I did not come to believe in Jesus through sitting in a Church (although many successfully have ). My faith in Jesus came through hours of watching the sun rise and set over the Red Sea, gazing at Mount Sinai where Mosses received the commandments and meditating on the Biblical history of the Land I was working in.
Outwardly I had accomplished all I could have dreamed of. A dive boat Captain in the Red Sea having an amazing adventure, living an exciting life.
However inwardly I felt as barren as the desert landscape that surrounded me.
When I dived below the surface of the sea a whole new world opened up to me, I sensed that deep within me was a hidden undiscovered world. I was missing something and wanted to find what it was.
I did some research and soul searching into Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and finally and reluctantly Christianity. I say reluctantly because I had been exposed to Christianity through my childhood and thought it empty and irrelevant.
Living and working in the Biblical landscape forced me to consider Christianity with an adult mind. Finally I came to a simple realization. No person on earth said and did the things that Jesus said and did.
As C.S.Lewis said "He was either who he said he was or crazy". Nothing crazy has ever endured the test of time or formed and shaped an enduring civilization. Time soon sifts out the crazy in life. No Jesus was not crazy.
How do I understand what Christianity is all about? Jesus used a lot of rural farming imagery which was great for its time and culture. The truths he described and taught are eternal but the imagery needs to change so we can relate it to our time and culture
My understanding of things may be completely wrong (or very different from yours) but they have been formed over a long period of time and tested through the struggles and challenges of life. Films sometimes get close to truth. So many films we watch are mystical or sci-fi. Presenting us with the natural world and then another world that surrounds it but hidden from our natural five sens's. The two worlds are connected. The Matrix and Avatar are two films that come to mind.
These two films hint at the fact that we are both something here and now and yet also there and then. The here and now has an important influence and effect on the there and then. The there and then is also able to speak into the here and now. They are entwined with each other like a our DNA.
We have made amazing advances in computing. These advances have caused me to reflect on our make up. The components we are made of and the function they preform compared to the components of a computer and functions they preform. I feel there are some very interesting parallels.
First lets look at the main components of a PC or Moble phone.
The body of the PC.
Memory called Gigabites. It stores every thing we put in it.
The fire wall or anti virus that protects us from harmful codes.
Ram or processor that does the thinking. the decision maker. The searching.
The WiFi that enables us to invisibly connect to the whole world.
The cloud that backs up everything that is in the memory.
When our laptop gets old and slow we buy a bright shiny new one. We then can WiFi the entire contents of our old laptop into the new one invisibly through the air.
Unfortunately also if the old one has a virus and we don't deal with it, it to will go into our new laptop and cause frustrating problems with the operating system.
By now you will be saying what does all this have to do with Christianity? Well lets look at how a human being is made. From a biblical prospective. we are made of the following components.
Our human body. or Earth suit.
Our heart, soul, memory where every thought, action and decision is recorded. Throughout our life.
Out conscience with which we make decisions to protect our integrity.
Our mind where we take information from our five external sensors and our one internal sensor. with this information we make daily decisions.
Our spirit though which we connect to the hidden unseen, spiritual world. The good the bad and the ugly!
The book of our life mentioned in Revelations or the storage cloud where all our actions and decisions are recorded through out our life.
Here are a few thoughts. Every human being on the face of the earth is made perfect. However since Adam & Eve's decision to disregard Gods directions and wisdom we human's have chosen to live without his protection. They were expelled from Eden and lost the fire wall that was there to protect them. Ever since then humans have been subject to corruption.
Each time a perfect human is born a corrupting virus gets passed on from one generation to the next. We grow up wondering why we have this inclination to be selfish and do evil.
When trouble came between Cain and Able, Cain was not able to control his anger and resist doing evil, he killed Able. He was born into a family with no fire wall. He simply could not resist evil. God did his best to warn him but his ears were closed to wisdom.
The world we live in struggles to resist evil. We have more and more laws to keep evil at bay. Originally there were only ten. Jesus then reduced it to two.
