Luke 12:8-12
"And I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; 9 but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And every one who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say; 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
Having over 20 solid years of Roman Catholic education under my belt, there are many wonderful things that I learned and took to heart along with some of the dribble that I often rant about. One of the things that I was taught is that the only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the Spirit. For a long time I thought that was pretty easy to avoid doing.
As I have said before though, being a Christian is not that easy. It's not like the being a Pharisee where all you had to do was obey all the myriad laws and rules. It's also not being a Christian by taking every word of the Bible literally so you can be self righteous without virtually any thought. And we all know that taking the Bible literally is specious from the start because of all sorts of translation problems and because the actual life Jesus lived tells us otherwise.
No, true Christians have to obey the two great commandments and live out the ten commandments with the prism of those two great ones. For example, thou shalt not bare false witness applies to half truths and obfuscations as well as a blatant lies. You can't say little Billy threw a rock at me without admitting that you threw a rock first because saying half of that sentence is only a half truth and is really still a lie. No being Christian is challenging, it requires you to use your mind and your intellect.
As for blaspheming the spirit, The Spirit is everywhere. To me, blaspheming the Spirit connects with thou shall not kill. Say what? By bad mouthing others, bullying, name calling, lying - anything that degrades or diminishes the Spirit in another person, you are blaspheming the Spirit and in effect, killing the spirit of that person. A double whammy, as if you didn't have enough trouble simply blaspheming the Spirit. As my father taught me, there are many ways to 'kill' that never involve a weapon.
So how do we turn this around to something positive? I would suggest the exact opposite of blaspheming. Let's do some praising. Yes, some good old, Baptist church, revival meeting praising.
Praise the Lord at all times and in every place. Thank God as you wake up, Praise Jesus! Thank God for the hot water, Praise Jesus! Thank God for the wonderful gift of a person you woke up next to, Praise Jesus! Thank God for the glorious Autumn colors, praise Jesus! Acknowledge the goodness in yourself, Praise Jesus! Acknowledge the goodness in your neighbor, co-worker and relatives, Praise Jesus!
Keep on Praising! No more killing, no blaspheming!
Having over 20 solid years of Roman Catholic education under my belt, there are many wonderful things that I learned and took to heart along with some of the dribble that I often rant about. One of the things that I was taught is that the only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme the Spirit. For a long time I thought that was pretty easy to avoid doing.
As I have said before though, being a Christian is not that easy. It's not like the being a Pharisee where all you had to do was obey all the myriad laws and rules. It's also not being a Christian by taking every word of the Bible literally so you can be self righteous without virtually any thought. And we all know that taking the Bible literally is specious from the start because of all sorts of translation problems and because the actual life Jesus lived tells us otherwise.
No, true Christians have to obey the two great commandments and live out the ten commandments with the prism of those two great ones. For example, thou shalt not bare false witness applies to half truths and obfuscations as well as a blatant lies. You can't say little Billy threw a rock at me without admitting that you threw a rock first because saying half of that sentence is only a half truth and is really still a lie. No being Christian is challenging, it requires you to use your mind and your intellect.
As for blaspheming the spirit, The Spirit is everywhere. To me, blaspheming the Spirit connects with thou shall not kill. Say what? By bad mouthing others, bullying, name calling, lying - anything that degrades or diminishes the Spirit in another person, you are blaspheming the Spirit and in effect, killing the spirit of that person. A double whammy, as if you didn't have enough trouble simply blaspheming the Spirit. As my father taught me, there are many ways to 'kill' that never involve a weapon.
So how do we turn this around to something positive? I would suggest the exact opposite of blaspheming. Let's do some praising. Yes, some good old, Baptist church, revival meeting praising.
Praise the Lord at all times and in every place. Thank God as you wake up, Praise Jesus! Thank God for the hot water, Praise Jesus! Thank God for the wonderful gift of a person you woke up next to, Praise Jesus! Thank God for the glorious Autumn colors, praise Jesus! Acknowledge the goodness in yourself, Praise Jesus! Acknowledge the goodness in your neighbor, co-worker and relatives, Praise Jesus!
Keep on Praising! No more killing, no blaspheming!
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