It's hard to imagine anyone but the most hard-core of people not liking stories with a happy ending. It seems as though everyone I've ever met or heard about seems to like them. Whether it's a huge volume like Lord Of The Rings or the Narnia series - the books or the movies - or whether it's something very Hollywood like Pretty Woman or wonderfully inspiring like Rudy or the recent movie The Blind Side, there's just something that draws people of all cultures, belief systems, and socio-economic status to stories like this, real or fictional.
It's almost as though we all have this built-in desire for true justice and for things to work out right in the end. But as soon as the book is shut or the final movie credits start to roll, we're forced to come down off the high and step back into reality. 'Too bad things couldn't be that way in my life', you might think, or 'If only things like that could really come true'. Sadly, these are thoughts we're more apt to think in our youth. By the time most of us reach our thirties, we don't even entertain thoughts of any such wonderful things happening in our lives.
But is this true? Is there really no happy ending for our lives? (Most of you know where I'm going with this, but bear with me.) Is life really nothing more than "death and taxes"? You know, even speaking as a Christian, there are days when I lose perspective and really get bogged down and even depressed about life. Hey, I'm only human after all - even the most spiritually inclined people can get down about things.
Before I decided to put the full weight of my trust in the promise of the Bible - eternal life to all who believe in the name of Jesus Christ - I must admit that I had no hope of anything and I got regularly discouraged and depressed. Thoughts of suicide entered the mix on occasion. Sure, I was working toward a university degree and my future was full of promise, but because I thought I'd be extinct at the end of my life span, I didn't know what I was ultimately working toward.
What was the point if this life here on earth was all there was or would be? What would be the point of trying to leave a legacy when I would have no recall of it once I died?
But now, seeing things through the lens of the Bible, I see this life entirely differently. I've never really had a "bad day" since I asked Jesus to forgive me and to become the Lord of my life; it's more like a "few bad hours" at most. And I realize that life is so much more than money and achievement, although at times it's easy to lose perspective of the important things in life.
The non-believer thinks that people like me are living a fantasy, trying to think "happy thoughts" to ease the pain and burden of this life through belief in a make-believe deity, a figment of my imagination. I've never been a happy-go-lucky sort of person, but rather a deep and reasoned individual. I devote a great deal of time and energy into things before making a decision about them, and my decision to accept God's gentle nudges in my life in order to believe in him - as much as I tried to resist at first - were no different. God was gently pounding away at my thick, narrow-minded, assumptive skull for about two years before the reality of his existence became glaringly obvious to me. And once that occurred, only then did the promise of eternal life - of the greatest happy ending imaginable - also become glaringly obvious to me.
I know that non-believers think people like me are deluded, brainwashed - whatever - to believe in what the Bible has to say about anything, let alone this promise of eternal life to those who put their faith in some historical figure named Jesus. But even though I've mentioned this in a previous post, it bears paraphrased repeating now:
What if the Bible is for real? What if its claims are actually true? If this is the case, what do I have to gain by believing what it says about Heaven and Hell, for example, and what do I have to lose by not believing?
I realized that if I was wrong and the Bible was right, then I'd be paying the price for an eternity, one of separation from God in a place the Bible calls Hell. Could I have rationalized Hell out of existence if I didn't want to believe it wasn't for real? Likewise with Heaven? Did I want to take the chance and not believe in God and the Bible because I was arrogant, prideful, or afraid of what others might think of me?
I eventually decided that I'd rather assume that God and the Bible are for real - the price would be too great and horrible not to! - and in so doing I accepted Jesus into my life. Since then, the confirmation of the reality of God and his unfathomable love (not fear of him anymore!) and the absolute truth of the Bible (and no other documents claiming to be "scripture") has been very real and very immense: God's Spirit living within me has been fast at work revealing these things ever since. And therefore I have the most unshakable, most confident assurance that by one simple act of faith several years ago - a moment, really - my existence will indeed have a happy ending on the basis of the claims of the Bible, not on fantasy.
