I’m toning down my extracurricular activities until things settle down for me in production/business world, but will continue to babysit this thread I started and try to smooth things over when necessary. Overall, I’m liking the content, loathing the delivery of it in too many posts, we must step back and watch how we word things carefully as to not make the statements turn into attacks against churches or individuals, of which is going on in too many of them right now. Just please, take note of how you are saying things, the same content can be delivered and will fall upon receptive ears if it’s worded right, otherwise it falls on deaf ears and tempers flair, causing no-one to learn in the process.
Along born again, born from above, a new creation in Christ, etc. It’s a term that has not been defined in this thread yet, not really, and requires some clarification. I’ll share some personal revelation with you guys that should shed some light on the matter. Around two decades ago, I asked my priest, I asked several other ministers, pastors, people in and out of the Catholic and Protestant church, how do you become born again. I never got a clear answer out of any of them, it was left largely to myself to discover on my own, thus my quest began with this and to really get the bottom of my own faith, within my church, as well as the protestant denominations in order to deepen my spiritual understanding and relationship with God.
It is only this year I discovered what it is meant, and boy, what an eye opener, I so wish this could be formulated into a system others could plug and play in, in order to experience what I now experience, but alas, it’s an individual thing. I kept hearing people talk about their personal relationship with Jesus, that feeling of Joy God imparts with ones self, and try as I may, they seemed to be entirely wordplay, people simply making a statement in order to fit into the status quo and I don’t really want to look to the numbers of them that are doing just that regardless. The defining moment is where my prayer life turned towards a very simple prayer, “God, reveal to me your love”, he did so through the outside, with people, signs, circumstances, clearly showing that he’s answering, yet, I wanted to really feel his love and peace, so the prayer changed to “God allow me to feel your love inside my heart” and from there, “God allow my heart to love you, give me the capacity to do so”.
The result was rather quick, I was given a short, breif glimps of it right after communion on day, just to show me what is to come, and the feeling was very strong, I say feeling loosely, it was something I’ve never experienced before and that’s the best word to describe it, yet there was something so much more going on. The following days, something changed inside of me, as I kept and still continue to say those prayers, he’s showing his presence within my heart, kind of like a welling up, from within, and it is warm, gentle, and peaceful. I know I would be overwhelmed if he revealed this in full at once, so I think he’s just letting it build inside, fast enough for me to notice, slow enough for me to handle it. The new creation within me is absolutely against this world and what it stands for, it is alien to it, and the two simply do not mix at all. The ways of the world were fading away from me before, now, it’s quite clear, the world itself with it’s ways are poison to my being, that this new creation, this born from above, this born again person, is not the same as the one that was born into this world of the flesh. I also notice a brand new freedom, one where I no longer am a slave to my old way of thinking, and when I face adversity, I keep going back to what is written “He that is in you is greater then he that is in the world”, now you can only say that and mean it and understand it if indeed, “He” is in you, and this is where you have to be honest with yourself. Have you changed from within, or are you trying to do it from without?
This is not to say I will not stumble, but noticing a really cool side effect, it seems God also gives us additional means to obey his commands and to keep yourself separated from the world when it’s trying it’s best to lure you back to it’s ways, which means no longer having the white knuckle it so much anymore. Another neat side effect, when you keep your focus on him, placing your own needs secondary, he will give you perks, giving you your hearts desire, for he knows it better then you do. The only draw back here though, the evil one will kick and scream against you and throw things your way, just to get you to revert, for he knows he has completely lost his grip of you, so plan upon facing additional adversity, especially during these early days of transformation.
Now, that tangent to the side, the bulk of the posts I’m seeing boil down to this. You believe this way because this is all you have been exposed to, that you have not studied other denominations including the Catholic faith, and this boils down to only one statement. I’m x religion because I am afraid to test what I know against another, because my mind is so closed and my faith so weak, no other beliefs which challenge my own have any place in my mind, and I will continue to go through life with blinders on, and this statement is made for all sides of what is now a debate. There is a reason Catholic priests study all of the major religions, I rarely see protestant pastors doing the same. My own journey did cover most of these religions, in and out of Christianity, which is why I can empathise with those of other faiths, even those that oppose Christianity itself. What this does is make me more effective in spreading the gospel, for I can see a person for who they are, relate to what they believe at present, and show them areas of our faith that in some ways, are similar, in other ways, totally liberating, which in turn gives it more appeal rather then just giving them a condemning lecture, which in the end, lets me plant seeds, and in many cases, for the very first times in their lives.
I like how on an earlier post, where they mention that both Baptists and Catholics are equal. In her world, they are, and for now, in her situation, they literally are for her and there is nothing wrong with that opinion at all. I’m sure eventually she’ll pick sides, but for now, with her level of understanding and growth, that is perfectly fine of a statement to make. In the end regardless, we are going to the same heaven, we worship the same God, we just do so in a different manner, and this welling up inside I so wish to share with all of the posters here, is the same as with what we as Catholics want to share, yet often, it’s being approached in the wrong way.
Anyway, peace be with you all my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Brian
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:thumbsup: