Peace: I can remember the morning after the night when I recognised my need for him and cried out. I sensed something had changed fundementally. There was a sense of peace about things which descended over me. Everything (irrespective of what might happen to me from now on: bike crashes, job loss, sickness, death) was going to be "okay". I subsequently read about "a peace beyond all understanding" in the Bible. We don't realise how much we actually worry about things until such time as the worry is removed
I do not claim to know the circumstances under which you cried out for Jesus, but I have been burdened by past mistakes, too. I did not need a "savior" to forgive me. I recognized my shortcomings, asked for forgiveness from the
people I had done wrong and moved on as a better person. I recognize that I have this life to amend for my mistakes and I try to learn from those that I make. I have no burden too great that it cannot be rectified in my heart by conversing with the person wronged or making up for it somehow by helping someone else in the same situation. I do not need a supernatural savior to absolve me of my "sins."
Freedom: we all have things about us which we would like to change: a short temper, an addiction, meaness, cruelty - whatever. Very often we manage to keep the worst excesses of these things in check through sheer self-control. We may be afraid of the consequences were full expression of these things were they to be seen by others. But these things sit like monkeyss on our backs: always there lurking in the background waiting to come out. One of the things he promises he will do is to transform us. "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" says Paul in Romans 12. He actually changes our way of thinking so that these monkeys dissappear. We find we think differently about things. This is a process: sometimes things are removed straightaway, sometimes they are dissolved over time as we cooperate with him in being changed. But he promises that come hell or high water we will be changed - even if we decide to make it tough for him to do so. "If the son sets you free, you will be free indeed". Again we often don't realize how weighed down we are until the weight is removed "come to me all ye who are heavily burdened and I will give you rest" he says.
Yes, we all have problems with temper, selfishness, etc, but we don't need some supernatural being described in a book to forgive us of such shortcomings. Like I said above, barring actual petitions for forgiveness from the person wronged, we can act in a different way the next time (or the next or the next) when confronted with the same scenario. You had it right when you mentioned self-control. Not "God-control." Self-control. More people need it. Even self-professed christians.
Foregiveness: we all carry around guilt and shame. More than we know. We have all done things in the past that we accept (if we are not in total denial) were wrong. That time has passed doesn't mean that the shame and guilt are gone. It just sits there and we move on - getting used to carrying the burden of it. Although it is against others we have acted it is also an offence against God. And he can forgive us that. Indeed he promises he will do so if a person has a relationship with him "If we ask, he is gracious and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" Again it is one of those things that we won't fully realise we are burdened down with until such time as it is removed. When it is removed then we feel as if a great weight has been removed from our shoulders. And we can always avail of having that burden removed in the future when we sin and the guilt and shame come back. We only have to ask.
Do you really not feel the guilt from all that you have done in all of your life just because you have been saved? Neither has anyone else. We all feel the strain from
something every once in awhile. Even though you have "Jesus" to help you through doesn't mean you don't feel shame or guilt (or maybe it means you feel it even more). I feel guilt, too. However, I feel sorrow, I ask forgiveness from the actual people I wronged or I try to rectify my mistakes by helping others in my previous situations. I don't ask some guy in the sky to help me. My freedom comes from knowing I recognized my wrongs and tried to correct them anyway I could. Not praying to some unknown entity to forgive me. I actually worked to forgive myself. Burdens are only burdens if you let them be burdens.
No fear of death: I know where I am going when I die. I might not look forward to the process of dying but I don't fear death itself. In fact I look forward to it. To be free of the shackles which make a full relationship with him impossible. When I die, there will be nothing to interfere with knowing him fully. He is very attractive and to know him more is a constant yearning. You get to hate sin because it interferes with that relationship
I only fear death for what it would do to my mother. I love her with all my heart and she already lost her youngest son. Beyond that I do not fear death at all. I don't even contemplate heaven or hell because they are not real places for me. The energy that provides the words for you on the computer screen will become plant fodder. I love that. My ideas may or may not move on past this generation, but I will still live. Like you, I also do not look forward to the drawn out process that may proceed my death, but death to me is nothing. I cannot fear it because once it is upon me I will have nothing to fear.
Love: Lets face it, loving and being loved is the greatest thing on earth. Nothing trumps it. Whilst it is nice to love kids and to have kids love back it doesn't compare to having God love you. Its the same kind of thing as human love only more. There is nothing you can do to make him love you less, nothing you can do to make him love you more. To have God let you know he loves you is something to behold. And it goes on forever. He will never fall out of love with you. Never go off with someone else
Yes, love trumps all. The undying, unconditional love I have from my family, from my friends is all I want and need from this life. Maybe some people need more and I understand that. When my brother died my entire family was at my mother's side within 24 hours (we're mostly atheists/agnostics/non-practicing christians spread across the USA). My friends, my older brothers' friends and my late brothers' friends all came to us also. I would wager that barely a fifth of the people there were "Christian: or religious in any sense. The importance of his life and the unbelievable beauty of showing how much all 200+ people loved him (we spent 3 hours telling stories about him) was breathtaking and joyful. The love was there and still is.
I do not need your god's love. I have so much love around me from my fellow human beings and my own love of life. I only have one...I have to make the most of it and do all I can to love and be loved.
™ Version 4.2
