My Thought this Sunday
I am far from a theologian or born again BUT I still dedicate this to all my brothers and sisters who picked up the cross and followed Him ( btw, where else outside of church would that be appropriate to say anything about blood of lambs 😛 )The only two questions you ever need to ask anytime you exercise the greatest gift you have: free will
Am I doing this for the Glory of God, in full knowledge that God is present in this moment with me? Am I expressing this through living out the second commandment given unto me, that I shall love everyone as I do myself and doing these to even the least of my brethren?
or
Am I doing this for my own glory, greed vanity or pride?
I think ask yourself these two questions over the course of the next 24 hours, even when doing small things like stretching or tyeing your shoe laces will dramatically change the direction you take your life in.
Have a great Sunday,
Mwangi
Tags: African Christian, African christianity, Christianity, Theology
@everyone: We have cracked the 50 comment mark and we are having a great discussion. Just thought I’d have another mini-celebration. Carry on…….
@Kenyafm, don’t get me wrong, I have the whole Christianity theory thing down, but there are certain issues I struggle with that reading more info wouldn’t sort. I’d call it a searching phase in my life. My Mum says the problem is that I seek to interpret everything rationally.
Yes I do believe in God, and Jesus died to save me, and I do all I can to maintain a good relationship with Him (despite my very sinful human nature), which to me is the basis of salvation.
When it comes to other matters of faith such as hell, heaven eternal damnation etc etc, then the confusion sets in. I don’t think reading the Bible would solve it, like I said earlier on this post and another post I did earlier, I just believe blindly…
Of course there are other things, like, do we preach the Bible, or do we preach God’s love? that seem to really challenge the way the Church operated.
@kelly
I think i get a little of what your difficulty is.
You know what is taught in the Bible but have issues with totally depending on Christ in this life. I could be wrong.
You say “certain issues I struggle with that reading more info wouldn’t sort”. True, more reading does not sort those things. A person (Christ) does sort issues for us. He has all power and is willing to. What is it that He can not sort out? Perhaps there are things you do not want to give up. If so, well, you just have to reach that point where you can say “U know what. I do not have to do this anymore.I am fed up!”
We only know of ‘..faith such as hell, heaven eternal damnation..” from what the Bible says. So, if you do not believe it, then, you necessary must come up with another explanation for these things. Most people will simply say “It all does not exists. It is all in our heads..”.
But what if it really does exists as it is described in the Bible, and you did not believe in it? You would be unprepared for it, when it finally comes. But if you believe in the after-life as described, what would you have lost in this life? Nothing. If anything, you would have gained the love of Christ. And the resulting peace. You will be amazed how those few things in life that we hold dear and that we find hard to let go, when we later look back, are really nothing but trash.
If you “I don’t think reading the Bible would solve it”, where do you hope to have the answer? Let me tell you a possible scenario. Someone will come along, preach to you another Gospel that is not true ( e.g. one that does not require you to do much in terms of life changes, such as repenting and depending on Christ.) It will be appealing. You will believe it. But you will still feel no peace, no calm. You will still feel that your life is “so empty”. And should you want to go back to that “true Gospel”, it will be much more difficult.
@kenyafm: To add another layer to this discussion, whereas there is indeed that part of us that always acknowledges that there is a truth higher than us, that part is not always automatically drawn to the Christian God. So, it’s not as simple as one day, God revealing himself to everyone and then they chose to live a lie. From what I have seen, its more like some people just never see what the fuss is all about and never ever feel or see what Christians practice as truth.
In short, I am reinforcing my point above which basically says that by the looks of things not everyone has a Jehovah Jirah shaped hole in their heart and even once that hole is filled,the journey has only begun and not ended.
@kenyafm, the reason I say reading the Bible wouldn’t help is more like what Mwangi wrote about earlier. More information doesn’t help always.
Sometimes, the truth is more in your heart and all you need to do is search and I find it. I believe God works more in our hearts than in churches or through the Bible, again I could be wrong.
