Sunday, June 07, 2015

WHEN YOU GET READY TO BELIEVE IN GOD

Reality doors:
  1. Many believe that God truly is.
  2. Many feel convinced of just the opposite.
  3. Many others don't know quite yet what they think.
So I'm going to go with door numbers two and three for now.  I accept the reality that you either don't believe there is a living God or that you are just not sure, yet.  I get it.  I lived parts of that.  And, I'm sympathetic to your convictions.

I encourage you to watch for future occasion to change your mind whether you are blatantly opposed to God/church stuff or you simply have no leanings.  Pay attention to life, your life, as it is rolled out before you.  It is very possible that you will volunteer in the days ahead to give serious consideration to the spiritual side of....yourself.

Don't tell me.  You are an eye-witness to  Christian jerkism.  You know of testimonies of hundreds who carry the Christian banner with behavior as if their underwear is too tight.  I get it.  Oh, how I've heard it.  Uh-huh.  I bet you can be just as spiritual sitting on your back deck with a cup of coffee on Sunday morning as you could with all those many hypocrites who go to church.

Well, maybe you can't.

Christianity is about many things.  Faith in things not seen.  Forgiveness of enemies and of self.  Dying to self.  And, not getting your way to where you always come off feeling good about things.  Its trademark is the Cross and an empty grave; two things humans are too small to handle.

Hear me well.  I'm not saying that believers like me are squeaky clean.  Of course not. We were baptized for such a reason; we cannot save ourselves.  Even our do-good efforts failed us..and some of you.  Believe me, we know failure.  Enter Jesus, the one who is known as Savior.

He is the only one good enough.  He is the only who can/would/did pay the price of my sins/yours as well.  Jesus is the name above all names because he is the only religious leader who died and rose from the dead.  This documentation is embossed into every gravestone testifying that the deceased were born and then died x-amount of years from Jesus' birth.

Go ahead.  Hang out the church-goers' dirty laundry all you want.  Brag.  Sneer.  Joke. Have a big time.  I'm just saying there's more to you than this.  I'm saying you have an inner awareness that maybe--just maybe--there really is a God and you could humble yourself a bit just to consider that these thoughts you are experiencing may be His call.

I believe that so many who regard God as a silly figment of church imagination will one day reverse these thoughts.  People are good.  Every person is valued; by God and by neighbor.  Whims and attitudes; yes they may rule for a term or two.  But after awhile it finally occurs to us that we can't do life, let alone death, on our own steam.

Blessings to you even if you simply begin to begin to wonder about the reality of God. Of course I'm biased.  You get that.  But I'm biased as well toward those who don't quite know how to assess the spirit life; is it real/is it not?  My main thing is to encourage you not to dismiss the possibility even if you don't understand it.

Many don't understand why a key would cause an engine to start, but we drive cars anyway.  We actually believe that turning a key forward causes something to make something else do something.  Hmmm...I wonder why some are so willing to go by faith each morning as we open the car door, engage in a process that most of us have extremely little grasp of understanding, and, yet, believe that people who believe in God are ridiculous?

Doesn't quite square up, does it?

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