Posted by Dena on June 27, 2003, at 16:01:32
I've been thinking about this message for a while, wondering how & even whether, to post it.
I'm sure that I'll be banned permanently from this forum, but that may be for the best, so I have nothing to lose.
Over the months I've been reading/posting on this board, I've read a wide variety of spiritual ideas - they've covered the whole spectrum... well, almost. All the ideas I've read come from opinion, personal experience & relativity. I've read how anyone can believe anything, & how no one has a market on truth - each person has "their own truth". But how can a potpourri of "truths", some of which directly contradict each other, all be TRUE? Truth is what's missing from this Psycho-Babble Faith board.
Truth is truth, regardless of whether anyone, everyone, or even no one believes it. We don't create our own truth, we just spin fantasies. Truth continues to be truth, regardless. I've become acquainted with a few people through this board, & I care enough about them that I want to share truth with them, even if it brings me nothing but ridicule, scorn & "banishment". It's that important.
This isn't "my" truth. I happen to believe it, but it didn't originate with me. It pre-existed me, all of you, even the whole universe. Truth sets free; all else enslaves.
God is alive & well, contrary to rumours of his demise or inexistence. He has always been & will always be. He created everying we see & all things unseen. He is completely independent from His creation; He doesn't need us, although we desperately need Him. In our arrogance, ignorance & pride we can redefine Him all we want, but we're powerless to change Him. He calls Himself, I AM, because He just is.
He created the universe, our world & us. He made it perfect. He made the first humans perfect. He created humans because He wanted to love us, & to bless us by enabling us to love Him in return & to be in a personal relationship with Him, both now & forever.
But for love to be real, it had to be voluntary, freely given - thus free choice.
From the beginning there was right, & there was wrong. Not right & wrong according to the individual (as is so popularly but errantly believed today), but right & wrong as determined by God (as creator, this was surely His right). God is perfect love. But God is also perfect justice. He requires us to trust & follow Him perfectly in order to remain in relationship with Him.
The first humans chose to do wrong, & thus broke relationship with God, who is perfect. All humans since then changed from immortal, perfect beings, into beings which must experience not only physical death, but spiritual death as well, as punishment for rebelling against God. All persons since the beginning have been born separated from God - spiritually dead - born destined to live apart from God for eternity (often called "hell"). In that "fallen" state, all humans have chosen to follow our own inclinations rather than to trust God who knows best how to lead us. And even when people have tried to do their best to live "perfectly" (which is God's standard), we fail miserably. And when we try to re-invent God so that we can "erase" our guilt, we live in delusion. We are guilty of being imperfect. And God requires perfection.
But all along, God had a plan. From the beginning of time, God existed as a three-yet-one God. Three persons, yet one essence: The Father, the Son, & the Spirit. Distinct, yet One. God Himself, in the person of the Son, put aside His divinity, & condescended to become a humble human. He lived the perfect life, committing no wrongs. He obeyed God completely, serving & loving us people. But He never lost sight of his mission: He must become the sacrifice to God on behalf of all the wrongs of all people who ever lived & ever will live. He paid the price of eternal death for us, so that we could live with God eternally - in other words, He died on our behalf so that we are no longer destined to spend eternity separated from God - or hell. But in order to receive eternal life, we have to recognize our need (all have sinned & have fallen short of the glory of God), & to accept that Jesus, the Son, paid our price for us. We can't use a gift unless we first receive it.
Don't be fooled into believing that there are many paths to heaven. Jesus Himself said, "I am the way, the truth & the life. No one comes to the Father except by me." Either He was lying, He was a lunatic, or He was telling the Truth.
There is no reincarnation ("It is appointed for a man once to die, & after that the judgment"). There are no second chances after you die. You do not have the option of re-inventing God or His Truth. He loves you (I mean, He DIED for you), He wants you to be with Him forever, but you have to do it on His terms, not on your own.
I pray that this message will be posted, that many will read it, & that your hearts will be touched with His truth & His love.
This isn't about being narrow-minded. This is about recognizing that God is God, we aren't God, & He made only one way to Him. I pray that you'll find it.
Shalom, Dena
poster:Dena
thread:237552
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20030530/msgs/237552.html