Although this conclusion seems foolish to many, I live day to day with this assurance that they will never have apart from Jesus Christ, and therefore I don't fear death - or life - like they do (even though they don't admit it). If this hope is my "crutch", so be it. But I'd rather have a crutch like God in my life than the meaningless and non-eternal crutches like status, possessions, career and/or climbing the corporate ladder, drugs, self-help books, atheism, evolutionism, New Age gurus and the like that non-believers put their faith and trust in.
Showing posts with label narrow-mindedness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label narrow-mindedness. Show all posts
Friday, May 7, 2010
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Perspective changes everything
Before choosing the small-town life, I lived the first 33 years of my life in a city of nearly one million people. After going for several weeks without any sort of trip out of town, I would begin to forget that this city was actually an island in the middle of the prairie with no city larger than it for nearly a thousand miles. Until I actually got out of it and spent some time away, I would almost forget just how out of place it seemed in its vast, sparsely populated surroundings. In other words, it took a change of perspective for me to realize that I really didn't live in an urban environment as much as I was actually living in an island in the midst of a vast rural expanse.
We humans have the same lack of true perspective about who we really are. Many of us think and act as though somehow the world revolves around us, as though it's entirely subject to how we think and act. Yet only once you get up in an airplane or climb to the top of a mountain and look down upon whatever we have created do you realize just how tiny and powerless we actually are. Even though our influence looks expansive and powerful in the form of infrastructure and development like roads and fields and buildings, it takes only one swipe of the hand of nature for people to (temporarily) realize that they really aren't so mighty after all.
The same realization happens when people with immense fame, power, and/or wealth succumb to illness, disease, or untimely death and no amount of money is able to help them. And even if they overcome for a time, they eventually experience the same uncontrollable, unconquerable fate of all humans: death.
Yet despite constant reminders that we are subject to forces infinitely more mighty than us that we have absolutely no way of controlling, we continue to act as though we're invincible. We have this rebellious spirit toward the outside forces that control us as though we'll someday conquer them or be free from their control. We continue to climb treacherous mountains and build taller buildings in vain attempts to defy the force of gravity. We continue to explore hostile environments in vain attempts to conquer the forces of nature. And we propose theories, write books, and form conferences and committees that actively and purposely seek to undermine the belief by some humans that we are created beings, created by a mighty and unfathomable force that in the English language has been given the name of "God".
Forty or so proponents of this belief, over the course of nearly two millennia, claimed to have been spoken to and even visited by this God and recorded their encounters in numerous books that were eventually coalesced into one volume and given the title of "The Bible". In this Bible, there are numerous accounts of people who thought the world revolved around them or were invincible, only to be put in their place by this mighty God who these authors claim is not only the creator of these people, but also of the world and the entire universe. Some of the people most famously humbled by this God include Job, Jonah, and Saul of Tarsus (later named Paul).
These people realized the hard way just how tiny and powerful they were once they encountered this God, causing the likes of Isaiah and Saul to cower in fear, awe, and reverence. They had a radical change of perspective to the point where they tirelessly stood up for God in the face of ridicule, torture, and even death by those who had not encountered Him. They stood up because they knew that He who they had encountered and experienced was for real. They had experienced a miniscule taste of His indescribable power and realized that they really weren't so mighty after all.
The next time you look at the sun, ask yourself what is keeping our planet from being drawn into its fiery inferno. The next time you draw a breath, ask yourself what will allow your lungs to draw the next breath. The next time you curl and uncurl your fingers, ask yourself what series of physiological, biochemical, and neurological processes and components are responsible for this ability plus how they came to be.
In our modern age, phenomena like these are only considered from the scientific perspective and all other perspectives - especially spiritual - are ignored and even ridiculed. This perspective does not take anything seriously that cannot be quantified, i.e. touched or counted or measured, and will dismiss experiences and emotions for this reason, such as the radical psychological and emotional transformations that countless people have reported throughout history once they've truly opened up to and experienced this God.