@Mwangi, you’re right, and it can be a bit ‘bedazzling’ when you’ve been born again half your life, and all over a sudden, you start questioning. For us that know about Jehovah Jireh, I don’t think more preaching is what will help, rather, it’s just about searching within you and finding what your truth is.
About the after life, I choose to just live my life here on earth well, because my mind cannot wrap itself around that concept as yet. If it’s there, well and good, if it’s not, well… My believing in God shouldn’t is not because I fear going to hell, it’s because believing makes me a better person here on earth.
I have beef with preachers preach the ‘get saved or you’ll go to hell gospel’ because, does that mean if we can prove that there is no hell then there is no reason to believe??
@Kelly: There’s a huge difference I noticed in the way the gospel is preached out here as compared to the way we were taught at home. A lot of people at home did get born again out of fear of either hell or incurring the wrath of God and the hell and brimstone theology was alive and well.
Here, the Gospel is much more palatable and always tries to meet people where they are.
I agree, of course, the worst reason to accept God that is love into your heart is out of fear of eternal damnation, that just doesn’t gel right.
@kelly
Are you born again? If so, then i think you have you moved away from your heavenly Father, hence that feelings you have. How does one deal with that? Just go back, like the prodigal son/daughter and say, “Father i have sinned. Do forgive and restore me…”. If you have never been born again, then see below.
@Mwangi
I heard you say before that you never had reason to be born again, and i found that interesting. Let me explain to you the core needs of this process.
Why be be born again?
When one comes of age, and looks around life, they may feel dissatisfied with their lives, and desires a new start. God has made a way for this new start. To start over, He invites you to join his family, hence the term being “born again”. He sets conditions to you joining Him, which include repentance of sins. In becoming a member of his family, you escape being far from Him ( hell ), hence the term “saved”. He then gives you unlimited access to His nature, also called the Holy Spirit. That means, you are empowered beyond measure, you can potentially do anything, and only you can limit yourself. The fringe benefits of this new life is that you get to enjoy peace, calm, power not to sin, etc.
Obviously, then, if one feels okay, does not believe in the Jewish God, or has no desire for God’s friendship, or does not believe s/he has sin to repent of, they would not be born again. So, if a Muslim tells me, “Christ is not the way to the Father”, you can not argue with that, nor should he be pushed to believe that. If an atheist says “God is crap”, you can not argue with that. If an Oz man says, ” i have all i need, i do not need God”, you can not tell Him, “you are not really happy” or try to force something on him that he has no need of. Any forced belief is useless, and not according to the Father. The only “help” God needs from believers is to preach the Gospel, not to shove it on people ( of course sometimes it helps to jar people up with fire and brimstone-even Christ did it, but that is not the core reason to be born again).
Bottom line: unless one reaches that point that they see a need for God ( mostly, or any of the above) they can not be truly born again.
@kenyafm: Agreed! Though personally I don’t mind people who push the Christianity agenda hard. After all, if you believe you have truth in your hand that will save the world, I understand why you would exuberantly want to share it with all and sundry.
@Kenya Fm, how exactly have I turned away from God? By questioning what I believe? Anyways, I hear you all the same
@kelly
Questioning is not the issue. Question as much as you want. I question all the time. But when i read statements such as “I go to Church every Sunday, enjoy the service, but the core of it all is mostly hollow.”, it seems to suggest you do not have peace, satisfaction. It seems as if all these Christian things do not make sense.
I know that these come upon as especially if we have turned from God. By turning from Him, i mean, we do not live a life of obedience to Him.
[…] The Bible: I haven’t read the Bible in years now BUT I would be lying if I didn’t say that this book has affected me, does affect me and will continue to do so until the day that I die. This book is the foundation for how I understand morality and good vs evil and a lot of my favourite thinkers reference this book. It’s the best selling book ever for a reason, make sure you at least read it. We are having a little debate about it over on this post. […]