the little children, there, didn't that help?)
      So, instead of saying So-and-So is a "spiritual" person, it is more meaningful, descriptive, and understandable to say So-and-So is a "Godlike thinking, acting, and feeling person".

     (If you don't mind, I'd like to insert a little story here:
       Many years ago, I met a man who himself was very old at that time. As it went, we got into a very involved Bible discussion. As the discussion proceeded he got that look and tone in his voice that old people get when they are about to impart a treasure from their life to a young person. (that the young person themselves will never understand until they themselves are also old). He leaned forward and said with the 'treasured-thought voice', this: "Holy Spirit is the Mind of God". "You're nuts" I thought. It is now, many years later, that I realize he was essentially right.   Compare his phrase "Holy Spirit is the Mind of God" with this scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 "...For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God ...". Notice how Paul seems very comfortable here making a comparison between God's 'thoughts/spirit' and man's 'thoughts/spirit'. Personally I think Paul is a bit more accurate than my old friend, but it's essentially the same thought. Please note, Paul uses the exact same terms for 'thoughts' (or 'things', depending on the Bible you're using) and 'spirit' in his comparison between God's Spirit and man's spirit.
    This understanding of; Holy Spirit/Spirit/Spiritual/Spirituality, is one of the most important things I've ever discovered.   (I just wrote that with the 'treasured-thought' look on my face.... I may have been leaning forward too.)

It seems that all conventional views of the Holy Spirit obscure the elegantly simple beauty of what it really is.

(noteworthy too, this is the only explanation of the Holy Spirit that explains the proper use of the pronoun "He" for the Holy Spirit without the need for a third person.)

Faith:
     If you take the religious word 'faith' and replace it with the practical word 'trust', it just makes everything make more sense. For example the Bible says 'without faith it is impossible to please God well'. Can you have a good and close relationship with anyone without trust? It's really just that simple.

Sin:
     Here's a riddle for you "If only God can create, then who created Sin?".
     
     What is Sin?
     Why is Sin bad?

     Let's take these three points in reverse order, starting with 'Why is sin bad?'
     Sin, simply stated, is bad because ultimately it leads to the reduction of quality of life of either the person doing it or someone else. The effect of sin can be immediate and/or long-term. The results of a sin are not necessarily evident for possibly for a long time, as in the case of environmental pollution.
     So what is sin? Everything God has made is perfect. And only God can create. So how can sin exist? Let's illustrate: A hand can be perfectly made, and that perfect hand can be rolled up into a perfect fist and pushed at a perfect speed into someone's perfect nose. And somehow now it doesn't seem quite so perfect. Sin is: the improper application or use of things that God has perfectly made. So sin is not a created thing; it is the word used to identify when things are used improperly. This may help: Let's look at the word dirt. Interestingly, there is no such thing as dirt. Cookie dough in a mixing bowl is not dirt, in your living room carpet it is. So dirt is the word used to identify granular, or fine material out of place. Similarly, there is no such thing as a weed. A weed is just a plant out of place; a corn stalk in a wheat field is a weed. A blade of wheat in a corn field is a weed. There is no such "thing" as a sin. A sin is when things are used improperly.
     Sin is actually the reciprocal word for holy: holy means uncontaminated or always used properly. Wholy clean or uncontaminated, to make up a mnemonic device. Holy shows all the signs of being a doublet of the word wholly.
     Actually, Holy should not be viewed as a religious word, but a term of proportion or percentage, the percentage always being 100%. Thus, instead of saying God's 'Holy' Spirit, it is more clear and understandable to say God's '100% perfect' Spirit.

Greed, Envy, Jealousy:
     Greed is feeding a desire without thought of consequences to one's self or others. A lack of appropriate concern for measure.
     To illustrate: Let's put a hamburger on the table. I eat it. Is that greed? If I'm already full, yes. If  I'm hungry, no. In either case if it's not mine, yes. If I'm hungry, and it's mine and you come into the room and you are hungry and I don't share, yes. If you're not hungry, no. Not being greedy is showing respect for ownership, others, self, timing, etc., etc., seeing the big picture and acting compassionately and appropriately, thinking 'outside of the bun' as it were.
     Envy and Jealously are just simply greed in it's competitive form. (please see the monograph on this website ' Everything you need to know about life').

Law:
     A fact, stated or unstated, of an immutable truth, the violation of, or compliance with, has unavoidable consequences for which there are no exceptions. (please see the monograph on this website 'the truth about God'.)

