Blackwater
05-06-2016, 05:00 PM
Just want you guys to know how inspiring you all are. Individually, we are little more than dust in the wind. Together, with our Faith, we can move the world. How could this not indicate the validity and Truth of our Faith?
Isn't it amazing how the "Real Deal" makes us so happy, satisfied and thankful," when all the pretensions simply can't, won't and don't?
As a Baptist, if I've heard that worn out old phrase "luke warm Christians" at least a thousand times. It never really sunk in what it really means until I really woke up and realized what a valuable thing I'd been hiding or leaving idle for so many years. Now, even when I see or hear about the book "Revelations," I have to smile at my own dullness for so many years! How could I have been so .... dumb? With REAL belief, and full realization, it feels like the weight of the world is suddenly lifted off of us, and we are freed from some sort of unseen bondage we held ourselves in for so long.
For me, it'd been brewing and rumbling for many years, probably since my early teens. I just never found the keys for me, personally, to understand the things I wanted to. Not really knowing things, I felt inadequate, and didn't feel competent to do a lot I might have done, had I known what I know now. I can see both sides of the issue. I just didn't really know where to find the answers I sought, and looked all over the place for them. People I knew to be of great faith recommended books that just never quite did it for me. And few would even talk in a really serious way about religious matters. I fear this is common in the Baptist wing of Christianity, and that PCness has infiltrated our ranks WAY too deeply. But it really doesn't matter what sect you came up in or belong to, IMO at least. What MATTERS is whether or not we come to REAL belief - the kind of belief that is without boundaries or limits. We never doubt anything but our own ability to perceive what God has given us, and directed us to do.
His Power is NEVER found wanting. Only our own. His Wisdom stands every test. Ours, not so much. His Love will NEVER fail. Ours often does.
So if you've been in any way "luke warm" or plebian in your faith, I just hope you find the things that really make that light bulb glow inside your mind and heart. For me, it was several years of reading G. K. Chesterton, and C. S. Lewis, and some ohter folks locally who demonstrate the things they talked about so very, very well. It really takes a lot to become a True Believer, but it's a most joyous thing when it happens to you, and that 2nd Light suddenly turns on inside your head and heart, and wants to shine all through our souls.
So if anyone here hasn't already done it (very few here, I think, because I'm humbled by so many of you here), do some real studying. It can literally change your life, your outlook, and your whole perception of yourself and all that is around you, outward to infinity, and inward to the marrow of your bones. It's the most joyous and simultaneously humbling thing that can ever happen to you, even that first time the light shone on you and you made your initial commitment.
In other words, dive on in, boys, the water's FINE! Find some author that really communicates with you, and who has zero PC in them. Then just humbly consider it all. And then, figure out how it might be used to bring someone else to the light. The 4 things that generally impress folks with our Faith are, in no particular order:
1. humility
2. genuine love for them and quiet concern
3. genuine faith and some quiet enthusiasm
4. a cool, easy, conversational manner, without any trace of being didactic
That's what I've found when dealing with some of the tougher nuts that may be cracked if we just do our part well and diligently and with ease and confidence.
So, just seek, and ye shall find, just like we've been promised. I just hope it doesn't take you as long as it has me! But however long it takes, the Real Deal is one wonderful thing, and I can't think of anything I'd EVER trade for it. In my own case, it's been very hard won, and very clumsily sought, so if I can do it ANYBODY ought to be able to! I submit that last as an indisputable FACT! And if you need some help finding what it is that really speaks to you, there are quite a few VERY knowledgeable men here, who CERTAINLY know more than I do, and I can't imagine any of them not helping you. It may take some tries to see what "clicks" with you, but I know everybody here will give it their sincere best. And if there's anything ALL of us Christians need, it's "more light." If we lived to be 150 and studies 40 hrs. a week, instead of working, we'd STILL never cover it all. But we can get ENOUGH to be VERY satisfying, and really illuminate our lives like some of the new LED lights seem to be so much brighter than the old incandescent bulbs. "Good enough" will NEVER happen to a Christian, when it comes to our understanding of the Word and our Lord. One of the great assets of getting older is the simple experiences we have that we can refer back to and really make sense of so many, many things that can really enlighten and change our lives.
So if you have any reservations, any concerns, or any deficiencies, SEEK someone to help. It may take seeking from many before you find the one who can point you toward whatever it is that "clicks" for you, and finally makes it all make real sense, and makes it clear and lucid and real. The Real Deal is .... very simply ..... just plain WORTH IT!
