with reference to
Dieseldubs' post #16:
Hi Dieseldub,
I totally hear from where you are speaking. Too many preaching their style and thinking they have all the answers. It is my hope you will never find me to be one of the same.
A couple points related to my beliefs:
I believe God wants all to know and have a personal relationship with him/her. (Is it okay if I assume the masculine form as most bible translators have acknowledging that God's form may be non-gender?) That is, what Christ taught was that a personal relationship with God was possible and that God, being as a father to all, desired that relationship. Most of us who have kids can relate to that concept.
I believe that evangelizing is not what God desires or requires. Yes, Christ told us to go out into the world and make disciples but did he teach ever that we were to shame and cajole people into believing? He told us to be an example in how we conduct ourselves - to show love and mercy, to apply that Golden rule. Further, he taught that the relationship each has with his father (his words if I translated correctly) was between that person and God - it was not for others to step into.
Christ did say that "no one comes to my father except through me." Extremely exclusive... but what is it he was talking about? "The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. " How often have I seen others pervert the words and use them for their own purposes of excluding. I hear words of inclusion not exclusion. Do as I do and you will be included!
What exactly was Christ's work? (to Jack and Petrol Dave - i think this goes to your most recent points) His work was to be with people. To share with them revealing what he believed. To let them question him, searching for the same answers for which we find ourselves searching. He did good to others and encouraged those listening to do the same. He told all to love, to care, and most of all, he told that they should come and know his Father. Not only did he tell, he demonstrated all that he was telling. When asked how others could know his father, he said, (allow my paraphrase) "you know me. I came from my father. If you know me, you know my father."
And yet, while he told all of these things and many more, he did say, the road to eternal life passes through him. That he is the way, the truth and the life. Exclusive... Conundrum..
For me, I find comfort in believing Christ. I find comfort in the idea that there is life beyond this life. I find comfort that I can spend eternity in a better place. Owing to that comfort, I am able to give more of myself to others, to risk more, to love/care more, to do more, to be more like the one I follow.
I believe that all have the right to their belief. I am not trying to convert any. Rather, I am again speaking of what resonates in my heart. I am not a good person by the standard of the one I follow. I sin and fall short of the mark he set. Of my own power, I can never be as good as he was/is and I cannot on my own earn my way to an eternal presence. So it is by my faith in his goodness and in his statement that I can be saved through him, that I live in the comfort of the knowledge that I have been forgiven and that there is a place for me with him in his eternity. Will I have a body? Not sure. Will I know others? The good book says yes. Is his eternity that of alien beings and their ways? I don't know. The promises made are simple and they resonate for me where no other means resonate.
I continue to seek answers.. that through my study, things might be clear through gained knowledge. I have been frustrated that many answers I find just led to more questions, questions that keep drawing me back to where I started, with the faith system instilled in me as a boy. Some might say that I never let go of that system and that is the reason I cannot find solace through science, math, knowledge. I accept that criticism. I cannot know.
None of the answers I have found are more complete than the picture of God as the Father reaching down to his little boy, telling him that he loves me so much, that my wrongs have been made right and that He is with me each day. He assures me that I have to live my life but I don't have to live it alone. God is with me - the God Force surrounds me and is within me - not making me a God but holding me as a child of God, one who is cared for by the most high of the universe. Simple faith right Don?
It is what I believe and what works for me. I find that in all the complexity of the words we study, sometimes we miss the simplicity of an idea. When the simplicity is discovered, our intellect oftens says , "Nah - can't be that simple. Life is far too complicated for it to be so simple." Each of us has to struggle with the meaning of our existence. I am into the last third of my life.. as I travel there, simple is good.. just getting out of bed in the morning is hard! I find pains in places I didn't know existed.
So Don, maybe I have come to grips with what you meant by "my simple faith". Thank you all for having me continue to examine what I believe, explaining those beliefs.
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Jack and Dave, finding ways to help others with the skills we have gained, is exactly what all of us are called to do. It is right and good for us to use what we have learned and the resources we have accumulated to help others. That is one of the measures by which people can know we care. The more we demonstrate such care for others, the better this world will be.
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Don - I'll next try to respond to your posts.. not sure if I will get to that tonight. I have a meeting tonight on zoom.. I am beginning to hate zoom meetings!
Again my thanks for the discussion here.