Unconditional Love:
     A deceptively deceptive concept. Basically it's saying " you have to love and accept me no matter what I do". It is actually Satan's demand to God. Unconditional Love does not, and should not exist. It shows no consideration for the giver, and no responsibility on the part of the receiver. That doesn't sound like love to me. Think about this scripture,   1 John 4:19.
It says 'as for us, we love, because he first loved us.' So you see, even our love of God is conditional.
Some would assert that a mother's love for her new-born is unconditional. The correct term would be "unmeasurable". Her love for the infant is because it is an infant, and it is hers, those are the conditions.
When we say 'unconditional love', if we are a truly responsible and fair person, maybe what we really mean is we want to receive (or give) unselfish love.  
Like so many things from Satan it sounds good, but on closer examination it's not so good. Doesn't the Bible say that Satan would transform himself into an angel of light? (2 Corinthians 11:14)

Money:
    Money is a physical, (and yet abstract) representation of Justice.
    To illustrate think about this: if someone hired you to work in their yard, and you worked hard for a whole day, but they didn't even pay you enough to eat for that day, that would be unjust. However if you were paid enough to eat three meals and had a little money left over, that would be fair or just. The proper use of money in this instance is Justice, the improper use would be unjust. Also think about this: the term Ransom is not a religious term but a financial term. Didn't Jesus 'buy back' mankind? Just think about it a little.

Justice:
     Justice is either the execution of, or the stating of, moral equations.
Example: If you take my horse and I lose a day's work as a consequence,
You owe me: a horse, and a day's wage.

Individuality/Individual/Self:
    An impossible abstract concept, there has never been any such thing as an individual other than God himself. And God himself is no longer truly an individual, because he is inextricably involved in the outcome of his creation.
     All persons are dependent on or influenced by others. For a simple example; the language you speak, you did not invent it and yet you are totally dependent upon it. The concept of Self and individuality are ideas promoted by Satan to encourage narrow thinking, selfishness, and rebellion.

Love:
     The preserving principle for the harmony of God's creation (short answer)

Anger/Hate:
     The desire or urge to remove that which threatens or disturbs harmony. (short answer)

Here's the long answer;

Love (Anger/Hatred/Fear):
     This word turned out to be the hardest word to define of all. But it was well worth the effort.
     Love is: The desire to perpetuate the harmonizing principles of a person, place, or thing.
     Consider this; God as a Creator has a vested and personal interest in the success of the things he has made. He likes to see his stuff work. The Bible says that "God is Love". What that really is saying is that God's dominant desire or emotion is to see things work successfully according to his design. It deeply matters to him that his things work well. Now, if that sounds cold or clinical just think back on something that you have made that was beautiful and intricate and you cared deeply about. It came out well and you 'loved' it. Yes? Is it starting to make some sense now?
     Now imagine that someone tried to damage or destroy your beautiful creation. You would become angry and try to protect your creation. In other words you would try to stop anyone or anything that would disrupt the perpetuating of the harmonizing or preserving principles of your creation. So anger and hatred are the defensive forms of love, they are not the opposite of love. (indifference would be the opposite of love, surprisingly fear* is also the opposite of love. Fear means that there is believed or perceived to be a potential for someone or something to disrupt or destroy the harmonizing principles of a person, place, or thing. Remember how John said 'perfect love casts fear aside'? 1 John 4:18. There can be no fear in love, because love is that which protects and preserves.) This really changed my view of God's anger and hatred. Frankly, God's anger always made me question his character a bit, sorry, just being honest here. But now that I realize that it's the defensive or protective form of his love (or his desire to prevent someone or something from disrupting the perpetuating of the harmonizing principles of something he has created) I look at it completely differently now.
     So God's Love for us is that he wants us to be successful, our love for him is that we trust that he wants us to be successful. It isn't necessarily personal. It can be on principle only. Personal is when it goes up another notch. Hence 'Agape', principled love, is the form of love most commonly used in the Bible. A personal relationship is just that; personal. It is the result of direct mutual knowledge of each other. They can be connected but they are not the same. Please don't let that hurt your feelings. Your love with God can become personal, but it takes time and effort. But his principled love is there right from the beginning.

     Interestingly, this definition is also true in it's inverse or negative form. If you love doing wrong you have a desire to perpetuate the circumstances or conditions of that wrong, you also would get angry and hate anything that would prevent the continuation of that wrong thing. So your anger is the defensive form of your love of that wrong thing.
     So, the the one showing love wants to protect, cultivate, and nurture and the one loved feels protected and nurtured.
   
                     It's kind of a gardening thing.

(We're always told about 'Principled Love" i.e. Agape.
But we're not told what the principle is.
Well, here it is: it's the Desire to see things achieve their highest potential or good..... That's the principle. And now you know......)