Isn't it amazing how the "Real Deal" makes us so happy, satisfied and thankful," when all the pretensions simply can't, won't and don't?
As a Baptist, if I've heard that worn out old phrase "luke warm Christians" at least a thousand times. It never really sunk in what it really means until I really woke up and realized what a valuable thing I'd been hiding or leaving idle for so many years. Now, even when I see or hear about the book "Revelations," I have to smile at my own dullness for so many years! How could I have been so .... dumb? With REAL belief, and full realization, it feels like the weight of the world is suddenly lifted off of us, and we are freed from some sort of unseen bondage we held ourselves in for so long.
For me, it'd been brewing and rumbling for many years, probably since my early teens. I just never found the keys for me, personally, to understand the things I wanted to. Not really knowing things, I felt inadequate, and didn't feel competent to do a lot I might have done, had I known what I know now. I can see both sides of the issue. I just didn't really know where to find the answers I sought, and looked all over the place for them. People I knew to be of great faith recommended books that just never quite did it for me. And few would even talk in a really serious way about religious matters. I fear this is common in the Baptist wing of Christianity, and that PCness has infiltrated our ranks WAY too deeply. But it really doesn't matter what sect you came up in or belong to, IMO at least. What MATTERS is whether or not we come to REAL belief - the kind of belief that is without boundaries or limits. We never doubt anything but our own ability to perceive what God has given us, and directed us to do.
His Power is NEVER found wanting. Only our own. His Wisdom stands every test. Ours, not so much. His Love will NEVER fail. Ours often does.
So if you've been in any way "luke warm" or plebian in your faith, I just hope you find the things that really make that light bulb glow inside your mind and heart. For me, it was several years of reading G. K. Chesterton, and C. S. Lewis, and some ohter folks locally who demonstrate the things they talked about so very, very well. It really takes a lot to become a True Believer, but it's a most joyous thing when it happens to you, and that 2nd Light suddenly turns on inside your head and heart, and wants to shine all through our souls.
So if anyone here hasn't already done it (very few here, I think, because I'm humbled by so many of you here), do some real studying. It can literally change your life, your outlook, and your whole perception of yourself and all that is around you, outward to infinity, and inward to the marrow of your bones. It's the most joyous and simultaneously humbling thing that can ever happen to you, even that first time the light shone on you and you made your initial commitment.
In other words, dive on in, boys, the water's FINE! Find some author that really communicates with you, and who has zero PC in them. Then just humbly consider it all. And then, figure out how it might be used to bring someone else to the light. The 4 things that generally impress folks with our Faith are, in no particular order:
1. humility
2. genuine love for them and quiet concern
3. genuine faith and some quiet enthusiasm
4. a cool, easy, conversational manner, without any trace of being didactic
That's what I've found when dealing with some of the tougher nuts that may be cracked if we just do our part well and diligently and with ease and confidence.
So, just seek, and ye shall find, just like we've been promised. I just hope it doesn't take you as long as it has me! But however long it takes, the Real Deal is one wonderful thing, and I can't think of anything I'd EVER trade for it. In my own case, it's been very hard won, and very clumsily sought, so if I can do it ANYBODY ought to be able to! I submit that last as an indisputable FACT! And if you need some help finding what it is that really speaks to you, there are quite a few VERY knowledgeable men here, who CERTAINLY know more than I do, and I can't imagine any of them not helping you. It may take some tries to see what "clicks" with you, but I know everybody here will give it their sincere best. And if there's anything ALL of us Christians need, it's "more light." If we lived to be 150 and studies 40 hrs. a week, instead of working, we'd STILL never cover it all. But we can get ENOUGH to be VERY satisfying, and really illuminate our lives like some of the new LED lights seem to be so much brighter than the old incandescent bulbs. "Good enough" will NEVER happen to a Christian, when it comes to our understanding of the Word and our Lord. One of the great assets of getting older is the simple experiences we have that we can refer back to and really make sense of so many, many things that can really enlighten and change our lives.
So if you have any reservations, any concerns, or any deficiencies, SEEK someone to help. It may take seeking from many before you find the one who can point you toward whatever it is that "clicks" for you, and finally makes it all make real sense, and makes it clear and lucid and real. The Real Deal is .... very simply ..... just plain WORTH IT!