Showing posts with label christian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christian. Show all posts
Sunday, April 10, 2022
Knowing God and Humanity
So I have said before that I am Christian. Many Christians, including myself, often find it difficult to convey what we understand about ourselves and God, the relationship that is there, who and what we are to God and one another.
We do have a mission and one part of it consists of sharing what we know with people who don't know, or who think they know but don't really because they've never looked at it in depth, they've just heard about it.
So our mission stems from God's two great commandments (yeah I am sure you have heard of the 10 commandments, but the 10 commandments actually depend on these, and in fact the first of the 10 commandments ties into the 2).
1) Love god with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
2) Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
The 10 commandments sort of expand on these. And then the old testament contains many more laws that also tied onto the 10 commandments.
So back to our mission... we need to know who God is and to do what he wants of us, to be what he wants us to be, we need to first love Him. If you love him, everything else follows. The second great commandment is what we do when we love Him... we love other humans. What does this love look like?
Well, Jesus himself is a good role model. He did amazing things that you can read about. And I am not saying we need to do miracles, but what did Jesus do? He fed the hungry, he touched lepers and comforted outcasts, he forgave people... etc. He was kind and had compassion for people who needed kindness and compassion.
You've heard of that "golden rule", do unto others as you would have them do unto you? It is sort of the turned around version of love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Well, I am rambling.
THAT is our basic mission. But now the reason WHY we do that. WHAT we know about God.
This can get very very complicated if you delve deeply, but the short and skinny of it is this:
1. We are all sinners.
But what does that MEAN?
Well it has different meanings but, sin is behaving contrary to the will of God (who is perfect).
Unfortunately there isn't anything we can DO about this, because since the beginning of humanity we have been doing this.
2. The price of sin is death.
We die. Right? The original plan did not include us dying. The new plan is the same way. But while we are here in our lives on Earth and while we are still in our current physical state, we will die.
3. Jesus paid that price.
The REAL purpose of Jesus coming to us (God born as a man, in our current physical form) was to DIE for us as the ULTIMATE sacrifice for all man. Remember? Sin is death. We die because of sin. Well, Jesus is God, eternal. He offered up his eternal life to pay the price of all our sins for all time by accepting the punishment, death.
4. He rose and took his place in heaven and he is our advocate in heaven.
This part might be weird but Jesus died and God resurrected, and there are things Jesus did while he was dead that are referred to in other books but the gist of it is, he gave the rebellious heavenly beings who started off this whole mess in the first place, a good talking to. Now, his ascension to heaven... Jesus returned in a new physical form. This form is what we will all receive at "the end times". AND we will hang out with Jesus in heaven as God's adopted children. If we accept this gift of Jesus sacrifice, he will stand before God for us and advocate for our place in heaven.
There is a LOT of stuff in #4 that requires more of a deep dive, but when Christians share the Gospel (the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus) we often stop there and people do not have a clear understanding of the WHOLE story from the beginning. That's what the Bible is for, after all. But that is not exactly what we are supposed to be doing.
Really our mission comes down to this:
1) Act like God's priests on Earth (feed and cloth people, help people in need, etc)
2) Share the story of God and man
3) Continue to represent God on earth in how we live and act.
^^^^^^^^^ That's it in a nutshell! ^^^^^^^^^^
There is a lot more to this of course. The Bible is an AMAZING book that tells it "like it is" (remember "keeping it real"?). Some parts of it can be difficult to read, sometimes you might need to ask questions about something that might not make sense to you, but it is a good read. There are sections where you will probably struggle not because it is difficult to understand, but because it seems so repetitive. And in many ways it is repetitive but there are subtle differences. ANYWAY!
Check out this web site, it is WAY better at talking about this than I can ever be:
https://bibleproject.com/explore/themes/
Friday, June 13, 2014
Why I am conservative
In reality I am probably not a perfect conservative and because of my libertarian leanings I might even be considered liberal in some ways. But there are reasons why I identify as conservative.
There is the idea "out there" that liberals are better at wanting to take care of the "little guy" that they care more about people in need than do conservatives. In reality liberalism (and I am sure you have heard this point of view before) distances people from those in need. Liberalism asserts that higher taxes that implement a plethora of programs to provide specific services to people in need is the right thing to do; they redistribute wealth among the masses. The government becomes the (again, I am sure you have heard this before) "nanny," taking care of people who lack work, health insurance, etc.