Yet this scientific perspective that its proponents claim has all the answers clearly does not. In fact, an honest scientist would admit that at both the macroscopic level (ex. the universe) and the microscopic level (ex. atomic particles and structures), technological advancements have revealed a vastness and complexity to our universe and world never remotely imagined even a decade ago. As one school of thought puts it, our universe and world are "irreducibly complex".
So while those who adhere to the scientific perspective find themselves uncovering more questions than answers with each passing minute, people who have decided to view life from the Christian perspective - at least in my experience - have found more of the bigger questions being answered: I know why I was created. I know the One who created me. I know the meaning life. I also know my fate - and those of non-believers - after this life. And the list goes on.
Perspective changes everything. Because I see myself as truly helpless and powerless apart from God, I know who to turn to when life gets tough. My "crutch" has helped me through numerous struggles that those who say they don't need a "crutch" like God can't seem to find their way through. Or if they do, it's often at a tremendous cost emotionally, physically, and/or financially.
Sure, I put a good effort into everything I do - God gave me a brain and hands and feet, after all - but I stop when I perceive that I'm on a path that God doesn't want me to be on. By doing so, I save an incredible amount of stress and emotional investment in things that are a waste of time and energy so that I can focus on the more important things in life - God, family, friends, (this blog!), etc.
You can continue to plod along with the mindset that you're big and tough enough to conquer any obstacle (even though, once again, you'll never conquer death), or you can realize that you're really not so big and tough after all and that God's help will get you through the struggles of this life. And to top the cake, the Bible also explains how you can enjoy God's presence forever when this life is over. But this realization takes a change of perspective, and this can only be achieved by having an open mind to the idea that the God whom the authors of the Bible wrote is truly for real. Actually, this open-mindedness takes faith, and you can read more about this in other posts of this blog.
We humans have the same lack of true perspective about who we really are. Many of us think and act as though somehow the world revolves around us, as though it's entirely subject to how we think and act. Yet only once you get up in an airplane or climb to the top of a mountain and look down upon whatever we have created do you realize just how tiny and powerless we actually are. Even though our influence looks expansive and powerful in the form of infrastructure and development like roads and fields and buildings, it takes only one swipe of the hand of nature for people to (temporarily) realize that they really aren't so mighty after all.
The same realization happens when people with immense fame, power, and/or wealth succumb to illness, disease, or untimely death and no amount of money is able to help them. And even if they overcome for a time, they eventually experience the same uncontrollable, unconquerable fate of all humans: death.
Yet despite constant reminders that we are subject to forces infinitely more mighty than us that we have absolutely no way of controlling, we continue to act as though we're invincible. We have this rebellious spirit toward the outside forces that control us as though we'll someday conquer them or be free from their control. We continue to climb treacherous mountains and build taller buildings in vain attempts to defy the force of gravity. We continue to explore hostile environments in vain attempts to conquer the forces of nature. And we propose theories, write books, and form conferences and committees that actively and purposely seek to undermine the belief by some humans that we are created beings, created by a mighty and unfathomable force that in the English language has been given the name of "God".
Forty or so proponents of this belief, over the course of nearly two millennia, claimed to have been spoken to and even visited by this God and recorded their encounters in numerous books that were eventually coalesced into one volume and given the title of "The Bible". In this Bible, there are numerous accounts of people who thought the world revolved around them or were invincible, only to be put in their place by this mighty God who these authors claim is not only the creator of these people, but also of the world and the entire universe. Some of the people most famously humbled by this God include Job, Jonah, and Saul of Tarsus (later named Paul).
