I believe that the inside of my cup is clean but not on the basis of anything meritorious that I did. When I felt that the Spirit of God was calling me to accept Jesus' free gift of inner cup cleanliness, all I did was to accept said gift. I also believe that God wants everyone to receive the gift by believing in the Lord Jesus and his work on our behalf on the cross.

Sole; blown aspect ... like ale gassy and a flash ... Ka Pud and IT's gone ... I forgot what i was supposed to sae under human law ...

The limitations of mortal mind ... aL aFloat in a common space that most cannot grasp ... someone called it a mêmè in Gael tongues ... like a Camel's ... or giraffe ...ever seathe length of that story ... and they consume acacia ... now isn't that a paen ... spitten and frothin like quantum space ... mire symbol?

I think it's about hypocrisy. Presenting as a "pillar of the community" while judging, condemning, covetting, disrespecting etc.

We actually are what we really think. Just because we can hide behind something doesn't change that.

Compassion involves humility -- knowing you're on the same human level as everyone else. If you think you're better than your neighbour, compassion has a hard time finding a home in you.

(She pontificates self-righteously)

"How do you clean the inside of your cup?" A Christian Koan, eh, Rishi?

I never clean the inside of my cup. Over many years of use, it has taken on a beautiful, black patina. But then I drink only black tea, and the cup is dark blue (on the outside:-)

To thoroughly clean the inside of a cup, though, it is best to turn it inside out.

Generally putting a cup through a good commercial dishwasher will clean the inside.

As for the body - preparation for a GI exam (ugg) will do a pretty good job. 

But for the soul, the personality, the true being of who we are?   Accepting the grace of God, worship, study, prayer and meditation, love in action seem to be effective for me.    Love, caring, compassion, identifying with others, keeping connected - all of this helps me to feel that I am 'clean'.  

Hi rishi,

It unnerves me that you have no clue about dishwashing in general.  

A properly cleaned cup has been washed inside and out.  We should all be aware that germs on the outside of a cup will eventually move inside of the cup.  Once upon a time such knowledge didn't exist.  You knew a dirty cup was a dirty cup by looking into it (if it was yours and it hadn't been filled yet) or by looking at the outside of it (if the cup was somebody else's and had already been filled).

Having had small children help with household chores I know that they gauge the cleanliness of the cup by how it looks and rarely do they look inside to where you put whatever it is that you want to drink.  That becomes a teaching moment.

Jesus appears to be engaged in a similar teaching moment.

In context Jesus has much to say about hypocricy.  I suspect that his challenge is against external cleanliness vs internal filthiness.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Hi ninjafaery:

What you just said triggered one of those "aha!" moments in me.

A few weeks ago, in a thread about over-admiration started by Elanorgold, I wrote that I once was deathly embarassed by a pair of over-admiring fans who had read my book, published in Germany, and scouted out my address in Canada and visited me.

motheroffive then wrote that compassion could have prevented me from becoming so embarassed. I didn't get what she meant, and asked her to clarify, but she left it up to me to find out.

Well, when I just read that compassion involves humility, and humility is knowing that we are on the same level as everyone else, it suddenly dawned on me that this is what motheroffive meant. I felt superior to the admiring couple, I thought they had not really understood my book, and I felt embarassed by their "primitive" adoration.

Compassion—knowing that I am on the same level as they—could have saved me from embarassement.

(Sometimes it is good to pontificate self-righteously ;-)

Thanks, ninjafaery—and motheroffive.

Rishi, loved that last comment on the smashing of the grail ... new whine needs a new containment or the old would bust out again ... powerful thing the dark side of a story! Cheek-ais?

Is that like a humble God contained (subliminally) asa devil of a thing to haunt you on the abstract side? Keeps a real person in a sense of dissonance which was once known as Eris ... ID'll rise ... like bred ...'east-ai (where the ' is equivalent to "y" ... the question of something's always missing in the human links ... sort of a cathartic things as it washes ...)

Isn't  that a daemon of a baccalauriate ... or perhaps just depth of satyr ... like a Shadow on the back side of a pillar ... or Mos's grow'n on the north side of a tree ... like Dan Eire 'n Black ...

How did Dan come to stoke the fire with not just heis twosome friends (ID's eM) but also another separating eM all by pyre ... the temptor ... emotions as a stand by, intellect being further out in the ironic containment of the satyr on internal fires of des ole thingy ... Emotion's mate being some thing even deeper ... a humble driving 4's of the gravid particle sometimes Gnoe'n as Gravitron? It is the product of many tongues surrounding the thorny issue of aca'demix ... on th'ology ... when they are just an other institution ... a stone well cut will tell a story or release light in some infernal way ..

One has to know the depth of satire as described in the babble as biblical chaos of word ... opposing to chaos of emotions that would draw a person to think a bit before doing just as they like ... all the unknown may have a higher purpose that isn't fit for mortal ears ... as they exist ... just a white noise ... tothe Eyore a' peon ruminant/remnant ... that's de Eire ... thoroughly hazed!

