We started this blog so that
we could share our opinions with one another and anyone else who is
interested. But as I look back at our
posts, I see few opinions. Some great
information is there, and even more, some interesting stories. But not as many opinions as I thought we
might have.
I know that I
have hesitated to share my opinions because of fear. Fear that I will offend someone. Fear that you might not like me after you
hear my opinions. Fear that I will get
argumentative if you disagree with my opinion (so counter-productive). Fear.
Last night I was reading a
great blog I found. She chronicled how
and why she has blogged over the years.
She is a writer by nature. But
somewhere in the vast array of posts, she shared how scary it is to blog;
because to write your innermost thoughts and feelings to share with others
makes you vulnerable. It exposes you
-rips off masks, creates fear.
Today, I’m conquering this
particular fear.
In my opinion, the single
most important decision you will ever make in your life is to accept Jesus
Christ as your Savior.
There, it’s out there
now. I’m a Christian.
There is so much hate in the
world now for Christians -so many fingers pointing to Christians as
haters. I don’t want to be hated. I am not a hater.
If you were drowning and I
did not point you to water, I would be a terrible person. That is how most Christians feel about
sharing their faith. We know that the
only escape from an eternal separation from God is to know that Jesus Christ is His only Son. That Jesus died on the cross as remediation
for my sins and yours.
I was raised in THE South,
in the bible belt (yes we still think of it as THE South). You really couldn't avoid church or talking
about Christ if you tried. But it was
not until I was in college that Jesus became my Lord and Savior.
I was attending a holy
rolling, shouting and hollering, charismatic church service with a friend and
sat there thinking the whole time – “GOD get me out of here. I don’t want to be part of another Jim Jones
and Guyana
After months of learning
more about Jesus and the bible I realized I had head knowledge but no heart
knowledge. Just like I knew who Margaret
Thatcher was but I did not know her. I had factual information about Him but no
personal knowledge of Him. I wanted that
to change. I wanted the joy I saw on the
faces of other Christians who knew
Him. Who walked with Him daily.
At the age of 23 I invited
Christ into my heart and life to be my Lord and Savior.
Does that mean my life got
suddenly greater and all my trials and tribulations went away? Quite the contrary. But it means that I no longer have to face
any of that alone. I've also been given
a guideline on how to handle and deal with that stuff.
Jesus died on the cross so
that ALL
can be rescued from hell and damnation, literal hell and hell here
on earth. Not all will choose to accept Him.
But for those of us who do, it is our calling to tell others about Him,
and how He is our access to the Father, eternally.
I’ll reiterate…accepting
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is the single most important decision you
will ever make in your life.
That’s my opinion. What’s yours?
Debora
If you want
to know more, but don’t want to learn publicly, shoot me an email.
My Opinion and I do have one.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I respect everyone's personal beliefs Debora however my opinion is simply this:
Organized Religion is a choice made (hopefully) by each individual and not handed down by those in power (i.e. parents, governments)or forced down our throats by those who fail to recognize that others may not agree with their beliefs.
With all due respect, I personally think that there is something not quite right about having to push your religion or bully people to join your beliefs.
My thought is simply that the 'single most important decision you can make' is to inform yourself well, choose wisely or even not at all, before jumping onto someone elses bandwagon.
As a child I was encouraged by my father (who as a child had religion forced upon him) to learn about all religions and make my own choice. This involved(by my choice)going to many different church services (sometimes the choice of Sunday School was made by what kind of prize they gave out for memorizing palms, I was a great memorizer)and reading the bible, which I agree has some very interesting (although questionable) stories in it. I love reading so I treated it as just another book and even though we had a copy that eliminated the thee and thou's to make it easy reading it still wasn't on my personal 'best seller' list.
As a young adult I knew very early on that organized religion was not for me and after taking Buddhist instuction I knew that Buddhism with it's lack of dogma, equality towards females and respect for and of other's beliefs resonated with me and became my personal cup of tea.
Following Buddhism is for me both a philosophy and a way of life and I am adament about NOT encouraging anyone else to become Buddhist because as I said Religion, Spirituality, Beliefs of any kind should come from within, be a personal choice and match your needs and desires not someone else's.
wherever you go there you are...
Trish