The majority of the last 197 posts have mostly told what isn’t preached in most conventional Christian churches, which this blog candidly makes known. That is what has been coined: Religion’s Crime Against God. This section will deviate from that format, and will attempt to tell of the many positive aspects of genuine Christianity; and there are many.
The majority of humanity struggles and strains to find lasting meaning in this uncertain life. Many do this without even knowing it. I would say the top six contenders which promise to bring meaning to life are security, happiness, wealth, love, power, and respect, etc.
And it seems understandable why these are the top choices, because there is some sort of human logic behind the pursuit of each and every one of them. Only thing, if one avoids all the ensuing failures in their attempt to reach their goal and finally arrive, then what—live off the fat of the land? At that point, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was most likely a mirage. As many are finding out, all that effort and this is my only reward: the "golden" years, laced with fool's gold (aches, pains, pills and finally a "loving" nursing home). This life of leisure is likened to being on a vacation cruise ship with no final destination. That abundance of leisure is like going around in circles, which quickly becomes blasé, while reluctantly waiting for our friendly undertaker.
For many years, I personally was one of those misguided wanderers seeking for a meaningful reason for this life. Then, somehow—though I don’t know how—I realized there had to be more to life than the aforementioned scenarios.
At a low point in my life, realizing things and relationships didn’t produce the wonderful life they were acclaimed to be, I started dabbling in religion. To my disappointment, I found much hypocrisy and superficiality. But still there were wonderful promises in the New Testament which got me to continue in a search for what God offered. I am not a mediocre person, settling for second best; therefore, I threw myself head-over-heels into an attempt to fulfill what was required to receive the good things which were promised in Scripture.
Nothing great occurred overnight that was noteworthy in my life except a few relapses into the meaningless things of the world. But with persistence and a need to feel valuable and loved, I started and continued to take the gospel message seriously.
I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would be where I am at this time. When I got serious with God, He got serious with me. Some of His commands seemed absurd; nevertheless, I, with my childlike faith, made/make every effort to obey.
The most noticeable changes in my life were the desire for material things and attitudes that seemed to disappear as they were replaced with spiritual treasures. All I can say is that this part of my life seemed like one big miracle. And for the last two years, since I got involved with this Internet blog, I saw the biggest spiritual gains. Those gains made me into a completely new person, though physically I am basically the same person. Enough of what happened to me. Let me give some details of what Jesus Christ can do for everyone who clicked onto this post, especially the regular subscribers.
One of the most unbelievable aspects of Christianity, which becomes a reality through our faith (belief in what God said through His instruction book), is that which makes a person feel like a king: The creator of our gigantic universe actually desires to invite you and me in as partners to help Him by showing and telling the unbelieving world what He is like as He displays Himself through you and me via His Son Jesus Christ.
The magnitude of our job as a representative of Almighty God actually blows my mind. What a horrendous responsibility God, the powerful Almighty God, places in front of us–by the way, this responsibility is what inspired me to start, Religion’s Crime Against God and the impetus that keeps it going. To convert these simple words into reality is where the miracle comes in. The miracle is that our faith, which allows us to actually believe all Jesus Christ taught, is aimed at you and me. We are the recipients of that challenge, which is just one crucial part of Christianity.
Here is another imperative—actually, the most important—portion of living the Christian life: the unfailing love God has for every one of His chosen. That agape love considers every Christian as if she/he were the only person in the world—get more details on that concept by checking out posts # 82, 83, and 84, "Your Own Personal God."
Through faith in God, when a person starts to experience that personal love God has, that will be the turning point of one’s life. Believe it or not, the love God will have for you is identical to the love He had/has for His only Son Jesus Christ. With that heart knowledge behind our belts, we can start to find out how to love him in return (reciprocating love). The main way to display our love for God is to learn what he desires from us via the New Testament, and then start to comply by obedience.
I can personally testify that His love for us is the most satisfying love in existence. It makes all the other loves we receive seem as if they lost their glow. That doesn’t mean we won’t still love them and receive their love for us; it only put them in proper prospective. Without experiencing that love, if even to a minute degree, our marriage to Jesus Christ—figuratively speaking—is like living in the same house with a spouse where love is lopsided: One person is loving while the other is cold. There can be no joy for either partner in that type of situation. In fact, there will be no lasting connection between the two parties.
I can assuredly say that this love connection is the missing link for millions of sincere, good and honest people who claim to be Christians. It could be rightfully said that this reciprocating love is an enigma for all who are not actually experiencing, with their lives, the life of Jesus Christ. I could just hear some saying, "Those are lofty words of love, but in reality it doesn’t exist." And I could understand why they feel that way.
This is the reason: When a young child is told they will love and be loved by the opposite gender when they grow up, they might say to themselves, “I don’t want to hurt my mother’s feelings, but I think she is telling me a fairy tale." In the same way, many who are not experiencing God’s love don’t believe this Godly love exists; again they say, "And even if it did exist, it can’t be experienced." That is a satanic lie.
The thing about being unable to love and be loved by God is crippling; that divine love is the basis (framework) for all else in God’s plan of Salvation to function properly. Take that mutual love away and what might be left is morals, if even that. Again, that is not only sad but devastating.
There are several reasons why God’s agape love does not come to fruition in some. I can’t say this unequivocally, but most likely it is because of the abundance of available stuff in this materialistic world, which appears to satisfy us and thus make us feel loved. In fact, I am surprised genuine Christianity has survived as well as it has in our modern pampered and coddled culture, especially with all the niceties which are vying for our love and attention.
