Paul's tremendous sorrow

[poptart]

Romans 9:1-5
1: I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2: That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3: For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5: Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.


Paul, a Jew, was deeply anguished over the fact that many Jews failed to recognize that Jesus is the Christ.
The Jews had ... physical ... expectations of what the Messiah was going to do, and as such, they missed it when He came.
While Jesus did in fact fulfill all physical aspects of what the Messiah was foretold to do, God's primary working is in the ... spiritual ... world.
The Jews were blind to the spiritual realm, and the tremendous sorrow of Paul exists today, also, as so many people miss on the Christ.

The reality is that people are by nature objects of God's wrath.

Ephesians 2:2-3
2: Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Paul said here that prior to coming to trust in Christ, people are dragged around by satan and are, by their very nature, Children of wrath.

It's hearbreaking to see people strive and devote themselves to something with such diligence, imagining that it will bring contentment, security or happiness.
Education, work, good character, good morals, good life philosophy ...

But it doesn't get for people what they think it will get them.

They still crumble and fail, and undoubtedly so.
People are by nature children of wrath because we became spiritually aligned with satan, who faces God's wrath.

All the methods people use with such devotion to gain happiness -- education, work, good character, good morals, good life philosophy -- are effectively man's idols, which take him further apart from God and deeper into his fundamental problem.

The money or seeming "success" one gains apart from God, is in fact, a curse.
It will be failure, inevitably.

And because man was created in God's image as a spiritual and eternal being, man's failure becomes a spiritual failure for all eternity.


In the Garden, God provided everything for man's happiness and man had nothing he needed to do other than to simply receive grace from his Creator.

And so it is today.
If you seek after money (or something else) you've already lost.

If you're in the proper line, God, as He did for man in the garden, will give you all that you ever need.


Satan brought man into his condition as an object of wrath.
And God immediately promised the solution, as recorded in Genesis 3:15 -- the Christ.

All things are restored in Christ alone.

Paul's sorrow, and the sorrow of today, is when people remain in a failed state -- the answer could not be more simple.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

It's hearbreaking to see people strive and devote themselves to...
Education, work, good character, good morals, good life philosophy ...

But it doesn't get for people what they think it will get them.

Maybe people live their lives this way because they want to, not because they are looking for some reward, or getting something.


Honestly, you sound pretty lost at this point.

Pounding scripture only reinforces my suspicion that you are prevaricating on your own faith. You need it not to convince others, but to buttress your own position. It couldn't be any more transparent.

Just live your life, do your little door-to-door if it makes you happy and relax. I see nothing but cataclysm for you.

[poptart]

Thanks for your input and thanks for reading, Marty.


Btw, I prolly ought'a should'a made it clear in the thread title -- Paul's tremendous sorrow -- that this thread was not about KC area Sizzlers going out of bidness.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Btw, I prolly ought'a should'a made it clear in the thread title -- Paul's tremendous sorrow -- that this thread was not about KC area Sizzlers going out of bidness.

You know, I was about to drop a KC FAT reference when I read the thread title, but I thought I'd get business outta the way first.

Having said that...

...I wondered if KC residents voted YES on Prop 43 (The Butter Tax)...

[Johnny Bold]

Imho;
In sorrow and in joy - my guess is that Paul had the heart of a poet.

According to his own testimony, Paul “violently persecuted the followers of Jesus" - yet The Almighty so willed to grace him with spiritual sight (which is a story in itself) allowing Paul to become one of the founding fathers of G-ds new Church For Mankind.

Gotta RACK the Love, Compassion and Forgiveness of it all.

A Poets Prayer:

The Nag Hammadi Library
The Prayer of the Apostle Paul

Translation by Dieter Mueller

(Approximately two lines are missing.)

... your light, give me your mercy! My Redeemer, redeem me, for I am yours; the one who has come forth from you. You are my mind; bring me forth! You are my treasure house; open for me! You are my fullness; take me to you! You are (my) repose; give me the perfect thing that cannot be grasped!

I invoke you, the one who is and who pre-existed in the name which is exalted above every name, through Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, the King of the ages; give me your gifts, of which you do not repent, through the Son of Man, the Spirit, the Paraclete of truth. Give me authority when I ask you; give healing for my body when I ask you through the Evangelist, and redeem my eternal light soul and my spirit. And the First-born of the Pleroma of grace -- reveal him to my mind!

Grant what no angel eye has seen and no archon ear (has) heard, and what has not entered into the human heart which came to be angelic and (modelled) after the image of the psychic God when it was formed in the beginning, since I have faith and hope. And place upon me your beloved, elect, and blessed greatness, the First-born, the First-begotten, and the wonderful mystery of your house; for yours is the power and the glory and the praise and the greatness for ever and ever. Amen.

Peace

[War Wagon]

Btw, I prolly ought'a should'a made it clear in the thread title -- Paul's tremendous sorrow -- that this thread was not about KC area Sizzlers going out of bidness.

Golden Corral replaced Sizzler so Paul is still in high spirits.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Btw, I prolly ought'a should'a made it clear in the thread title -- Paul's tremendous sorrow -- that this thread was not about KC area Sizzlers going out of bidness.

Golden Corral replaced Sizzler so Paul is still in high spirits.

Praise Him.