In these days there is much discussion on the importance of "religion" in our lives, it seems almost crazy on which to believe... or not to believe at all...
Within the Abrahamic religions the same issues have been debated for centuries:
1. The Jewish faith deny the Christian and Muslim faiths.
2. The Muslim faith deny the Christian and Jewish faiths.
3. The Christian faith deny the Jewish and Muslim faiths.
Others have a hard time understanding why God doesn't love all people...regardless of their personal beliefs...reiterating how it is the heart that counts. "God is about a feeling experience, not a believing experience....a mistake we humans make is believing that there is only one way...there are many paths to what you call God...there couldn't possibly be just one way. Do you think that if you never heard the name of Jesus but lived with a loving heart...you wouldn't go to Heaven? Does God care about the heart...or if you call His Son Jesus?" Oprah Winfrey
Even within the "Christian" denominations...there is a question as to Jesus being absolute Deity...examples being the Jehovah Witnesses or the Church of Latter Day Saints.
And numerous Christian teachings are centered on if we can make a certain set of requirements...only then are we able to approach Heaven's Gates.
Why does it seem so confusing or difficult to follow this Creator of all things?
In my years being a Christian, which means to me inviting the Lord Jesus to come into my heart, forgive me of sin that has kept me from our Heavenly Father, and make His home in my heart as both my absolute Savior and Lord of my entire life including my thoughts and motives in everything I do in life.
When that happened, I have noticed there are 4 distinct features that come to the forefront in my walk with Him:
1) Without Jesus in my heart to lead my life, man's heart is given to evil.
2) The realization the Bible is God's Word to mankind and each word in it's entirety is God-breathed.
3) Jesus is True Deity...being equal and part of the Holy Trinity we as Christians refer to as God.
4) My Christian life is not about setting new standards or doing my utmost to follow and obey a set of rules, rather it's all about nurturing a friendship and moving into a deeper relationship with Him, which enables me to go far beyond and please the Lord in a way that a set of rules could never accomplish.
These are what I call "The 4 Essentials to Life", and without these established in my life, questions, confusion, and the lack of recognizing a closeness to God will always be lurking within me, regardless how sincere I may be.
Allow me to elaborate on the first one: "Without Jesus in my heart, man's heart is given to evil."
This has been a debate throughout the ages. For myself, it isn't about how good we are, rather how does God want us to be reconciled to Him? The Scriptures are clear, regardless of our moral standards or code of ethics, we still have to have our hearts changed.
Since The Fall, when Adam and Eve chose to determine their own fate without the council of God, man has been spiritually blind even at birth. The Fall of original sin has caused man to be disconnected in having a close relationship with God. This doesn't mean human beings lost their ability to know right from wrong, it simply means even on our "best day", we cannot enter God's Presence...because we still do wrong in His eyes.
Often this question arises about why would God not accept a person if he/she is a good person? The answer for me is not how good I am, rather what are the requirements God asks of us?
Have you ever had your child come to you and say, "Look, I washed all the dishes!"? So you go out to the kitchen and inspect the dishes with your child expecting your approval and to celebrate their work. Yet, upon inspection, you can see the dishes are still have "crud" on them...be it less, yet they still have crud. And when you look into their eyes and want you to accept their hard work...what do you do? Well, I reach down and hug them and tell my little girl how much I appreciate their hard work! Then I begin to ask..."Tell me how did you wash all these dishes?" Then my daughter goes over in detail how she immersed the dirty dishes in hot water and then rinsed them off in fresh water and even had a sink for some bleach water to sterilize them, then put them on the drying rack. The only problem, she didn't use any soap! Even though those dishes were sterilized in bleach water...they were still dirty.
I think of that scenario (which actually did happen) when I think of reconciling my life to the Lord. It's not about how hard I work, what good I do in life, or how good my morals or code of ethics are ...the question is...what does He (God) want?
And just like those dishes my child worked so hard to clean, they still had crud...even if they had been sterilized. The dishes needed to be washed with soap.
Now, did I criticize my young one because she did not use soap? Of course not, I celebrated with her...and we went to the ice cream shop! Yet, when the opportunity was right, in this case after the ice cream, I explained to her the need for soap, and showed her why. We could not accept those dishes like that until we added soap to them, so others could use the dishes again.
And together, we washed the dishes again.
When we come to God in prayer, to study, or just to hang with Him for a little while, I can only enjoy Him understanding what His desire for me is...and He wants me pure. That is why His Only Son volunteered His life for me...to the point of death....He wanted me clean so I too can stand and enjoy the Father. Now, my life can truly give Him glory!
A few weeks later, my daughter came to me again...she had...on her own I might add...done the dishes once more....and what beautiful clean dishes they were! And of course...so was the ice cream!
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh...and give you a heart...made of flesh!"
Ezekiel 36:26
" Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature...the old things have passed away, behold, all things are now new"!
