1. Atheist, those who do not recognize God as having existence.
2. Agnostic, those who give place to the possibility, but nothing has assuaged them to recognize the existence of God as of yet.
3. Believer in a god, those who have followed their ancestral or religious/political philosophy of the region, believing in and possibly acknowledging allegiance to a god, higher power, or gods in general, but no difinitive understanding of God in the person of Jesus the Christ. This includes all religious groups and or philosophies that have acknowledged the existence of a spiritual component without understanding the creator of that power or having authority to wield that power in the name of the creator of that power. In other words, they believe in a deity, but do not have first hand experience or communication with that deity. All of their experience is handed down from one generation to another without any of the generations having ever met their god.
4. Those who believe in God through the saving grace of Jesus the Christ.
You can have sympathy for group 1, 2 and 3, but in no way should there be any acceptance of or agreement to the belief system, other than to acknowledge that the person does believe it. There is also no need to bash or create the feeling that the person is inferior to you in any way due to the fact that they believe in a different religious philosophy than you. Nor is there any need to defend your position by answering ridiculous questions posed by those who have a great need to compel their will on you.
Why do I bring this up? Because every person I write to in this blog is from one of these categories and their is no way that each group interprets the information in the same way.
God has declared the heavens and earth, the stars and all that is as physical proof of His pre-existence and Sovereignty.
God has declared the written Word as physical proof of His omniscience and Scientific proof by recording the events of ancient history with perfect accuracy and declaration and creating unswerving rules of scientific, measurable and obtainable formulas.
God has declared the spoken Word to all who have listened as proof of His undeniable continuing interfacing and interaction with all of humanity.
God is in charge of dealing with group 1, 2 and 3, not you.
You are responsible only to continue in the faith that brought you to Jesus and follow God's teaching with understanding to the best of your ability, nothing else. Yes, you can be proactive and minister to others and/or provide truth about your personal experience through personal testimony, shared ideals with others and missionary exploits, but none of those within themselves has anything to do with why you were chosen to become a child of God.
You will not know a great many things on this side of heaven. God has chosen to shroud many truths in mysteries and unknowable events, and that to your benefit. God has provided the perfect blend of knowable events and discoveries with unknowable events and actions to give us all we need to live a full and satisfied life. God's intervention in the events of life is the only reason that time is still moving forward with opportunity for every person to come to a knowledge of Jesus the Christ as Savior/God.
This spiritual blessing is provided by the alive and real-time existence of the Holy Spirit within your soul. The Holy Spirit guides you into enlightenment, protects you from your self/ego, and makes known all knowledge necessary to live a full and complete God-ordained life. Being a Christian does not provide you with unnatural or magical powers, nor does being a Christian protect you from the free-will of man or from the natural events that befall everyone. Being a Christian protects you from the fatal flaw of not recognizing God and the permanent solution of that flaw which is separation from God for all eternity.
You will live for all eternity. Quit worrying about what others think or how unfair God is. You should be very thankful that God is not fair. It is in God's unfairness that you have any chance at all.
Note: For those who think, "what about the Muslims, what about the Buddhist and the Shintoist?" What about the Muslims, Buddhist and Shitoist? Are you thinking that God is predjudiced and un-god-like, that he has turned His back on an entire society of people? It amazes me what kind of teaching are we receiving today where entire groups of Christians have no understanding of God's economy?
They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. Isa. 44:18
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Mat. 13:13
Mat. 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Joh. 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh_12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
Act_28:26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:
Rom_15:21 But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.
God is in charge. I believe that most people don't like the way God does things and that is the primary contributing factor to the apathy and lack of knowledge of the Church. Truly most people find their pastor's way more tolerable and understandable. The watered-down Word of God, spoken form the pulpit, is the elixir of the modern Church. God wants His people to "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Mat. 11:28, but priests and pastors say "only after you do this and give that are you to follow Christ."
Priests and pastors, get out of the way. Don't stop teaching and preaching and giving of yourself for the kingdom. Don't stop providing great services and programs that bring people together and advance the quality of life for those in your ministry. Don't stop administering the sacraments. But quit trying to mediate for Jesus. Jesus needs you to step aside as the authority of the Church and allow the Holy Spirit to communicate with God's parishioners.
Priests and pastors: You are hired servants, act like it.