These people realized the hard way just how tiny and powerful they were once they encountered this God, causing the likes of Isaiah and Saul to cower in fear, awe, and reverence. They had a radical change of perspective to the point where they tirelessly stood up for God in the face of ridicule, torture, and even death by those who had not encountered Him. They stood up because they knew that He who they had encountered and experienced was for real. They had experienced a miniscule taste of His indescribable power and realized that they really weren't so mighty after all.
The next time you look at the sun, ask yourself what is keeping our planet from being drawn into its fiery inferno. The next time you draw a breath, ask yourself what will allow your lungs to draw the next breath. The next time you curl and uncurl your fingers, ask yourself what series of physiological, biochemical, and neurological processes and components are responsible for this ability plus how they came to be.
In our modern age, phenomena like these are only considered from the scientific perspective and all other perspectives - especially spiritual - are ignored and even ridiculed. This perspective does not take anything seriously that cannot be quantified, i.e. touched or counted or measured, and will dismiss experiences and emotions for this reason, such as the radical psychological and emotional transformations that countless people have reported throughout history once they've truly opened up to and experienced this God.
Yet this scientific perspective that its proponents claim has all the answers clearly does not. In fact, an honest scientist would admit that at both the macroscopic level (ex. the universe) and the microscopic level (ex. atomic particles and structures), technological advancements have revealed a vastness and complexity to our universe and world never remotely imagined even a decade ago. As one school of thought puts it, our universe and world are "irreducibly complex".
So while those who adhere to the scientific perspective find themselves uncovering more questions than answers with each passing minute, people who have decided to view life from the Christian perspective - at least in my experience - have found more of the bigger questions being answered: I know why I was created. I know the One who created me. I know the meaning life. I also know my fate - and those of non-believers - after this life. And the list goes on.
Perspective changes everything. Because I see myself as truly helpless and powerless apart from God, I know who to turn to when life gets tough. My "crutch" has helped me through numerous struggles that those who say they don't need a "crutch" like God can't seem to find their way through. Or if they do, it's often at a tremendous cost emotionally, physically, and/or financially.
Sure, I put a good effort into everything I do - God gave me a brain and hands and feet, after all - but I stop when I perceive that I'm on a path that God doesn't want me to be on. By doing so, I save an incredible amount of stress and emotional investment in things that are a waste of time and energy so that I can focus on the more important things in life - God, family, friends, (this blog!), etc.
You can continue to plod along with the mindset that you're big and tough enough to conquer any obstacle (even though, once again, you'll never conquer death), or you can realize that you're really not so big and tough after all and that God's help will get you through the struggles of this life. And to top the cake, the Bible also explains how you can enjoy God's presence forever when this life is over. But this realization takes a change of perspective, and this can only be achieved by having an open mind to the idea that the God whom the authors of the Bible wrote is truly for real. Actually, this open-mindedness takes faith, and you can read more about this in other posts of this blog.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Why don't people believe? Part II
Part I of this topic explained how some people don't believe in God because they like to do things their way, regardless of how immoral some of these things are. And people will do the immoral things ("evil", according to God's definition) because they "love" living in "darkness" apart from God instead of in the "light" of God's forgiveness and presence in their lives.
With this recap, I will suggest another reason why some people don't believe in God (or more accurately, choose not to believe in God). Some people simply get upset by how Jesus claims to be the only way to know and come to God. Jesus explained it this way:
So who's right: Is Jesus the only way to God, or is He not?
There are so many ways that this question can be explored. One can look at the mountains of archaeological evidence that give credibility to biblical names and places and use this to conclude that the Bible and whatever is written therein must be true. One can look at the extra-biblical accounts of Roman concern over the unrest caused by the ministry and teachings of Jesus and use this for evidence in His existence and in biblical credibility and teachings. One can look at the number of biblical prophecies fulfilled by Jesus and the infinitesimally small possibility of them being fulfilled by one man alone and use this to form the basis of their faith in Jesus. (Here's a great article about the odds of Jesus being this man.)
