Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: Hank Kerchief
LOL or to format that a bit better (due to my foolishness attempting to play with html):

I understand that you find this discussion frustrating, and perhaps some times, even foolish. The reason for that is because you do not have the Holy Spirit within you, and without His Presence there is no way to truly comprehend Jesus Christ.

It's really not all that strenuous though, all you have to do is surrender your life to the One Who came that we might have Life. He's calling to you, indeed He's near you even now - that uncomfortable feeling you have whenever you get into a discussion like this is that Still, Small Voice letting you know that the emptiness you so ardently defend need not remain empty forever.

Oh yes, the emptiness - I've been there myself and I know how that feels - when one finds one's self staring at the ceiling at 3 AM thinking 'is this all there is'. Indeed if you were not searching (and quite ardently, too) to fill that emptiness, you wouldn't even bother with posting to the Religion board.

The Good News is that this wretched fallen world is NOT all that exists - this is NOT 'all that there is'. There is a Loving God Who is both Willing and Able to Fill you with His Love and His Power, and all that is required is for you to accept Him, and allow Him into your life.

No it's not easy. Since being God, He demands that you meet Him on His terms, and that can take some struggle on your part since surrender to His Will by definition means letting go of your own. But He is right there next to you, even now, and He is more than Willing to Help you with that struggle - all you have to do is ask Him.

One of the amazing elements of His Love for you is that, although He Could, He will not force you to accept Him. Rather, He Waits for you to incline yourself in His direction - in fact He is the One (the only One) Who can Empower you to choose Him, and He is Willing to provide that Empowerment to you, whenever and where ever you are, right now.

Remember that neither your intellect nor your will are sufficient to deal with this issue, but God is right there, to Provide that which is needed, which you must have, in order that He might Save you. The decision is yours.

As Michael Card put it:

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son

For a 'madman who died for a dream'

And You'll have the faith His first followers had

And you'll feel the weight of the beam

So surrender the hunger to say you must know

Have the courage to say I believe

For the power of paradox opens your eyes

And blinds those who claim they can see

We in our ignorance thought we were wise

He played the fool and He opened our eyes

We in our weakness believed we were strong

He became helpless to show we were wrong

So we follow God's own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable,

come be a fool as well

- Michael Card, "God's own Fool; or to put it more succinctly:




1 Corinthians 1:18-25 18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

20Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

22For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.



48 posted on 02/27/2004 11:39:48 AM PST by ahadams2 (Anglican Freeper Resource Page: http://eala.freeservers.com/anglican/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies ]


To: ahadams2
due to misformatting on my part, I reposted #47 as #48 and asked the admin mods to pull #47.
49 posted on 02/27/2004 11:52:20 AM PST by ahadams2 (Anglican Freeper Resource Page: http://eala.freeservers.com/anglican/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson