Uncommon
Definitions of common words...
It is my contention that many
perfectly good words have lost their original or true meaning 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 the effect of 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.
Everyone's
spirit is their “Emotional Bundle” of emotions, morals, and
motivations. Your emotions are what motivate you, in fact, the word
Emotion
includes the word motion
or motivate.
If vour Spirit is in harmony with God's Spirit, 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.
Although it should be mentioned at this point that “Having
God's Spirit” can refer to two different things:
1. Reflecting or imitating, to the best of our abilities, God's emotional nature. i.e. “ how you feel about the way God feels.”
Or
2. Receiving Holy Spirit From God. i.e. direct blessings or Gifts from God.
It' kind of a directional thing.
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".
Something to think about: Although the Bible is a book with a dominant theme of and about human emotions, the word “Emotion” is never used in the Bible ! (well, rarely in some translations) But the much much more meaningful and richly complex word “Spirit” is used throughout the Bible.
Think
about that.
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 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 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.)
But
the “Holy Spirit” is a much bigger discussion..... and for
another Day.......
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.
Generosity, when
appropriate,
is Mercy.
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.
Didn't he satisfy Justice ?
(Please see “A Simple Law” on this WebSite)
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.
It is the Passionate desire in My Heart, to see You be the Best You can be.
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. Fear is the lack
of Trust in the Love of another. 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 entirely 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 he ever had 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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