**Captaincoog, ** Hi
That was an excellent response to my post. And I have no problem with it.
Where I am now, in my belief system, if you will, is with a more mature look at the workings of our Lord Jesus.
I realize the struggle of degree for achievement to certain levels of godliness, which is all very simple in understanding.
For one esteems one day over another, and another chooses what type of meat to eat.
That is a sample of man’s desire to please God with their actions and practices.
Recall this verse:
Isa 1:11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats
.
These are all of man’s doings, whether sacrifices of animals or some ritualistic type of sacrifice.
This was a shadow of the thing that was to come, and when it came, those sacrifices ceased.
What is left then? Is not in mans abilities to gain favor by personal sacrifices and struggles, for favor we all have already. That is what is called “salvation”.
Salvation is** “Granted”** free of charge as Jesus found favor of the Father for all of us, thereby, freeing us up to worship from the heart rather than from the works of our hands.
So, when I said a more mature look, was not to say that you or others are less than I, but in all humbleness, I love more with my understanding of freedom than I did before.
Before, I was a converted Catholic to the Baptist belief system. I thank God for that not because it was Baptist, but because of it I was able to learn more about scriptures then if I would have remained a Catholic.
I’m confessing now, as you can tell. But, as one breaks away is not so to condemn but to become enlightened on the way things are and how the things ought to be.
As a Baptist, the concept that all who do not accept Jesus as their savior are considered lost and the motive to reach out to all becomes an obsession.
Being that then: there is this thing called “Division” or more directly, judgmental.
Yes, Christ is discovered in a different light in that He becomes of a more personal nature, but then yet, requires that everybody else think the same way.
Here then is where I have arrived to in my walk and understanding of our God, even though it may not find friends out there, just the same, but I feel and believe that it brings me to a more mature way of looking at God. Hence my signature name, “Look”.
Jesus died for nothing less then “ALL” living and dead souls period. Meaning the souls who lived and died from the first Adam to Christ and every living soul after Christ till……well when He decides to end it all. But, I suspect not, since of His kingdom there is no end, therefore, the earth is His plantation. And He will harvest to His hearts content for as long as He wants.
Because then He died for “ALL”, that places everybody on and even keel, where there is now Jew nor Greek, but all are brothers in Jesus.
That also translates in that there are no holier than thou individuals regardless of what religion they espouse.
Religion and it’s practices does keep people in line, but does not allow for the heart to worship God directly, in that it must first be tied to some human concept of how God should be worshiped.
OK, all that brings me to say this: There is neither Catholic, protestant or Jew, but all of us are brothers and sisters “IN” Jesus.
Requirement then is: “Love one another, as I have loved you”.
Can we love if we place conditions on it? Do we have to be all Catholics to practice love from the heart? Do we have to be Protestants to practice love from the heart? Or: any other religion for that matter.
So, If I love, is because I choose to love, first because He first loved me, and second, because He requires it.
Nothing else He said, but just love.
Is there a church anywhere that is called “Just Love”? NO! : Because we all are that church.
The body of Christ is the Church (The spirit of it) and not the building or the organization.
We are free from all of that, and if free, then love without condition.
I’m not wanting that any body change their religious affiliations, but to “look” at our brothers and sisters the same way Jesus “Looked” at us as He hung on the cross and said:
“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.
Peace>>>AJ
