Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Craig Richards who wrote (25196)	10/4/1998 2:20:00 PM
From: Rick Julian	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Craig, Yes, I do believe most Christians would have a radical shift in their perception of God too, but because they begin with a baseline of belief, I think a modification of their concept would not be nearly as radical an experience as it would be to someone who denies the very existence of God. Reminds me of an experience I had as a child. One summer my Boy Scout troop made a trip to the Grand Canyon. In the nights before we left I would lie awake thinking about it--imagining what it would look like, how big it would be . . . Finally, we made the trip and when I finally stood on the South Rim and saw its immensity, its full glory, I was speechless. Yes I had believed there was a Grand Canyon, but whoa nellie it really was a grand canyon! Imagine my reaction had I begun my journey west denying the Grand Canyon even existed. . . Rick

To: Craig Richards who wrote (25196)	10/4/1998 2:53:00 PM
From: Emile Vidrine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

"What about Christians? Don't you think many Christians would have shattered conceptions of God as they climbed the staircase of spiritual meditation?" Hi Craig, Your statement reveals your misunderstanding of Christ and Chritianity. You cannot use the baggage of Buddhism and other worldly perceptions to understand the Christian experience and reality. Christianity is a simple and huble faith in the divine historical realities contained in the life of Jesus that can only be received through the grace of God. We cannot understand nor have faith in the historical and eternal reality of Jesus without God giving us the faith. Authentic Christians receive the life of God through a recreatopm of their human spirit in the image and likeness of God, and then Christ baptizes the believer in the Holy Spirit. The life of God in Christians does not come through meditation or arduous labor but through a humble and simple faith in Christ Jesus. Meditation for a Christian is simply a process of reflection on the Word of God and the spiritual gifts that he has been given through his Born Again experience in Christ. Christianity is a religion that makes you a son of God through a spiritual rebirth. Mediatation and bible reading is simply the vehicle used to 'transform our minds from the conformity of this carnal world that our minds are reknewed in the image and likeness of our recreated spirits that we may know what is good and perfect will of God.' The meditation of non-Christian religions are mere mental and psychological games without the underlying substance of a transformed heart. The meditation of Christians is too understand and transform our minds to the living Jesus given to us through our rebirth. Meditation and theology in authentic Christianity are not mental exercise performed to bring about the reality of God but rather an exercise in understand and expressing the God that is living in our hearts. Emile