To present to you the thoughts of January 1,
I offer you a whole text based on the pious wishes that I receive like every year, but I wanted to provide some clarifications this year since this opportunity is offered to me.
From a young friend.
Happy New Year 2024
The year 2023 brought as much laughter as tears, as much happiness as sorrow, as much fatigue, disappointment, injustice and incomprehension as satisfaction.
But as the Bible says: “The end of a thing is better than the beginning.” » (Ecclesiastes 7.8)
And now 2023 is coming to an end, and 2024 is approaching. I take pleasure in sending my best wishes for the New Year to you and your family.
May 2024 brings you health, peace, joy of living, unconditional love, success in everything you undertake and a lot of courage so that you live each “day” with serenity.
We look forward to seeing you again next year!
Your Sister, R. G. G.
She said everything beautifully in few words. But it’s like throwing water at my mill, I’m going to go beyond the frame, perhaps, but sometimes you have to know how to refocus to meet the new challenges and deal with them accordingly so that nothing is overlooked.
Indeed, among all the wishes received to greet the departure of the year that is ending and welcome the one that is beginning, this one in particular caught my attention.
A biblical statement that makes all the difference:
Ecclesiastes 7:8 which says, “The end of a thing is better than the beginning; a patient spirit is better than a haughty spirit. »
This ties in with a philosophical thought which says: In everything we must consider the end.
It’s amazing how people go to church services listening to advices , but immediately after leaving the place of worship, they continue to do whatever they want.
While the apostle Paul speaks of dying every day, implying that he is also reborn every day, no one has tried to understand what this daily death or reborn is.
Is this a feasible thing or a metaphor?
First, you must know how to decipher the biblical language with the help of hermeneutics of Christianity to understand that dying is not an inevitability but a change of state.
Coming into the world, our soul having left its royal residence is dead towards God.
However, it is up to the Good Shepherd of our time who alone has the method of showing us the way back, this requires that we agree to die as far as the world is concerned.
It will require that we adopt other principles of life consisting of detaching ourselves from the outside world, without which we will not be able to enter within because this requires transcendence.
Jesus had clearly said how to follow him:
Luke 14:
26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
27 And whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Are you ready to comply with these injunctions?
Hating in this sense suggests detachment , not the contrary of love .
Surely you would like to know what you will get in return? It is legitimate.
Listen to what you’ll get in return to see if you’d like to stay in the world forever:
Luke 19, in the following verses:
27 Then Peter answered and said unto him, Behold, we have left all things, and have followed thee; what will it be for us?
28 Jesus answered them, Truly I tell you, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory at the renewal of all things, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones. , and you will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 And whoever leaves his brothers, or his sisters, or his father, or his mother, or his wife, or his children, or his lands, or his houses, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit the eternal life.
30 Many of the first will be last, and many of the last will be first.
So, these proposals seem harsh but, since salvation is personal, we must face the facts that there are no other alternatives.
Now, the thought of the day from the Calendar of Wisdom of Leo Tolstoy.
January 1
Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.
What a great treasure can be hidden in a small, selected library!A company of the wisest and the mose deserving people from all the civilized countries of the world, for thousands of years, can make the results of their studies and their wisdom available to us. The thoughts which they might not even reveal to their best friends is written here in clear words for us, people from another century. Yes, we should be grateful for the best books, for the best spiritual achievements in our lives. –
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
There are too many mediocre books which exist just to entertain your mind. Therefore, read only those books which are accepted without doubt as good. LUCiUS ASABUS SEMECA
Read the best books first, otherwise you’ll find you do not have time. –
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
The difference between real material poison and intellectual Poison is that most material poison is disgusting to the taste, but intellectual poison, which takes the form of cheap newspapers or bad boolkes, can unfortunately sometimes be attractive.