But rather than going on a search for evidence at this point - something that you can embark on if you wish - let me instead suggest that you first consider the following:
What if He was actually for real and was actually in the presence of His Father God in heaven, since before the dawn of time, before being placed into the womb of a Jewish teenager and living on earth as simultaneously the Son of God and the Son of Man for 33 years before being crucified on a Roman cross (according to God's plan and purpose) then bodily rising from death from a guarded tomb and appearing to 500 of His disciples at one time - and also His apostles, including one who actually touched one of Jesus' crucifixion wounds - and others over a 40-day period, then taken up into a cloud into heaven in the presence of several people and even two angels? (Whew!!)
Is it possible that all other religions of the world and the cults have gotten it all wrong? Is it possible that all of their attempts to worship and please their gods are totally in vain because their gods do not even exist? Well, according to the Bible and the words of Jesus, these things are the case!
The saying "Pride comes before a fall" is taken from the book of Proverbs, chapter 16 verse 18 (Proverbs 16:18). Humans love to acquire wealth and power and prestige and self-achievement and so on, and the root and result of these things is none other than pride. Pride likes to thumb its nose at others - and God - and say, "Look at what I have done. Look who I am. Look at what I have accomplished." Pride makes dependence upon anyone else - especially God - impossible. Pride also never wants us to admit that we might actually be wrong.
The reason why so many people throughout history have been insulted, angry, and even enraged to the point of murder about the claims of Jesus is not so much because they fear Him being right, but more so because they fear being wrong. They simply don't want their pride to be dragged through the mud of truth. In the case of people who have risen to religious prominence apart from the teachings that Jesus is God and the only way to come to God and that the Bible is infallible, they also risk the loss of wealth and power and prestige if Jesus is proven correct. The hyper-religious Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time are prime examples, and they stopped at nothing to kill Jesus (or so they thought) and his followers. Modern-day Pharisees live on in the form of the non-Christian religions and cults of this day.
Before you decide to protest or complain about what you have just read, just remember that it's no use shooting the messenger, me in this case. I'm only re-stating what Jesus said and what the Bible records. Your real issue is not actually with me or with this blog, it's with God. Your anger is actually anger towards God, whether you believe in Him or another god or not.
And you need to ask yourself why, exactly, you are mad at God: Are you mad at a Christian or someone else who claims to know God who wronged you at some time in the past? Are you mad at the suggestion that you might actually be wrong, whether you're an atheist or a member of another religious group? Or are you mad at the possibility that God actually did make Jesus the only means by which we can come to Him and know Him?
If you disagree with the claims of Jesus, what I suggest you do from here is really start to ask some serious questions about your current beliefs. If you decide to close your mind and live and die on your current assumptions that you're right and God/Jesus/the Bible is wrong, then the consequences for you as outlined in the Bible will be eternal, and I wouldn't wish these on anyone.
Please don't assume these claims aren't for real without giving them a serious look. Please don't let your pride lead to a fall that will last for an eternity.
With this recap, I will suggest another reason why some people don't believe in God (or more accurately, choose not to believe in God). Some people simply get upset by how Jesus claims to be the only way to know and come to God. Jesus explained it this way:
"I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through Me." (Capitalization added for emphasis.) -- John 14:6The hornets' nest is stirred up even more when they read claims like:
"The one who has seen Me [Jesus] has seen the Father [God]." -- John 14:9Jesus equates Himself with God even more blatantly in the following passage:
"The Father [God] and I are one." -- John 10:30As you can imagine, most Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and followers of other religions and cults who don't use the Bible as the scriptural basis for their beliefs are upset - and some even completely outraged - by such statements. They accuse the Christian of being "exclusive" and "narrow-minded", among other things. They accuse Jesus of being a fraud and of being delusional. Such statements also fly in the face of modern spiritual thinking that there are "many ways" to God instead of "the way" that Jesus Christ claims to be.
So who's right: Is Jesus the only way to God, or is He not?
