What a great way to start off a beautiful, sunny day, finding a new ( new to me ) thread devoted to the discussion of our wonderful Father and His Son!!!!!!! Thank you Jane for starting this thread.
Greg,
I am responding to you because I went back for a bit and looked at your posts back in June to get an idea of where people's heads are at ( not that I believe I have people figured out of course :o) ) , and your posts stuck out to me. They did so because I can hear in you a sincere desire to " understand " what Christianity is all about. What a wonderful thing. I can tell you that in my own experience, it is when you question at first that the Holy Spirit is working on you and the power of the Holy Spirit is beyond compare!
Questioning is good however, if you go to the Ask God thread you will see some ( mainly Raymond Morris ) who makes it his passtime to poke holes in the Christian faith. While I tried to speak with him for a couple of days, I realized that it was pointless as my words were truly not being listened to at all. All we can do for people like that is plant the seed, and move on as only, ONLY God can make his faith grow. This concept will become clearer to you as you study the bible more and more and listen to the wisdom in that book.
So where was I? As you and all will find, I can run off at the mouth a little Sorry :o)
Anyway, Greg, keep studying the bible. I would suggest reading/studying Romans as I believe it is probably the greatest letter Paul wrote and such a wonderful guide to understanding Christianity.
For a quick summary from me of what it means to be a Christian I will say this., again, my words and thoughts only.....
This world has so much fear, hate, worry ( lot's of worry ), evil, death etc..etc... and yet here we are. We are blessed with life here on earth. BUT WHY? I have found in my limited understanding of life and the bible that the only time the question " why are we here ?" can be answered is if we look at scripture. You see Greg, as kooky as it may seem, we have been put here with really only ONE purpose........TO GLORIFY GOD. One thing, one thing only. Please, anyone correct me here if I am wrong but this is really all we are supposed to do. But it encompasses so much. How do we glorify God? Follow the commandments. OH OH, here we go guys, the commandments. Now, Greg, here is something really kooky about those commandments. I have never committed adultry in my marriage so therefore I have not broken that commandment right? WRONG, WRONG WRONG!!! God instructs us through His words, Christ's words and Paul's words and others that the commandments are the Law but they are to be taken literally and SPIRITUALLY. The spirit of the Law is such a key issue that is overlooked by established churches in my opinion. The spirit of the law means this.: If I even think, yes , think , or lust over another woman for even a second, I have broken the spirit of the law " thou shalt not commit adultery " and therefore am guilty of sin. OUCH!!! Tough to take eh? Sounds pretty rough but all this really shows is why WE ARE ALL SINNERS and we NEED Christ to bridge the gap between God our father and ourselves. God hates sin and only through Christ are we reconciled with Him.
I used to get so freaked out going to church when I met my wife because everyone would speak a confession of sin together: Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature, sinful and unclean: ( hey , I am not sinful and unclean, I am a good guy I would think )
we have not loved you with our whole heart, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves, we justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ , have mercy on us, forgive and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen...........What was that I would think. what a downer!!!!! That what I thought religion was and Christianity was, a downer. A bunch of people who needed to feel bad about themselves for some reason.
HOW WRONG I WAS Greg, how wrong I was.
This world can really offer us nothing, nothing except love, LOVE.
So we look to the next world and we see that there awaits us ETERNITY WITH GOD AND JESUS in the greatest paradise ever imagined. And that is what comes with Christ.......HOPE.
**** all: please forgive this horrendously long post., I got going and couldn't stop. :o)
God's blessings to all today.
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