Dear desperate,
First let me say that God is everywhere. You only have to look at yourself and the world around you to see the marvellous handiwork of God the Creator.
Romans 1:20:- For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
As I have often said: ‘The whole world is dysfunctional, and everyone in it is dysfunctional, and we are all dysfunctional if different ways, and the end of the dysfunction is death.’ The whole world is dysfunctional because of sin, and because man wants his own way and is rebellious against a perfect Holy and Righteous God.
This fallen world is thankfully not all that there is, Christ has prepared another world which is perfect and where people do want to be with Him. Christ came and died for us, so that we don’t have to go to Hell (the spiritual rubbish dump). He died and rose again to show that He does indeed have power over life and death. What a marvellous Saviour, what a friend. I’ll leave you with the following guidelines. Don’t waste time, get yourself a Bible and read it for yourself. The very reason you are reading this is because the Spirit of God has lead you to read it.
The Gospel in a nutshell………………………………………..………..1 Corinthians 15:1-4
All have sinned………………………………………………………..………Romans 3:23
Consequences of sin…………………………………………………..……Romans 6:23
God’s great Desire……………………………………………………….....John 3:16
God’s great sacrifice…………………………………………………….….1 Peter 3:18
New Birth necessary………………………………………………………..John 3:3
Sinners’ responsibilities:-
Believe……………………………………………………………...John 3:36
Repent……………………………………………………………….Acts 17:30
Confess……………………………………………………………...Romans 10:9
Receive……………………………………………………………...John 1:12
You are a new creation in Christ………………………………….….2 Corinthians 5:17
New Believers’ Responsibilities:-
Attend Church…………………………………………….…….Hebrews 10:25
Study the Word of God……………………………….…….2 Timothy 2:15
Pray regularly……………………………………………………1 Thessalonians 5:17
Tell others about Christ……………………………..……..Mark 5:19
Don’t despair when hard times come………..……..Matthew 10:22
Partake of the Holy Communion………………………1 Corinthians 11:23
I will pray for you,
Albert Brownsey
Certainty for Eternity
"And because man wants his own way,"
Dear desperate,
First let me say that God is everywhere. You only have to look at yourself and the world around you to see the marvellous handiwork of God the Creator.
Romans 1:20:- For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
As I have often said: ‘The whole world is dysfunctional, and everyone in it is dysfunctional, and we are all dysfunctional if different ways, and the end of the dysfunction is death.’ The whole world is dysfunctional because of sin, and because man wants his own way and is rebellious against a perfect Holy and Righteous God.
This fallen world is thankfully not all that there is, Christ has prepared another world which is perfect and where people do want to be with Him. Christ came and died for us, so that we don’t have to go to Hell (the spiritual rubbish dump). He died and rose again to show that He does indeed have power over life and death. What a marvellous Saviour, what a friend. I’ll leave you with the following guidelines. Don’t waste time, get yourself a Bible and read it for yourself. The very reason you are reading this is because the Spirit of God has lead you to read it.
The Gospel in a nutshell………………………………………..………..1 Corinthians 15:1-4
All have sinned………………………………………………………..………Romans 3:23
Consequences of sin…………………………………………………..……Romans 6:23
God’s great Desire……………………………………………………….....John 3:16
God’s great sacrifice…………………………………………………….….1 Peter 3:18
New Birth necessary………………………………………………………..John 3:3
Sinners’ responsibilities:-
Believe……………………………………………………………...John 3:36
Repent……………………………………………………………….Acts 17:30
Confess……………………………………………………………...Romans 10:9
Receive……………………………………………………………...John 1:12
You are a new creation in Christ………………………………….….2 Corinthians 5:17
New Believers’ Responsibilities:-
Attend Church…………………………………………….…….Hebrews 10:25
Study the Word of God……………………………….…….2 Timothy 2:15
Pray regularly……………………………………………………1 Thessalonians 5:17
Tell others about Christ……………………………..……..Mark 5:19
Don’t despair when hard times come………..……..Matthew 10:22
Partake of the Holy Communion………………………1 Corinthians 11:23
I will pray for you,
Albert Brownsey
Certainty for Eternity
“It
is our certainty, but it is lost the moment we begin to regard it as our certainty. We are certain only as long as we look at the content of our certainty and not at the rational or irrational experiences in which we have received it. Looking at ourselves and our certainty as
ours, we discover its weakness, its vulnerability to every critical thought; we discover the small amount of probability which our reasoning can give to the idea of God and to the reality of Christ. We discover the contradictions in the emotional side of our religious life, its oscillation between ecstatic confidence and despairing doubt. But looking at God, we realize that all the shortcomings of our experience do not have Him as an object of our knowledge, but that He has us as the subject of our existence. Looking at God we feel that we cannot escape Him even by making Him an object of skeptical arguments or of irresistible emotions. We realize that in our uncertainty there is one fixed point of certainty, however we may name it and describe it and explain it.
We may not comprehend, but we
are comprehended. We may not grasp anything in the depth of our uncertainty, but that we are grasped by something ultimate, which keeps us in its grasp and from which we may strive in vain to escape, remains absolutely certain.” The New Being, Paul Tillich, p. 77.
“The fear of death determines the element of anxiety in every fear. Anxiety, if not modified by the fear of an object, anxiety in its nadedness, is always the anxiety of ultimate nonbeing. Immediately seen, anxiety is the painful feeling of not being able to deal with the threat of a special situation. But a more exact analysis shows that in the anxiety about any special situation anxiety about the human situation as such is implied. It is the anxiety of not being able to preserve one's own being which underlies every fear and is the frightening element in it. In the moment, therefore, in which “naked anxiety” lays hold of the mind, the previous objects of fear cease to be definite objects. They appear as what they always were in part, symptoms of man's basic anxiety. As such they are beyond the reach of even the most courageous attack upon them.” The Courage To Be, Paul Tillich, p. 38, 39.
The idea of a heaven and a hell comes to us from the Dante's Divine Comedy. Hell, in the OT was the hole in the ground that one gets buried in. Heaven, is some imaginary place God will be found. Neither is defined in the Bible as a place one goes for their sins or where one goes for being good. What is good and what is bad is then defined both by the Church and the Bible. The Church takes it further stating, teaching that there are three types of sin and, that there is no way to reach heaven without being Catholic. Doctrine and Canon law dictates the path one will take in life should one choose, sin over love or, love over sin.
If you choose to believe in a heaven and hell, then you must soothe your anxiety in the precepts that you will learn about, whether Catholic, Protestant or some Pagan religion.
I see how my Dad's ( whom I take care of) anxiety gets the best of him. A Catholic that does not understand his on belief system ( faith is understood here by most Christians but then the word faith is being misused as such.) He is near his end of life and struggles with dementia. I stopped taking him to mass and I have Stephens Ministry come to administer communion once a week. Imagine the Playboy magazine laying beside him as he receives communion.
Sorry to hear about your struggle with life. With that, my reply is a take off of Albert Brownsey's reply to you. I am doing so because Albert said something profound, “
and because man wants his won way. . .”.
Mankind neither knows God nor can mankind say where God is. The best we can imagine is that God is spiritual and man is temporal. Mankind has no idea what what or where God is. All is only man's perception.
I wish you peace as you struggle with life.
