jesus
Thanks; I enjoyed this!
But I am what I am, and if the word says I am a blood washed saint and that he has made me holy, then that is what i is....so there!
By the way; you can be my 'holy' brother too, you know! Wanna?
So, I am just like you, but soooooooo glad that I am not alone....that's all!
You laugh, Bonnie, but I'm not joking; but it's okay, I sometimes laugh when you and CI describe your ecstatic experiences of god, too. They're subjective, like mine, and cannot be given to another. They can sound egoistic or just plain silly. Poor Buddha, he had the misfortune to be born live and teach peace and love and mercy before the one and only Christ and thus, according to Christian doctrine, cannot experience the incomparable blessings of Christ and His Heavenly Father. Such a strange, irrational creed, such an odd god!
But anyway; what I wanted to say was that I do not believe the dead can do anything for us when they are gone. I am not an ancestral worshiper. Their bodies await the catching away of the saints when the Lord comes to get us all. Until then, their spirits are in a resting place, such as paradise, but they cannot do anything for those back here.
Here is the story of the rich man and Lazarus and what happened to them. I do not believe this was a parable but a true story. Those in hell may be able to see the other side, as part of their torment, but will not be able to communicate either, and those in paradise will not be able to do anything.
"There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day; and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores."And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried: and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
"Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." --Luke 16:19-31.