I don’t know about a bank. That would make your good deeds selfish as well, as you would have an ulterior motive.
Ann Landers once printed a poem called “The Man in The Glass” that says it well, I think. It’s here: http://members.tripod.com/~Imbear1/glass.html
Good post!
Nobody is all good and nobody is all bad. Kobe is no exception. Lets see whether he is found guilty or not.
Christians have a concept called Judgement Day. Judgement seems to me to imply weighing all that one has done and deciding where you stand. It does compare well to the analogy of the bank account that you mentioned, although I must admit that I’ve never thought of it like that.
Even though I said it can be viewed like a bank account though, I don’t think that we can ever really judge what the balance in it is. Let us say that only God gets the bank statements. 🙂 As such, it would be most prudent for us to seek to lodge often (do good works), because we have no idea how much each of our bad works affects the balance.
Do you see what I’m saying?
I hadn’t thought of it that way, Allison. I rather like Mad Bull’s idea of letting God get the bank statements, so that you don’t just rest on your laurels. Thanks for sharing “The Man in the Glass.” It’s so true. We need to be sure that we can live with the decisions we make.
Mad Bull, we’re on the same page. I think we’ve just said it different ways. *S*
Key word being “deeds.” We will be judged by our actions so if Mr. Bryant is found to have committed a crime, so be it. If his accuser is discovered to be perpetrating a lie, so be it. Not until we meet our maker will we know if we’ve been able to recover from our not so good deeds. I do believe that there are deeds that are not recoverable from- rape being one of them.
I agree with Mad Bull that none of us are total ‘do gooders’ or totally evil either. We all have good and bad within our personalities. Some I suspect may have more bad than good and vice versa. I would like to believe (though I could be wrong) that there is more good in the people of the world than there is evil.
I don’t think that our lives can be viewed as an ‘account’ where one can use the good deeds to nullify the bad ones. We do good and get credit for it, and we get penalised for the bad. That’s it. What we should try to strive to recognize is the difference between the two and learn in a positive way from our mistakes or bad deeds as well as from what good we do. (I hope I am not sounding like a confused individual.)
As Mad Bull said, we Christains do believe in a type of Judgement Day which will ultimately determine if we go to Heaven or Hell. God and each individual will have to sort that out.
Last but by no means least….is this ‘account’ one that pays interest!? (Just trying to add a chuckle to the discussion here which is for the most part pretty serious ideas on which to ponder.)
Sgt. Hook, I agree that rape is a deed for which there is no absolution.
MB..I think you and I are in agreement but having a semantics problem. I don’t believe that I can choose to do a bad deed under the assumption that my good deeds will wipe it out. That’s the point that the columnist was trying to make.
We are imperfect. We make one decision at a time and hope to come to our final accounting with as clean a slate as possible.
You’re right….this is a pretty heavy subject. I’m glad to see that it got attention, if not as much attention as SEX!! *G*
I’ll join in support of Mad Bull.
As to St. Pete, I’ve a few questions for him: that rock reference was not supposed to be about what is above your neck, dude…
I don’t know about a bank. That would make your good deeds selfish as well, as you would have an ulterior motive.
Ann Landers once printed a poem called “The Man in The Glass” that says it well, I think. It’s here: http://members.tripod.com/~Imbear1/glass.html
Good post!
Nobody is all good and nobody is all bad. Kobe is no exception. Lets see whether he is found guilty or not.
Christians have a concept called Judgement Day. Judgement seems to me to imply weighing all that one has done and deciding where you stand. It does compare well to the analogy of the bank account that you mentioned, although I must admit that I’ve never thought of it like that.
Even though I said it can be viewed like a bank account though, I don’t think that we can ever really judge what the balance in it is. Let us say that only God gets the bank statements. 🙂 As such, it would be most prudent for us to seek to lodge often (do good works), because we have no idea how much each of our bad works affects the balance.
Do you see what I’m saying?
I hadn’t thought of it that way, Allison. I rather like Mad Bull’s idea of letting God get the bank statements, so that you don’t just rest on your laurels. Thanks for sharing “The Man in the Glass.” It’s so true. We need to be sure that we can live with the decisions we make.
Mad Bull, we’re on the same page. I think we’ve just said it different ways. *S*
Key word being “deeds.” We will be judged by our actions so if Mr. Bryant is found to have committed a crime, so be it. If his accuser is discovered to be perpetrating a lie, so be it. Not until we meet our maker will we know if we’ve been able to recover from our not so good deeds. I do believe that there are deeds that are not recoverable from- rape being one of them.
I agree with Mad Bull that none of us are total ‘do gooders’ or totally evil either. We all have good and bad within our personalities. Some I suspect may have more bad than good and vice versa. I would like to believe (though I could be wrong) that there is more good in the people of the world than there is evil.
I don’t think that our lives can be viewed as an ‘account’ where one can use the good deeds to nullify the bad ones. We do good and get credit for it, and we get penalised for the bad. That’s it. What we should try to strive to recognize is the difference between the two and learn in a positive way from our mistakes or bad deeds as well as from what good we do. (I hope I am not sounding like a confused individual.)
As Mad Bull said, we Christains do believe in a type of Judgement Day which will ultimately determine if we go to Heaven or Hell. God and each individual will have to sort that out.
Last but by no means least….is this ‘account’ one that pays interest!? (Just trying to add a chuckle to the discussion here which is for the most part pretty serious ideas on which to ponder.)
Sgt. Hook, I agree that rape is a deed for which there is no absolution.
MB..I think you and I are in agreement but having a semantics problem. I don’t believe that I can choose to do a bad deed under the assumption that my good deeds will wipe it out. That’s the point that the columnist was trying to make.
We are imperfect. We make one decision at a time and hope to come to our final accounting with as clean a slate as possible.
You’re right….this is a pretty heavy subject. I’m glad to see that it got attention, if not as much attention as SEX!! *G*
I’ll join in support of Mad Bull.
As to St. Pete, I’ve a few questions for him: that rock reference was not supposed to be about what is above your neck, dude…