I would never deny that it is a problem. Some do worship the Virgin, as some do worship the Word and not he who wrote it.
Again, I am witnessing things I have seen with my own eyes in both cases. That “small still voice in the night” can be a right pain at times.
The problem is, we all see the Lord differently, because we are all different. To be honest, if a burning bush talked to me, I would wonder what the bush was and exactly how high I was going to get!
The Word is. God is. Jesus saves. Something every last one of us believes in.
We get so caught up in OUR version of the word, we fail to accept that he talks to everyone equally. And we can not hear that conversation. It is private. If we are VERY lucky, we hear someone witness their conversation.
I cannot talk for the Catholic Church. I am not His Holiness, who has the duty to. I am not a Bishop, who has the right to. I am just someone who has sailed into harbor and anchored after a very stormy life.
Eyes wide open - I need a general. Know this and accept this as a truth about myself. Felt a burning need for attonement, and the church provided that. Needed a friend, badly, and that was provided too.
Said before, and I will say it again. My friends in the Protestant faith, who walk with God, talk daily to God, live with God - they get my respect. Sometimes my envy, to be honest. It must be glorious.
It just is not for me. I am not worthy of that grace. Not yet, possibly not ever. Until then, I will follow my general and my commanders.
Feel tired now - why is truth far more tiring to write!
I have been reading your comments for the past few days and what I see mostly from them is a humble man - perhaps humbled by life and its consequences - and someone who sincerely seeks to know God. More than once you have said words that sound like you view other Christians in a higher light than they truly are. I know, as a former Roman Catholic, where these thoughts originate. We are taught almost from birth that those "saints" that have gone before us are so much better than we are and that, through their deeds, they deserve their heavenly reward. It is hammered into our minds that they are our ideals to follow if we also desire the beatific vision. Sometimes, these ideals seem impossible to relate to and we spend more time condemning ourselves for our failure than we do for our minute victories.
I know that kind of self recrimination, that defeated spirit who must constantly inflict emotional punishment in hopes of one day being worthy of God's love and forgiveness. But...I found out that this is not how God desires us to live - in defeat - nor even how to imagine he views us. No, he has redeemed us from the penalties, curse and condemnation we justly deserve. While we were YET sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) Scripture says. We love him because he FIRST loved us. (I John 4:19). Jesus died on that cross because we could NOT save ourselves. We stood condemned in our sins, at enmity with God. We were once enemies of God, but now he has reconciled us through Christ's death and we are saved bu his life. (Romans 5:10.
We are ALL sinners - even those regarded as "saints" - and not one of us can ever merit or deserve the mercy and grace of God. But he loved us and does not wish any to perish and that is why Almighty God became a man and lived a perfect sinless life so that he might be our propitiation, our sacrifice for sin. God says the "wages of sin is death" and "all have sinned" and "without the shedding of blood there is no atonement for sin". None of us stands worthy before God until we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We are "IN CHRIST" not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of God in Christ. (Philippians 3:9).
Saints are all those who are sanctified by Christ - set apart and declared holy in God's sight - but NOT by any righteousness that they have done. It is ONLY through his mercy and grace that we are saved. (Titus 3:5. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ and believe in him as your Savior, then you too are a saint - ALREADY! You have been sanctified, justified, made righteous and redeemed by God's grace THROUGH faith. Your life now is lived by faith (Galatians 2:20 in the Son of God who loves you and gave himself for you.
No matter what has happened in your past, you have been cleansed whiter than snow and God has removed your sin from you as far as the east is from the west and the AMAZING part - he remembers your sin and iniquities NO MORE. (Hebrews 8:12) God sees us as his children now, we are joint heirs with Christ and we CAN walk in victory and he conforms us to the image of Christ. Walk in victory, Saint EnglishCon!
YES!!! It IS for you, too!!!!
Not a one of us is worthy. And there's nothing any one of us can do to make ourselves worthy. You're no different than any of us. We all come to Him as needy beggars. We look at each other and see differences and see each other on different levels, but compared to God, those differences we see don't exist. You might as well have ants comparing themselves to each other to see which one is most like a man.
That's why salvation is a gift, offered freely for the taking. Because there's nothing we can do to earn it. Not a thing.
It's when we reach the end of ourselves and recognize our total dependence on God and ask Him to do in us what we cannot do in ourselves, that He is free to work.
My prayer to God some 35 years ago was *God, if you can straighten out this mess of a life of mine, You can have it cause I'd rather be happy doing what You want me to do than to keep on going the way I am*. Not exactly the standard *sinner's prayer*, but I'll tell you what, He took me up on the offer and I haven't been the same since.
And I have friends who've prayed essentially the same prayer, not knowing much about God except that they needed Him and they were likewise transformed. And that includes drug dealing, boozing, crooks. They didn't clean themselves up first to make themselves worthy. God took care of the cleaning them up after GOD made them worthy.
John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
The Greek word for *right* is also *authority*.
Allow yourself to become convinced that God WANTS YOU. Warts and all. We trade all that we are for all that He is and He gets all the glory for cleaning up the mess and conforming us into the image of His Son, whom He loves.
If God didn't want us to come to Him so bad, He wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to make it so ridiculously easy to come to Him.
Think of the story of the prodigal son. That father is the portrayal of our Heavenly Father's heart for US. That son who came back, likely covered in pig manure, was greeted by a father who loved him so much that threw his arms around his son and embraced him and kissed him.
That is God.
In my haste, I left out part of the prayer I prayed. Here it is, properly amended.....
My prayer to God some 35 years ago was...
*God, if you can straighten out this mess of a life of mine, You can have it. I’ll even become a missionary and go to Africa cause I’d rather be happy doing what You want me to do than to keep on going the way I am*.
Not exactly the standard *sinner’s prayer*, but I’ll tell you what, He took me up on the offer and I haven’t been the same since.
(FWIW, becoming a missionary and going to Africa was the LAST thing on this earth that I’d ever consider doing and it was the most desperate thing I could think of to promise God to show my sincerity. He never did take me up on that part.....yet)