- Feb 5, 2002
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1. In the end
Every word is a response to the Word.
2. The cult of false strength, i.e., those who profess to be beyond the need for consolation
Those who criticize belief in God for being a consolation know this better than anyone. To them, acknowledging God would be misery, and so they console themselves with the consoling thought that belief in God is just a consolation.
3. If Plato had read the Old Testament
Plato said that thinking is the soul speaking with itself. This is superior to only letting others speak within oneself, which is to go through life thoughtlessly. But still better to have silenced everyone, including oneself, so that the soul only hears God. Beyond thinking, and speaking, there must be listening. That is its own form of thoughtlessness—the highest one imaginable, known only to faith.
4. A good man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth what is good
When you feel that you are in danger of losing your way, listen to your heart. Those who think they know their Bible will tell you that such a phrase—“listen to your heart”—is nowhere found in the Scriptures. Typically, such an observation is made with the idea in mind that listening to your heart would entail indulging your desires, your whims, your lusts—in short, not listening to God. But that is not what it means to listen to your heart in the sense worthy of being recommended. Listen to God—yes, above all, always listen to God! But how else will one so listen but in the heart? That is what the Scriptures mean by the “inner man.” Sometimes this interior space where God speaks is expressed in terms of man’s having a conscience. So, no matter what others say, whether it be worldly others who have not read the Bible and do not have the slightest concern themselves for God (and so who think listening to your heart would be silly if that were taken to mean listening to God), or else serious religious types who claim to know the misguidedness of listening to your heart (because they think it means suggesting doing something other than God’s will), ignore them—ignore them all, and still listen to your heart. To listen to the heart—there is no other way to know what God demands of us.
5. Receiving blessings
Continued below.
Every word is a response to the Word.
2. The cult of false strength, i.e., those who profess to be beyond the need for consolation
Those who criticize belief in God for being a consolation know this better than anyone. To them, acknowledging God would be misery, and so they console themselves with the consoling thought that belief in God is just a consolation.
3. If Plato had read the Old Testament
Plato said that thinking is the soul speaking with itself. This is superior to only letting others speak within oneself, which is to go through life thoughtlessly. But still better to have silenced everyone, including oneself, so that the soul only hears God. Beyond thinking, and speaking, there must be listening. That is its own form of thoughtlessness—the highest one imaginable, known only to faith.
4. A good man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth what is good
When you feel that you are in danger of losing your way, listen to your heart. Those who think they know their Bible will tell you that such a phrase—“listen to your heart”—is nowhere found in the Scriptures. Typically, such an observation is made with the idea in mind that listening to your heart would entail indulging your desires, your whims, your lusts—in short, not listening to God. But that is not what it means to listen to your heart in the sense worthy of being recommended. Listen to God—yes, above all, always listen to God! But how else will one so listen but in the heart? That is what the Scriptures mean by the “inner man.” Sometimes this interior space where God speaks is expressed in terms of man’s having a conscience. So, no matter what others say, whether it be worldly others who have not read the Bible and do not have the slightest concern themselves for God (and so who think listening to your heart would be silly if that were taken to mean listening to God), or else serious religious types who claim to know the misguidedness of listening to your heart (because they think it means suggesting doing something other than God’s will), ignore them—ignore them all, and still listen to your heart. To listen to the heart—there is no other way to know what God demands of us.
5. Receiving blessings
Continued below.
27 Aphorisms for Knowing God in the Present World
Steven DeLay on the Word.