@John_Barach I'm no expert, but it seems, adding in Ezekiel's examples as well - the 'son of man' is best taken as a 'human examplar' reference. That to me seems to make the most sense of all of the occurrences.
@DrAaronNew So this is an argument for semantics, not whether some behavior is bad. If you understand that people are using the term wrong, maybe don't get so bent out of shape.
@DrAaronNew Empathy that retains an objective hold on the situation, with an eye to what is really needed, not what is claimed by the person.... this is fine. It's when we jump all the way in and let the person dictate the real extent of the hurt, requirements of solution.... this is folly
This is a sweet video...
I like to tell people that your family is not your fate.
You’re not doomed to become your parents or to live exactly as you lived in your own childhood.
If you came from a broken home, full of anger, constant arguing, and disorder, you don’t have to repeat that. You can escape it.
But, almost paradoxically, you don’t escape it by obsessing over how you were wronged in your childhood. That usually pulls you right back into it. That’s why so many men who swear they’ll never become their fathers end up doing exactly that.
You escape it by being future-focused for the good of others. You escape it by building something that blesses people beyond yourself, in your community, in your church, and especially in your family.
You can be the link in a new chain. God brings beauty from ashes, and he has a habit of extinguishing a hellish heritage and, through a bold-hearted, repentant man, replacing it with the beginnings of a heritage shaped by heaven.
But “your family is not your fate” cuts both ways. Maybe you’re not the first link, but the second or third in a godly heritage. You were blessed with advantages, growing up in church, reading the Bible, living in a home with present parents. If you take that for granted, your life will look very different from theirs, and not in a good way.
The good life, as the Bible defines it, grows out of a Christian who wakes up and asks the LORD, “How can I obey you today, for your glory and for the good of others into the future?”
"So stop feeling sorry for your children and grandchildren 'oh look at the mess of a world we're giving them'. Why would we bring up a generation of dragon fighters and then wish for no dragons? Doesn't make sense. If you believe the word of God, and if you have been giving your kids and grandkids a Christian education, then this is what it's //FOR//. Cheer up, it's more dangerous than you think." - Douglas Wilson.