This was never Gods intention for humanity. He had a much more exciting purpose and plan for our lives. To go through a transformation process here on earth. To change daily and gently from temporal beings to eternal beings. For all our daily decision making and freewill thinking to mature and develop spiritual wisdom in the heart. Wisdom being more precious than gold or costly than silver. Wisdom is made pure in the furnace of life. Spiritual wisdom cultivated in the human heart is the one thing that God is looking for. Job 28 - Prov 8 - James 3:13. The definition of spiritual wisdom is recognizing the difference between good and evil and choosing good. The transformation should be as natural as a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly. Our life here on earth is as a caterpillar, our next life as a butterfly. As it says in the bible "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard the things God has stored up for those who love him. Paul said "Our present life is as a seed whilst our next life is the flower."
Fortunately after the fall God made a plan. He transformed backward, went from a butterfly to a caterpillar and showed us exactly what God is like. He then was crucified on a cross and went down into the nether world of evil and found the exact code that was corrupting us. He wrote the antivirus code into his blood. When we acknowledge our corruption and accept his blood he runs the antivirus, gives us a blood transfusion, scans and wipes out all the corruption in our heart's and minds. He cleans us though and through. Just as if the corruption was never there. Even our book of life in the cloud is wiped clean. Our spiritual WiFi is re-connected to Gods WiFi who is called the Holy Spirit. No longer are we at the mercy of harmful WiFi connections that impute dangerous and suggestive thoughts into our minds. Our hearts are re-connected to Gods heart. We are on the 3G network, Father, Son & Holy Spirit. All accessible 24 hours a day within us.
What a amazing relief it is when you get a virus out of your PC, everything starts to work correctly. You can get things done without annoying popups and interference, your searches stop going automatically to pornography and other unhealthy sites. You are protected from ransoms and spyware. Your fire wall is in place and you feel secure.
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One thing I always struggled with was, how did sin come through one person and infect the whole human race? Then through one person sin is removed and freedom restored? Now I can see that one person can infect every computer in the world with corruption and yet conversely one person can provide the remedy and in seconds share it with the whole world.
Prayer (like WiFi) becomes something very exciting. Just like when you send instantly an encouraging email or text across the world, the same is with your prayers. You bless a person in your heart in prayer and unbeknown to them a sense of peace and healing invades thieir hearts or a creative thought sparks in their mind that helps solve a difficulty or problem.
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Unfortunately the same applies to cursing which so few of us understand but many groups and cultures around the world are using for harm and destruction.
Hence God says bless and course not, forgive your enemies. Prayer becomes a living conversation with an invisible God. You share your life as in marriage so the final transformation is as natural as walking from one room to another with a great friend.
Having been cleaned and functioning as we were created to function we are restored back to Gods original Eden plan. We grow in daily wisdom and understanding of the world. We develop a meaningful, stable, mature relationship with those around us and God. Every single day has present and eternal value.
Then when the time is right we pass through the transformation process into a new being prepared for us in heaven. When our earth suits runs out of battery and our processor slows down and returns to dust our new suit gets a full download from the cloud where everything about us has been stored from the very beginning. Our very first memories will be as clear as our last.
OK the summery!
This is basically what I believe, it may be very simplistic but I have walked it, tasted it and tested it for thirty years.
I am more convinced now then when I first started this journey, it is very close to the truth. Ever since I recognized and acknowledged the corruption in my own life, being fully aware of its destructive power to myself and those I came in contact with. Then inwardly experiencing the deep inner peace of being clean and free. All I can say is it works.
Jesus came to give us life and life in all its fullness. That process began when I invited him into my heart, with all sincerity and faith. Faith is believing in something you cannot see. Jesus said to Thomas, "You believe because you see, how much more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe."
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Christianity in a nutshell is believing in and having a living, meaningful, eternal relationship with an invisible being who created all things and loves us with such an intensity that he gave all he possibly could to win us back into his love.
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Having been brought up and living in a culture of scientific materialism this view on the purpose of life here on earth is not popular and is often ridiculed. However I have always found it harder to believe that something ( the universe and life on this planet) came from nothing (by accident) then to believe that that something came from someone. In other words there is a creative mind actively working behind all we see and touch. Life here on earth has a purpose and a destiny.
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God so loved the world that he gave his only that who ever believes in him should not perish but gain eternal life. Jesus did not come into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
Here are a few books and films that have helped my faith along the way.
C.S.Lewis, Derek Prince & Nikki Gumbel have been the biggest influence and mentor's in my life. Here is a sample of there teaching.
Christian books that touched me deeply.
They are not about theology, but about life and the struggles and decessions we all face.