But how does this help the individual who backs this point of view? Basically what is happening is the person paying taxes is shirking his or her duty to their fellow man, by isolating themselves from being responsible for directly caring for them. In other words, "here, take my money and do with it as you see fit and I will go on with my current life."
Conservatism does not take that route. If you are conservative, you don't WANT the government taking care of these things and SHOULD understand that it is up to the individual to offer food, money, clothing, etc. to the people who need it. It demands that the conservative individual be aware of and involved in the state of people who are less fortunate than they are.
I do understand that it does not always work that way, but that is the theory behind it. Conservatives don't believe it is "every man for himself" and "raise yourself on the backs of others"... they believe in being fiscally responsible so they are not a burden to anyone else and where possible to share their OWN assets, whether that be time or money or goods, to assist those in need.
One person at a time may not make a huge difference, but many people can. Churches, activist groups, etc. who believe this can help many people, and the more that follow this ideal conservative mindset and act upon it increase this potential. This is personal. It's up close and personal. It allows for peoples lives to be touched, both the giver and the receiver.
This is one of the reasons conservatives are also often Christian, as our example was Jesus who healed, fed and simply interacted with people who were downtrodden, poor, hungry, ill, etc. There were times when Jesus made a special effort to physically touch people who were "unclean" (any respectable rabbi would have nothing to do with them) because, well, they needed to be touched, to know human contact and compassion.
Following the "take from the rich, give to the poor" model, unless it is specifically by a small band of merry men from the forest, does not offer this physical, emotional or personal contact. If I have to make an effort to save and then give my earnings to someone in need, if I volunteer to work at a soup kitchen or hand out water, I am personally involved. My heart has to be touched. If I just go about my business and don't even consider the fact that money is taken from me before I even see it, I have no stake in the state of the people it may or may not go to help. And the people who receive it get what? Money? No validation of their humanity, just money.
Anyway, I ramble a little, I apologize. This is why I am conservative.
There is the idea "out there" that liberals are better at wanting to take care of the "little guy" that they care more about people in need than do conservatives. In reality liberalism (and I am sure you have heard this point of view before) distances people from those in need. Liberalism asserts that higher taxes that implement a plethora of programs to provide specific services to people in need is the right thing to do; they redistribute wealth among the masses. The government becomes the (again, I am sure you have heard this before) "nanny," taking care of people who lack work, health insurance, etc.
But how does this help the individual who backs this point of view? Basically what is happening is the person paying taxes is shirking his or her duty to their fellow man, by isolating themselves from being responsible for directly caring for them. In other words, "here, take my money and do with it as you see fit and I will go on with my current life."
Conservatism does not take that route. If you are conservative, you don't WANT the government taking care of these things and SHOULD understand that it is up to the individual to offer food, money, clothing, etc. to the people who need it. It demands that the conservative individual be aware of and involved in the state of people who are less fortunate than they are.
I do understand that it does not always work that way, but that is the theory behind it. Conservatives don't believe it is "every man for himself" and "raise yourself on the backs of others"... they believe in being fiscally responsible so they are not a burden to anyone else and where possible to share their OWN assets, whether that be time or money or goods, to assist those in need.
One person at a time may not make a huge difference, but many people can. Churches, activist groups, etc. who believe this can help many people, and the more that follow this ideal conservative mindset and act upon it increase this potential. This is personal. It's up close and personal. It allows for peoples lives to be touched, both the giver and the receiver.
This is one of the reasons conservatives are also often Christian, as our example was Jesus who healed, fed and simply interacted with people who were downtrodden, poor, hungry, ill, etc. There were times when Jesus made a special effort to physically touch people who were "unclean" (any respectable rabbi would have nothing to do with them) because, well, they needed to be touched, to know human contact and compassion.
Following the "take from the rich, give to the poor" model, unless it is specifically by a small band of merry men from the forest, does not offer this physical, emotional or personal contact. If I have to make an effort to save and then give my earnings to someone in need, if I volunteer to work at a soup kitchen or hand out water, I am personally involved. My heart has to be touched. If I just go about my business and don't even consider the fact that money is taken from me before I even see it, I have no stake in the state of the people it may or may not go to help. And the people who receive it get what? Money? No validation of their humanity, just money.
Anyway, I ramble a little, I apologize. This is why I am conservative.
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