There are so many ways that this question can be explored. One can look at the mountains of archaeological evidence that give credibility to biblical names and places and use this to conclude that the Bible and whatever is written therein must be true. One can look at the extra-biblical accounts of Roman concern over the unrest caused by the ministry and teachings of Jesus and use this for evidence in His existence and in biblical credibility and teachings. One can look at the number of biblical prophecies fulfilled by Jesus and the infinitesimally small possibility of them being fulfilled by one man alone and use this to form the basis of their faith in Jesus. (Here's a great article about the odds of Jesus being this man.)
But rather than going on a search for evidence at this point - something that you can embark on if you wish - let me instead suggest that you first consider the following:
What if Jesus was right?
What if He was actually for real and was actually in the presence of His Father God in heaven, since before the dawn of time, before being placed into the womb of a Jewish teenager and living on earth as simultaneously the Son of God and the Son of Man for 33 years before being crucified on a Roman cross (according to God's plan and purpose) then bodily rising from death from a guarded tomb and appearing to 500 of His disciples at one time - and also His apostles, including one who actually touched one of Jesus' crucifixion wounds - and others over a 40-day period, then taken up into a cloud into heaven in the presence of several people and even two angels? (Whew!!)
Is it possible that all other religions of the world and the cults have gotten it all wrong? Is it possible that all of their attempts to worship and please their gods are totally in vain because their gods do not even exist? Well, according to the Bible and the words of Jesus, these things are the case!
The saying "Pride comes before a fall" is taken from the book of Proverbs, chapter 16 verse 18 (Proverbs 16:18). Humans love to acquire wealth and power and prestige and self-achievement and so on, and the root and result of these things is none other than pride. Pride likes to thumb its nose at others - and God - and say, "Look at what I have done. Look who I am. Look at what I have accomplished." Pride makes dependence upon anyone else - especially God - impossible. Pride also never wants us to admit that we might actually be wrong.
The reason why so many people throughout history have been insulted, angry, and even enraged to the point of murder about the claims of Jesus is not so much because they fear Him being right, but more so because they fear being wrong. They simply don't want their pride to be dragged through the mud of truth. In the case of people who have risen to religious prominence apart from the teachings that Jesus is God and the only way to come to God and that the Bible is infallible, they also risk the loss of wealth and power and prestige if Jesus is proven correct. The hyper-religious Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time are prime examples, and they stopped at nothing to kill Jesus (or so they thought) and his followers. Modern-day Pharisees live on in the form of the non-Christian religions and cults of this day.
Before you decide to protest or complain about what you have just read, just remember that it's no use shooting the messenger, me in this case. I'm only re-stating what Jesus said and what the Bible records. Your real issue is not actually with me or with this blog, it's with God. Your anger is actually anger towards God, whether you believe in Him or another god or not.
And you need to ask yourself why, exactly, you are mad at God: Are you mad at a Christian or someone else who claims to know God who wronged you at some time in the past? Are you mad at the suggestion that you might actually be wrong, whether you're an atheist or a member of another religious group? Or are you mad at the possibility that God actually did make Jesus the only means by which we can come to Him and know Him?
If you disagree with the claims of Jesus, what I suggest you do from here is really start to ask some serious questions about your current beliefs. If you decide to close your mind and live and die on your current assumptions that you're right and God/Jesus/the Bible is wrong, then the consequences for you as outlined in the Bible will be eternal, and I wouldn't wish these on anyone.
Please don't assume these claims aren't for real without giving them a serious look. Please don't let your pride lead to a fall that will last for an eternity.
Friday, May 22, 2009
A greeting (and a challenge!)
Are you open-minded? If you truly, really, honestly are, then you won't turn a blind eye at the mention of the word "God" and you'll read on.
Many non-believers label believers in God as being "narrow-minded", among other things, but if you decide that you're above reading a blog like this because you think God is not for real and that you don't need to learn anything about Him then perhaps, just maybe, you're also as "hypocritical" as non-believers also accuse believers of being - that is, perhaps you're just as narrow-minded as they supposedly are!
