Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What is Faith?

A lot of people say that faith is believing in something you don't see. If faith is that simple ghosts and aliens are good objects of faith.

Obviously they are not. Faith has always been connected to a Higher Being who is able to do things in His/Her bidding. A thief, for example, prays in faith that the housekeeper will be sound asleep when he steals a valuable item. A cancer patient prays in faith that his life be taken and so his suffering can also end. A preacher prays in faith that all those who believe in his preaching will be blessed. Sounds familiar?

Yes, those are good examples of faith as faith can be overly simplified. Faith is the consistency of all beliefs that are parallel to actions. I have faith in a Higher Being and I call him God. I have faith that Jesus Christ is God because in faith he is the most unique human being who ever lived. In faith I believe that he is the only One who conquered the timeline set for every created thing; having been risen from the dead. In faith I believe that the prophets long before Jesus Christ wrote about him and those writings came to pass. I believe in faith that this may not be the TRUTH.

That is the summary of my faith in God and Jesus Christ. In this lifetime it is impossible to determine what is the TRUTH. Every one has this unresolved question that only death can answer. Unfortunately, no one from the dead spoke about it. They are still silent until now. Jesus Christ did not speak about the TRUTH in his resurrected life. He just promised that there is a better world waiting for those who have faith.

In my next post I will give my version of the TRUTH. For a quick look you can read the Purpose Driven Life found here: http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/en-US/Home/home.htm However, I have my own answers to those questions which are not in agreement to it.

Monday, April 19, 2010

How I Describe God

When I tried searching for the qualities that describe and type the keywords in “God is” I got the top rank result. Guess what? www.godisimaginary.com gives the Top 50 simple proofs that God is imaginary.

I just think about what does imaginary mean in the authors’ context? I see a heavy word “delusion”. I spend some time in the website and try to learn or recall those things that I believed in. That was when I was using the same perspective.

Let me just describe God in terms that I can interpret, translate and make sense of.

God is Omnipotent. This means he has authority over all. In its absolute definition of "ALL" God has authority over them. God sits above the universe and has the power to control and manipulate everything in it.

God is Omnipresent. Being omnipresent means being present wherever and whenever; at the same time. God sees time as interwoven and interconnected beads. God can predict the future. He is there and he was there at the same time. Because he can do these in everyone this means that he knows the cause and effect of things; past, present and future, to every individual. However, what he sees are future events that are based on our actions from the past and in the present.

*** Some important clarifications are these: God did not make man in the same way as we (humans) create robots. God does not know who will be saved and will be punished. God cannot be manipulated. He will not say “yes” and act on all our prayers even though he is Omnipotent.

I agree that my “God” is imaginary. Don’t get me wrong. I say again and with emphasis (as I type) my “god” is imaginary.

To the members of the church that claims to represent God and Jesus don't be too quick to judge. Mind the small "c" in church. The true "Church" has not yet come. No religion has ever represented God nor Christ. But yes, I believe in Christ and the Cross. I believe in God and grace and love and everything good and perfect. I'll write about that later. Stay tuned.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Happy Birthday Enlightenmen!

It took a lot of courage from me to start writing as I am a person who keeps things to himself in fear of being labeled "arrogant" and "un-Christian". I make it a point to reveal my thoughts to my wife and my family so they will understand why I tend to disagree with a preaching.

Well, it happens every Sunday (on TV it's everyday). We hear preachings from a lot of ministers. Some of them employ public speaking techniques to elicit fear, humility, love, zeal, anger, giving, adoration and the whole range of the human emotion.

What I aim to do in this blog is to share my thoughts to a wider audience. Others may do the same to me. I don't care about religion or denomination as long as it's Bible-based. That is just my most single requirement. Otherwise, we will end up philosophizing everything. Some books may provide valuable insight about God and humans. But God's love and grace is EVERYTHING. As long as we are on this earth. That is the only truth worthy of trust - we can literally depend our lives on it.

Bits of Enlightenment for the weary and poor soul. Let's start doing this. I hope to do this everyday and use the bits as my guide to daily devotion or "quiet time". However, I may do some weekly critique and clarification on some preachings that I got especially from the church where I attend. Again, the purpose is not only to gain understanding but ENLIGHTENMENT. Knowledge (that is already present) made crystal clear IS ENLIGHTENMENT.

Thank you for visiting my blog. May God's enlightenment, grace and love be with us all today and forever.

About Me

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I hate hypocrisy. I hate injustice. I hate abuse. I hate self-destruction. I hate poverty. I hate arrogance. I hate ignorance. Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. - CS Lewis