Friday, July 22, 2005
# 28: Living for Another, also a Few Notes
Genuine Christianity is a way of life that calls for much self sacrifice, self denial and hardships. It is good for the young to hear what Christianity is all about and to practice the moral part of it. But to force or even coerce them into a life of self denial is cheating them from experiencing, first hand, how empty worldly attitudes, habits, and material things are. They will think, “I wonder how it would feel to have this or do that? Am I really missing-out on something special?” Let them get it out of their system. Prohibition is conducive to enticement.
At any age, we cannot force Christ onto anyone. We can force Christian ways on to them, but that is not Christianity. In fact, I believe a person should be at least 25 to 30 years-old before he or she makes a lifetime commitment to living as a Clone-of-Christ-in-the-making. We can teach them religion by forcing them to go to church, before they are aware of their right to religious freedom, or we can teach them Christ by showing them what He is like, and when they ask, we can teach them with our mouth. I am not talking about teaching them good morals, many atheists have excellent morals. I am talking about teaching them that genuine Christianity is living one’s own life for another person: Jesus Christ.
When God can operate in a person unhindered by self agenda or self promotion, then He can do through that non-existent person (as it were) all He desires. At that time, God’s full power will be activated to do whatever He inspires that person to ask for.
We must desire all other people to be better then ourselves in every way possible, hopefully in ways which bring them closer to God. What was Jesus’ motive for living a perfect life? Obedience to God’s, seemingly absurd, dictations stating that He will be the first man to live a sinless life. What is our motive to live a sinless life? Do we say, “That is impossible?” Read the book of 1st John and take what the author writes literally.
The spirit of God does not occupy space. It is incorrect to say, “He is here or He is not there or He is everywhere.” God just is--period. God is made up of intelligent belief type energy with a personality and will. That personality chooses to be a God of love.
All belief is made up of energy. When we think a thought, we are producing permanent invisible energy. Therefore, we must be very careful of, not only what we do, but also, what we think.