On that warm note ;0) I officially welcome you to this blog! (I'm really not that much of a bear!)
So why am I starting it? There are times in my life when I'm just blown away by something that I've realized about God, something that I'm convinced He's allowed me to realize, but I forget to write or type it out. This blog is one man's attempt to record some of these things.
What's my goal? My goal is NOT to tell you what I think you should believe. Believe me, I know from experience how annoying it is to be force-fed something I don't want to deal with or think about! Besides that, everyone's already brainwashed by something, and everyone already serves a 'god' of some type - either spiritual or material, and whether or not they realize it or like to admit it (sex, money, job/career, education, gambling, shopping, drugs, etc.). Therefore, my main goal is simply to get you thinking by being straight up and honest with you. Where you go from there is up to you.
If you're a non-believer, I hope you'll start thinking outside the box you already know. I started looking 'outside the box' in my early 20's because I wasn't satisfied with what life - minus God - was offering. (By the way, I was looking for everything but God at that point, but perhaps I'll explain this more in a future post ...) I wanted something more but I wasn't finding it through what I knew (and thought I knew). But if I had stayed inside that box because of narrow-mindedness, my life wouldn't have been transformed so radically and permanently for the better.
If you're a believer, I want you to develop a personal passion for God like you've never known before - a real, genuine, deep relationship with your Creator that gets people wondering about what makes you tick. Far too many believers today either wag the finger, or even worse they blend in with and take on so much of the world's characteristics that people can hardly tell them from a non-believer. The latter base their faith on what their family, co-workers, and so-called "friends" think instead of desiring what God thinks!
So put on your thinking cap and leave your narrow-mindedness at the door. It's time to learn some cool stuff about God that He's allowed me to realize over the past several years!
Many non-believers label believers in God as being "narrow-minded", among other things, but if you decide that you're above reading a blog like this because you think God is not for real and that you don't need to learn anything about Him then perhaps, just maybe, you're also as "hypocritical" as non-believers also accuse believers of being - that is, perhaps you're just as narrow-minded as they supposedly are!
On that warm note ;0) I officially welcome you to this blog! (I'm really not that much of a bear!)
So why am I starting it? There are times in my life when I'm just blown away by something that I've realized about God, something that I'm convinced He's allowed me to realize, but I forget to write or type it out. This blog is one man's attempt to record some of these things.
What's my goal? My goal is NOT to tell you what I think you should believe. Believe me, I know from experience how annoying it is to be force-fed something I don't want to deal with or think about! Besides that, everyone's already brainwashed by something, and everyone already serves a 'god' of some type - either spiritual or material, and whether or not they realize it or like to admit it (sex, money, job/career, education, gambling, shopping, drugs, etc.). Therefore, my main goal is simply to get you thinking by being straight up and honest with you. Where you go from there is up to you.
If you're a non-believer, I hope you'll start thinking outside the box you already know. I started looking 'outside the box' in my early 20's because I wasn't satisfied with what life - minus God - was offering. (By the way, I was looking for everything but God at that point, but perhaps I'll explain this more in a future post ...) I wanted something more but I wasn't finding it through what I knew (and thought I knew). But if I had stayed inside that box because of narrow-mindedness, my life wouldn't have been transformed so radically and permanently for the better.
If you're a believer, I want you to develop a personal passion for God like you've never known before - a real, genuine, deep relationship with your Creator that gets people wondering about what makes you tick. Far too many believers today either wag the finger, or even worse they blend in with and take on so much of the world's characteristics that people can hardly tell them from a non-believer. The latter base their faith on what their family, co-workers, and so-called "friends" think instead of desiring what God thinks!
So put on your thinking cap and leave your narrow-mindedness at the door. It's time to learn some cool stuff about God that He's allowed me to realize over the past several years!
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