Another reason why many secretly believe God’s love is no more than seductive words, a ploy which is seemingly impossible to attain other than in word, is because our lives are so filled with busy emptiness. We don’t have time or desire to squeeze/cultivate God’s love into our lives.
And still, God and His love are waiting for all who desire to live life to the fullest. God’s love makes life a continual holiday, even with the rejection and hatred from those on the other side of the fence. Remember this one thing: We were meant to be gods, created in His image, and it is God’s grace which is facilitated by His love that makes us into His holy phenomena (children of God).
The culmination of our Faith is being with God, His Son Jesus Christ, and His holy family in heaven for all eternity. How many of us are actually looking forward to being in Heaven? Is heaven real, or just a place we may talk about? The better we have it on earth, and the more we enjoy it here, the less our minds are occupied with heaven. The tougher we have it on earth, the sooner we desire to leave this world. Could that be the reason the select poor, meaning only those who believe, love and obey Christ’s teaching, are valued by God more than those who have it easy? For me personally, there is very little if anything this world offers that interests me or brings me joy. That may be the main reason I am anxious to leave. What I will miss is advancing the cause of Jesus Christ. Hopefully what is written in this blog will continue after my departure.
To make heaven more than just a beautiful word, we need to have a realistic vision that it is immeasurably better—to say the least—than anything we could ever experience on this earth. By not dwelling on the wonders of heaven, it may lose its reality to the point where we still desire to go to heaven, but not just yet. How many of us are in that situation? Let us not forget, going to heaven is the main reason for all that is said and done in the Christian life.
I am certain most of us have seemingly legitimate reasons for not wanting to die to meet the Lord at this time. But this hesitation or putting-off of the readiness to go at this/any time seems to say, "We still fear death." The reason I don’t fear death is because that event means to be with the Lord in heaven–of course in a sleeping state. To explain sleep at death, click on # 102: "Conscious State at Death?" But it is better for me to live a little longer to continue to display my boldness in telling it like it is: exposing religion’s crime against God and the crime against all the millions who are caught in the seductive and enticing grip/trap of conventional religion. Hopefully my death won’t be accidental or from some sickness or disease, but hopefully it will come by the hands of the religious hierarchy for my unconventional though Biblical stand for Christ. The reason I say that is because as this blog continues to spread, it will start to dig into the pockets of the clergy, and they won’t like that. As you can tell, God and I have high hopes for this blog.
Simply put, heaven is wonderful because God lives there, and its joy is waiting for all of us. That is the primary reason for our Christian hope. I pray we don’t think of heaven as a pie-in-the-sky pipedream, but as continually and extremely joyfully, to say the least. For more information and insights on heaven, see post # 150: "For Heaven’s Sake ! Life at its Best."
Hopefully for dedicated Christians, fear of death is a thing of the distant past. Heaven is something we should earnestly look forward to. When a Christian leaves this world, that is a time for all who love us to celebrate, even though it is our love ones who may/will suffer because of our absence. I am certain that for those who have young children, death at this time is not the best thing, so they can continue to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Also, leaving a wonderful wife and mother would be a disaster. Is it selfish to say, but I am thankful I am not in that position.
Another reason I desire to leave this world and be in heaven is because I am an extremely empathetic person. I actually experience the pain of many who are hurting because of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with much of the other suffering which is going on in this world. It literally tears me apart. I don’t know why God had to make me this way. Only those who are like me will understand. I write this paragraph with many tears.
Another wonderful aspect in our anticipation of heaven, which all genuine Christianity will inherit, is this: all the strife, jealously, greed, hatred, selfishness and a dozen other negative worldly attitudes disappear; not overnight, but as our heavenly treasures start to accumulate, our worldly treasures are deflated/devalued. To me, this is one of the best entities (frosting on the cake), literally a spiritual windfall which God blesses us with.
Just one more, although there are many more holy benefits given to Christians who are heaven-bound than are being told in this post. Non-Christians, including myself, are always concerned how other people see us. We want to look just right so people won’t think badly about us. Why should we care what others think of us as to how we dress, the type of car we drive, the neighborhood we live in, and many other things, as if we live just to impress others? Well, that desire to impress others again will slowly vanish. We will then have the freedom of not having to live just to arouse the approval of others.
Another of the wonders of belonging to Jesus Christ is this: You have discovered and now possess the most valuable commodity in the universe: knowing, loving, and actually being loved by God. Any and all other possessions—material or otherwise—a person has or desires to acquire in their lifetime cannot compare with the Salvation of one’s soul. Isn’t that wonderful? In fact, there are no words in our human language descriptive enough to tell the full extent of what a genuine Christian possesses. This free gift we are endowed with by God’s grace is so stupendous that we cannot contain it. And therefore we are compelled, by our love for God and neighbor, to pass it on; it is our holy privilege. This eternal gift is so superb, it cannot be contained.
Just to be certain we actually have the aforementioned gift, there is a little one-sentence quiz to confirm it. If anyone does not feel it necessary to pass it on, or believes it is not their place to pass it on, most likely what we have is not worth passing on. Please, please, if you forget all else that is written herein, please do not forget this principle, which is God-inspired logic; it is of primary importance.
Finally, although this post is mainly directed at the abominations (not telling the whole truth) perpetrated by a majority of Christian religions per se, the positive attributes of the gospel’s blessings far outweigh the criticism. My fervent prayer is that many more of those deceived "christians" will have their eyes opened, and thus enjoy heaven with all God’s saints (us).
No comments:
Post a Comment