You see you can't believe anything that's writ ... for mortals corrupt these when given the sense of power of law ... thus the rebel in Christ operates below the horizon of mortal ... unless you'd energetically dig for the depth of understanding in great long tongues like giraffes eating acacia ... a thorny issue of bo'chi (ebony, or 'eis bonnie) nature ... that which can be tran-slated in many ways if you have the emotion and intellect to balance it all out ... mediums being like coverups in a mostly emotional outburst ... so the covens watch from the dark side ... it being the darkest just before one of the many things of all-that-is exposes itself to mortal cognizance ... in an odd, alien, strange or justly phun neigh episode of the metaphysical operation of the brae'n ... due to buried energy of Light unseen there. Then many, institutionalized this way, can neither care nor think of anything outside th'eire selves ... a mental aberration (or a bare ration of intellect) as befalls a primarily emotional dimension.

You need proof of this with all the role models that surround us? It is dizzying to the formerly balanced until you learn there's only one way out of all-that-is on this side of meme-braen ... the same space in old Gael ... just opposing poles of intellect that you can only see once you blow the emotions ... any Ephraim of intellect will guide you if your stick to Ur ... Abraham was running from Ur ... as heis didn't know what that flaming lady had done to him while he was unaware for an instant as passions overwhelmed all intelligence.

Theis the disorienting po(r)tion of love if you don't go inuit with a clew ... some angst over learning not to hurt the other side? It is a self destruct mechanism designed to destroy the whole thing in case of the genre of stoop idée while conjugating. It sometimes causes Halo Effect ... fogging the intellect of the powers that be ... and you know what they say about authority and power ... needs to be humiliated so the outside fabric of the core doesn't know ... then the extremes learn ... unconscious to the external soul.

This an existence below the conizance of reality ... Cos of RIP'els in the higher ferme a ment ... formerly known as shamayim, or heaven to the thoughtless ... which the other side sees as intellect that is 'elle to the former ... someone has to suffer to learn! Thus the weeble and wobble effect as we change sides without Gnome ... the wee devilish mind that is always trailing ... the left behind population that real people consider as is ... or existently utilitarian as they walk on eM! Thus the Halo be Falls in  Dan Tæ'n fallacy ... sort of irreplicable impression as a foot print on the wa'dis ... dry gulch about to be whetted in the myth of medium as the watering of an alien garden ... or water as the medium of mind ... that's deep! Poe Misis 'ole ...

Agoraphobia would keep people back from looking into such unknown dimensions ... you could get stuck on IT as it makes metaphors on the confusion of mind over polite-arian sects ... composed together, the composition is very hard to take as human origin ... probably just humble quantum alchemi ... the chemis being tough to get thro' in a world where sex, love and charon are foul things, hated by man that doesn't like the pithy' Ide o vite ... no worse than Piscine with Saint Pedre ... in a Gael that can be stinky aura ... not haze to it just pure chi-ite that you can use to fuel the fires without trees or peat ... Ur ... the soft form of mire iam ... wholly expanse ... mssing lynx in a hateful realm ... cougars in minor form? That's ole eh ...

First one must learn sum a literation ... chi wishes something left behind ... that's altruistic humour of charon in a god-foresaken realm of satire. Is this san' when real people don't know what the ole word meant? Add a "t" and like reading Tae cups ... you find the sante clause ... a healthy word of satire so the authorities won't know you fell fore IT ... that supurnal! You couldn't explain that to the hateful no hows ...

The ceremonial or decorative temple cups in Jesus' time were made of gold, silver, tin, copper or bronze. All of them except gold oxidize and become tarnished with time. The outsides of the cups probably were well polished. But the insides, which were not seen by the public and perhaps hard to reach if the cups were thin-necked, remained tarnished. Thus, many temple cups were squeeky clean on the outside but tarnished on the inside, much like the some of Pharisees themselves.

Sometimes not well. Sometimes I am tempted to sin and I, well, sin. After that I pray to God to forgive me. On better days when I feel the temptation, I ask Christ to give me strength to go his way and I believe he gives me that inner power. Then I pray to Jesus and thank him for his Holy Spirit. 

I believe that it's perpetually clean in that God looks at me through the lens of Christ. God credits Christ's perfect righteousness to my account. It's not perpetually clean in that I can still stumble, still err, still make mistakes and go against God's will. As for growing in Christ, I believe for me it comes primarily through praying, Bible reading, fellowship, and listening to music. Do you believe God speaks to you, rishi, and if so, when do you hear God's voice best?

The Halo Effect or Cloud Cover will have a silver lining?

Yah can't see it while in verse form ... dark and difficult to understand for the non-understanding sorts ... who don't believe in such intellectual activities as reaching within the self ... an indeterminate and non-confirmable amorphus shape ...

Thinking still remains a bad thing in our dimension ... perhaps if we were to observe the surroundings and the work of powerful role models (Julian, Judean Muons) we'd opt for change?

Sounds to me like the Shadow Ah?