Re: What do people believe when it comes to religion and or spirituality?
Here's an interesting question I'd like to see answered by those who say they would follow God if he personally presented himself, and I made this question of my own self a year ago just before becoming a Christian, which is why I don't feel any hesitation asking it.
Think about this seriously for just a second and honestly tell me that you would follow Jesus if Jesus came to you and said he was Jesus? What stops him from being Satan? What stops him from being an evil apparition trying to deceive you? What prevents him from simply being a figment of your imagination and you possibly losing your mind? You could ask him questions, sure. You could even atempt to gauge by the responses he gives that he is in fact the son of God, but how would you truly know, and why would you honestly believe his answers so quickly if he has left you evidence before and you did not believe? Would you suddenly believe it if he told you bladestorm
or Nocturnus was right? Would you believe him if he said to you that everything you heard on a forum on a website called audiogames net was true? Would you honestly be able to throw away all your rationality, all of your reasonability and all of the evidence you have previously been presented with against him just to follow him?
I think not; you would still have to decide. You wouldn't be forced into it; he wouldn't make you come along and subject you to torture if you didn't. If the rapture occured tomorrow and billions of Christians disappeared from their homes and from business establishments in which they work, you would still have a choice to make. If God spoke to everyone through a giant cloud that suddenly covered all of the heavens, darkening everything the eye could see, you would still have a choice to make. If God presented you with a check today containing more than a million dollars and it were signed by him in suc
h a way that no computer could read said signature but you clearly could and so could anyone else at the bank you went to cash it in at, you would still have a choice to make. If he saved you from falling off a cliff just before you hit the ground by extending a visible hand through the air and said, follow me son, daughter, I love you, I want you, I cherish you more than you could ever imagine and I want to save your soul from eternal damnation, and all you need do is follow me, just follow me, please, follow me, you would still have a choice to make. You could choose to suggest that a strange phenomena is responsible for the disappearance of billions in the case of the rapture, could choose to believe your vision and your hearing were playing tricks on you as the result of fear and that you misheard the entire thing or that it in fact did not exist and that everyone around you is deluding themselves and that there never was a cloud, or that said cloud could be explaine
d away scientifically but that it would take thousands of years to pinpoint its origin, might choose to believe that the check was a huge hoax, could choose to believe that you managed to escape the fall by shere chance and dumb luck and that all you saw before you nearly hit the ground was brought on by intense fright, or you could choose to follow Jesus.
Because, you see, the entirety of a relationship with anyone, is based on choice. You don't immediately believe that your husband or wife is going to be the best for you. You don't innitially walk up to someone and think to yourself, this person will always be my best friend and never do anything to hurt me and I can trust them entirely. You never walk into your place of employ and automatically know that your boss or some other fellow employee will turn out to be the nicest person you've ever met or the most royal pain. There is a choice to be made. You either trust, or you
don't. You either choose to have faith in them, or you don't. You give them your time, or you don't. God is the same way. On a night I can remember as clearly as if it were yesterday though the date happens to be April 30th of 2014, I decided to follow Jesus because a man came up to me and said, I don't know what you're going through, but I promise you that you don't have to go through it alone. You are incredulous, your mind is a firm one full of ideas and perspectives. You are inteligent, rational, reasonable, well educated and eager to learn more, and all you currently know suggests to you that all you have heard within these wals could be a huge lye. I had a choice to make. Tell me now, reader, which is the easiest of the two, walking out of this church away from this man who has no clue about me and who might possibly have no clue what he is saying, or following Jesus?
In one of the most notable
and powerful messages ever given on Jesus Christ, S. M. Lockridge atempted to give an eloquent description of a king as he knew him. "The bible says he is the king of the jews. He is the king of Israel. He's the king of righteousness. He's the King of the ages. He's the King of Heaven. He's the King of glory. He's the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords. Now that's my King. Well, I wonder if you know Him. Do you know Him? Don't try to mislead me. Do you know my King? David said the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. My King is the only one of whom there are no means of measure that can define His limitless love. No far seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of the shore of His supplies. No barriers can hinder Him from pouring out His blessing. He's enduringly strong. He's entirely sincere. He's eternally steadfast. He's immorta
lly graceful. He's imperially powerful. He's impartially merciful. That's my King. He's God's Son. He's the sinner's saviour. He's the centerpiece of civilization. He stands alone in Himself. He's honest. He's unique. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He's supreme. He's pre-eminent. He's the grandest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosophy. He's the supreme problem in higher criticism. He's the fundamental doctrine of historic theology. He's the carnal necessity of spiritual religion. That's my King." You see, we can present you with any number of arguments and ideas and perspectives and yes, even evidence, but in the end, you have a choice to make.
And so it comes down to this; no matter how much proof you have, no matter where it comes from or how it gets there, no matter what you believe or why you believe it, you still have a choice to m
ake. You can say that it would be easier to choose if you knew more one way or the other, could say that it would be wiser to wait until you were far more certain, can claim that you're just waiting for this or that sign, but no proof, no evidence, no hypothesis or theory, not even God will make the choice for you, a choice that is entirely yours to make. There are times when, I confess, my choice brings me less comfort, times when my choice seems like such a sad prospect, times when because of doubt I wonder if I'm throwing my life away, times when I feel like God himself is driving me mad because he doesn't seem to answer when I pray. But know this, though I may wonder, I still will follow; no turning back, no turning back.
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