When I read your post, I was seeing relativism, that life has no true meaning or purpose.
Things in this world of form through which we pass are often relative. This is a reality that has to be faced. The problem is that people misidentify themselves as being part of the world of form. Insofar as the true nature of what we really are is concerned, there are absolutes, however, transience and mutability are at the core nature of the world of form, and it is largely relative. Ascribing an undue level of meaning and purpose to that which can only be passing or relative creates only suffering. In this realm, we live in the illusion of time. Einstein called it a stubbornly persistent illusion. The past does not exist right now. The future does not exist right now. All that exists right now is right now. The purpose of now is “being.” The purpose of being is “now.”
My Faith, the evidence of things not seen, attends my life and gives me the knowledge I need to understand what God asks of me. .
Beautifully said.
The Holy Spirit, dwelling within me, gives me the power necessary to live according to what I believe. He convicts me of sin that I might repent and return to God’s grace as quickly as possible.
Something within us convicts us of sin as you have said. It is that voice in the head, that self that is created by the mind and sense organs. That is not your true self. Jesus confronted that “other self” that lives in all of us when he was in the wilderness. In modern times, we call that created self the ego. In ancient times it was called the devil. Jesus invited it to leave. Once the devil of the self is cast off, one can realize their inherent oneness with all things and with God, who is manifest in all things, and at such a time, one will love God and their neighbor as themselves.
Scripture says, “It is not the one who cries Lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the Will of the Father.”
God’s will is that we love Him and love our neighbors as ourselves. There is nothing more that needs to be done. You must take the experiential path of seeing God face to face for yourself. The bad news is that this is hard to do. The good news is that His face is everywhere. But one has to know what one is looking for.
St. Paul stated that if there is no God, that if what we believe is false, then we truly are the “most pitiable of men.” Most of us who believe in God and His grace would understand your question, as an attack on personal faith in the God who is and who guides each of us in our daily actions.
I have told you to love God and your neighbor. This is not an attack on God. From my perspective, and this is just my perspective mind you, trying to package God in theologies, dogmas, bulls, rites and other machinations of this world are in themselves an attack on God. Attacks on God are of course futile, but many have, many do, and many more still will waste their time in such a way. Make straight the way of the Lord and know Him for yourself.
What the Church teaches does indeed sustain us during this life and attends us when we come before the throne of Grace.
Again, we are speaking of things like thrones and coming before such things. This is constructing God in our own image. If we think of such things as thrones, then we must by necessity perceive what spine rests against the uprights of that throne, what feet rest on the ground before it, or how His hair might be styled, does he clip His toenails or do they magically stay the same, or does He have toenails or a navel, or is He even a He?. If I sound silly, that’s because it is indeed silly, but if there is a throne, then such things must be considered. The throne of grace, the Kingdom of God, Heaven and Hell – they are all inside you and all around you. There is no time at which we will come upon them. There is only now, and the things we think we will seek or come upon later attend our being now as well.
I
t is much more than the ritualistic following of prescribed ritual. Those of us who have experienced His Grace and Love in our personal lives desire that others enjoy this same experience.
If you have experienced grace and love in ritual, then you should by all means do rituals. Such things exist in most all faiths, and they work well for a certain sort of temperament.
Again, as scripture says about the gifts of God when prophecies, etc have passed away, what we have left is Faith, Hope, and Love. The greatest of these gifts is love.
Then my sense is that we should focus on the greatest of these, and not waste too much effort on the rest. All other things will fall into place.
It is love that allows us to lay down our lives for the sake of others, to detach ourselves from the possession of this world. It is love that is the great command that Christ gave us before His crucifixion. “Love one another as I have loved you.”
I agree with you completely.
The ten commandments are summarized in this Law of Love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength,” and “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Right, and the ten commandments are a breeze once we love our neighbor as ourselves. The latter rather than the former is what needs our attention.
My invitation to you is that you not merely learn about Christianity, which can be merely an intellectual exercise, but that you come to know Christ, to open yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work in your life.
It is possible that I know Christ already, it is possible that He works in my life, and yet still I am studying Christianity as an intellectual exercise. This is because the two are not necessarily the same thing.
Your friend,
sufjon