2 Corinthians 5:17
" These plans of Mine are not about how you work things out between us, for My thoughts...My ways...are nothing like yours."
Isaiah 55:8
Within the Abrahamic religions the same issues have been debated for centuries:
1. The Jewish faith deny the Christian and Muslim faiths.
2. The Muslim faith deny the Christian and Jewish faiths.
3. The Christian faith deny the Jewish and Muslim faiths.
Others have a hard time understanding why God doesn't love all people...regardless of their personal beliefs...reiterating how it is the heart that counts. "God is about a feeling experience, not a believing experience....a mistake we humans make is believing that there is only one way...there are many paths to what you call God...there couldn't possibly be just one way. Do you think that if you never heard the name of Jesus but lived with a loving heart...you wouldn't go to Heaven? Does God care about the heart...or if you call His Son Jesus?" Oprah Winfrey
Even within the "Christian" denominations...there is a question as to Jesus being absolute Deity...examples being the Jehovah Witnesses or the Church of Latter Day Saints.
And numerous Christian teachings are centered on if we can make a certain set of requirements...only then are we able to approach Heaven's Gates.
Why does it seem so confusing or difficult to follow this Creator of all things?
In my years being a Christian, which means to me inviting the Lord Jesus to come into my heart, forgive me of sin that has kept me from our Heavenly Father, and make His home in my heart as both my absolute Savior and Lord of my entire life including my thoughts and motives in everything I do in life.
When that happened, I have noticed there are 4 distinct features that come to the forefront in my walk with Him:
1) Without Jesus in my heart to lead my life, man's heart is given to evil.
2) The realization the Bible is God's Word to mankind and each word in it's entirety is God-breathed.
3) Jesus is True Deity...being equal and part of the Holy Trinity we as Christians refer to as God.
4) My Christian life is not about setting new standards or doing my utmost to follow and obey a set of rules, rather it's all about nurturing a friendship and moving into a deeper relationship with Him, which enables me to go far beyond and please the Lord in a way that a set of rules could never accomplish.
These are what I call "The 4 Essentials to Life", and without these established in my life, questions, confusion, and the lack of recognizing a closeness to God will always be lurking within me, regardless how sincere I may be.
Allow me to elaborate on the first one: "Without Jesus in my heart, man's heart is given to evil."
This has been a debate throughout the ages. For myself, it isn't about how good we are, rather how does God want us to be reconciled to Him? The Scriptures are clear, regardless of our moral standards or code of ethics, we still have to have our hearts changed.
Since The Fall, when Adam and Eve chose to determine their own fate without the council of God, man has been spiritually blind even at birth. The Fall of original sin has caused man to be disconnected in having a close relationship with God. This doesn't mean human beings lost their ability to know right from wrong, it simply means even on our "best day", we cannot enter God's Presence...because we still do wrong in His eyes.
Have you ever had your child come to you and say, "Look, I washed all the dishes!"? So you go out to the kitchen and inspect the dishes with your child expecting your approval and to celebrate their work. Yet, upon inspection, you can see the dishes are still have "crud" on them...be it less, yet they still have crud. And when you look into their eyes and want you to accept their hard work...what do you do? Well, I reach down and hug them and tell my little girl how much I appreciate their hard work! Then I begin to ask..."Tell me how did you wash all these dishes?" Then my daughter goes over in detail how she immersed the dirty dishes in hot water and then rinsed them off in fresh water and even had a sink for some bleach water to sterilize them, then put them on the drying rack. The only problem, she didn't use any soap! Even though those dishes were sterilized in bleach water...they were still dirty.
I think of that scenario (which actually did happen) when I think of reconciling my life to the Lord. It's not about how hard I work, what good I do in life, or how good my morals or code of ethics are ...the question is...what does He (God) want?
And just like those dishes my child worked so hard to clean, they still had crud...even if they had been sterilized. The dishes needed to be washed with soap.
Now, did I criticize my young one because she did not use soap? Of course not, I celebrated with her...and we went to the ice cream shop! Yet, when the opportunity was right, in this case after the ice cream, I explained to her the need for soap, and showed her why. We could not accept those dishes like that until we added soap to them, so others could use the dishes again.
And together, we washed the dishes again.
When we come to God in prayer, to study, or just to hang with Him for a little while, I can only enjoy Him understanding what His desire for me is...and He wants me pure. That is why His Only Son volunteered His life for me...to the point of death....He wanted me clean so I too can stand and enjoy the Father. Now, my life can truly give Him glory!
A few weeks later, my daughter came to me again...she had...on her own I might add...done the dishes once more....and what beautiful clean dishes they were! And of course...so was the ice cream!
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh...and give you a heart...made of flesh!"
Ezekiel 36:26
" Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature...the old things have passed away, behold, all things are now new"!
2 Corinthians 5:17
" These plans of Mine are not about how you work things out between us, for My thoughts...My ways...are nothing like yours."
Isaiah 55:8
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