Coming to believe
What is the belief system of the world? Find ways to better yourself, your mind, your body... How to feel good and be happier, more successful in life.Do you ever think that the world, the universe, is bigger than our selfish selves? Ever wonder why the heck we're here, is there a God, why is the world so big and could it really be all for us and about us? Such huge questions seem to come up often in my thoughts lately. It's kind of exhausting really, my brain can't quite handle it.
One thing I've figured out, and I don't know where you're at, is that life on earth is basically pointless. Nothing will last after we die. Really, think about it. Once you're dead, you don't benefit from any money you've made or how successful you've been. As far as we know, whether we've been 'happy' or 'fulfilled' doesn't really figure once we're dead. So what's worth living for?
My favorite book of the Bible lately has been Ecclesiastes. (I highly recommend reading it)
All the author talks about is life being meaningless. Is there a end to this meaninglessness? (what a crazy word...) For 12 solid chapters the author rants about life having no point. He concludes by saying
"Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man."
What do you think of that?
To live for myself is pointless. Ultimately, whatever I gain here on earth will not last when I die. I don't understand eternity, or whatever comes once we're dead, but the only thing bigger than death and time and me is God. To live for God who is in eternity is so meaningful, even if I don't understand it because I can't see past my earthly life.
Wow this is deep and my brain hurts.
For me, to be able to live for God, I needed to figure out whether or not there was a God. You can't go very far without making a choice on that one! To me it's no longer a question as to whether or not God exists, it's now an established fact. Creation, fire, water, air, the eco-system, my self-healing, emotion-feeling and brain-thinking body have all served to confirm that there is indeed a God. After that I needed to plow through and figure out why I believe Jesus to be the Son of God; because of the Bible. Ok why do I believe the Bible to be Truth? Do I believe it to be full and absolute Truth in its entirety? Why? If I am here on earth, what is the reason in consequence of all this?
It's a long process, but I encourage you to dig even deeper than this. Figure out for yourself why you believe in God, do you want to live for Him and why, what is your purpose in life...? A good trick is to write everything down for future times when you doubt. These are all beliefs that need to be solid in your life before you can move on.
So much to think about.
posted by Marie-Hélène @ 10:09 PM
9 Comments:
woot, hey Marie-Helene! it's karen, how are ya doing, check out my blog!later see you tomorrow:)
Haha, I get to leave the first comment on your blog! It was good to see you last night. Sorry about interrupting the girl talk. hahaha
I like Ecclesiastes, but I didn't at first. On my first read I thought it was a real downer of a book, but once I understood the message behind it I liked it.
Kurt Goddard and I used to lay in bed in the staffhouse at camp and read it out loud to each other. Exciting, eh?
God bless!
Adam O
Some people want to make a name for themselves. Some people want to find a way to live forever. Some people want to be known. I want to be known and live forever. I want to live for God.
A book I would reccommend would be "A Case For Christ" (I read the student edition). It really explains about how accurate the Bible is and why you can trust it.
Merging my belief in Christianity and still relying and believeing in Science has always been a rough spot in my faith. I would strongly reccommend this book to anyone in the same situation.
In the end, everything is just possessions. You need a relationship with God and good faith to pull you through till the end.
(Hope that made sence)
-Hannah
(PS-I've been to Camp Medley with you at least a couple times before! :) )
I think your Blog entry was wonderful. I have a question you might want to think about.. Actually its more me asking for advice.
My girlfriend recently asked me to start up a youth group with her, and i find it hard enough to go on in my daily life, with enough faith to carry on myself. Im not sure about a commitment like this. Do you know anything about youth groups and how they are constructed and generally done. lol If its too huge for you to answer, I can always just surf the web for like 3 hours.
Justin B
ahoy there harry!
great posts and an awesome layout for the blog. i look forward to reading it in the future...
one actually real comment follows :)
"what is your purpose in life...? Write everything down for future times when you doubt. These are all beliefs that need to be solid in your life before you can move on."
I'm not quite sure I agree entirely, but maybe I do and don't know it yet! For so years we've been told that the unexamined life isn't worth living, but these days I think its also true in the inverse: that the unlived life isn't worth examining - there's no fodder for the cannon.
and so while I agree wholeheartedly that seeing a spiritual world behind the physical one we see is absolutely essential, those beliefs will never be solid as "we move on."
Hey Harry, I love you idea for this blog, it's awesome!!! Hope to see you soon!
Love you!
Mal
Harry, I echo your thoughts. It has been my passion of late. I hope to blog about some of the things I have been learning soon, I'm still putting it together in my head. One cool book to read on the topic is "How now shall we live?" by Charles Colson. It is very complete. I think this whole process is important. Like you said, we need to write this times down so that we have something to look back on. We need to be people of unshakable faith. It is only the believing that will make it into the new earth (check out the end of Revelations : ) Gotta go eat lunch, chow sis! Micah
This is truth!! It's so essential as Christians to have a biblical worldview, to know what you believe and why. We believe in a God that is the only one that is tuly personal and infinite. Ya!
:) Kat
This is truth!! It's so essential as Christians to have a biblical worldview, to know what you believe and why. We believe in a God that is the only one that is tuly personal and infinite. Ya!
:) Kat
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