*How can one reconcile that statement, 'fear is the opposite of love' with the Bible's comment, "the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge (wisdom)"?
Simply put, it's true, fear is, or should be, the beginning of Wisdom, it's not the beginning of love.
Reflect back on your own life, when you were little if you are typical, you probably had a warm love of God from the time you first heard about him. It was only later, as you learned how not thinking (thoughtlessness) or a lack of wisdom, can cause things to go wrong that you had fear in your view of God. It was then, if you were wise, that you took steps to prevent your damaging your relationship with God by developing good thinking abilities (Proverbs 3:19-26, in fact the entire book of Proverbs is devoted to the thought of developing wisdom, including practical wisdom). So, the fear of losing or damaging your relationship with God motivated you to develop wisdom. The scripture does not say that the fear is continuous, if proper wisdom is developed the fear should be non-existent or minimal. Any future thoughts or actions that would show a lack of wisdom should generate fear, otherwise it should not be that big of a factor in your life, it's no different than any other relationship.

Magic:

     Magic is the "something for nothing" principle. It is a basic denying of the foundation law of the universe, namely "cause and effect", "equal and opposite reaction" also called "parity". It is an expression of pure greed, it is what Satan told Eve; "Eat this fruit and you'll have superpowers". The fruit had "magic" properties. Magic is a purely Satanic concept, it stands in direct opposition to the concept of a universe of 'cause and effect' and violates the concept of Justice as well, and is totally greed-based. Whenever and wherever you see the promotion of the 'magic' principle, Satan is there, at least in spirit.
     Please, please remember this, it will be very important to remember this when daemon activity increases dramatically in the last phases of the End. (please see "Timeline" step Number 9).

     Consider too: the first sin on earth was not the eating of the fruit, nor was it the lie told by Satan. It was a magic trick; making a Snake talk. Never forget that Satan is primarily a Magician. Never forget. (as Yoda would say, "save you, it can.")

Integrity:

     Integrity is often thought of as strength, and although that is not untrue it is really more akin to the word "fabric".
     If you take a piece of fabric and grab it with both hands and pull as hard as you can, and it comes apart in just one area, you can rightly conclude that the strength of that fabric is not uniform, As one part stayed together, and the other part gave way. Or you could say that the strength of the cloth was not integrated equally throughout.
     If a piece of cloth has been woven with thread that does not vary in physical properties, and it has been woven with uniform or consistent tension in it's entirety, if pulled on in the same manner as the previously mentioned piece of fabric, it will either not tear, or it will tend to fail throughout at pretty much the same time, as it's strength has been integrated uniformly in all parts of the fabric.
     Similarly, a person may have great moral strength in one area. For example, they might be flawless in the area of money: they would never consider stealing or not repaying a debt. But in another area, perhaps lying or anger they might have great weakness. So you could rightly say that they have great moral strength in one area, but that they are not equally strong in all areas. Or put another way, their moral strength has not been uniformly or consistently integrated throughout or woven equally into their whole personality. Thus they are not morally integrated, hence, they lack moral integrity. It doesn't mean they lack moral strength, it just means that their moral strength is not equal in all areas. When a person has developed equal moral strength in all facets of their personality you can say that they are a person that is "morally integrated", or they have moral integrity.
     When Jesus told his disciples at the end of his ministry "I have conquered the World" (John 16:33, compare with Hebrews 5:8). He was saying that he could now deal with anything this world could throw at him, and know exactly the right way to react, and was confident that he would do so. Because he was fully 'morally integrated'. Not to imply that there was ever any moral flaw. To illustrate: a person can have a perfect physique, but not be an accomplished acrobat. With training and effort they could become a great acrobat. This does not imply that at any stage in their development there was any physical flaw, but starting with a perfect body, they worked and acquired a new skill, namely acrobatics.
Why do you think he sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane? He was seeing and refining the very core of his being, he was seeing a part of himself that is not by any means on the surface.
His Father was allowing him to see a part of himself that, apart from times of great stress, is not normally visible to one's self. And once he saw his moral core he went on to demonstrate perfect moral integrity. I had often wondered why his Father let him get to that point. And this seems to be the reason why.
     For all Christians, including the Master, "Drinking this Cup" involves "moral integrity", and testing to our very core. (Matt 20:22)



Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become.
                                                                                                                    - Brook Foss Westcott
 

Idols/Idolatry:

Whenever anything is given a value greater than it's true intrinsic worth/nature, that's idolatry. Whether it be a person, place, thing, pet phrase, team, group, religion, beverage, allegiance, etc. etc.
When the emotional relationship/significance that a person imputes or imbues to something exceeds it's true nature, it is a finespun inveigling of our old friend "Greed". It is not speaking 'the truth in your Heart'. (Ps 15:2)

Whenever anything is given a value or significance greater than it's true intrinsic worth/nature, that's idolatry.

Really think this one over a time or two, there is much more to this than appears at first glance.



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