When was the last time you talked to God? I mean, really talked to Him-- not just asking for favors or giving Him a piece of your mind--but an honest to goodness one on one with the creator.
Sadly, most people, even those who profess to believe in God, rarely give Him the time of day. It seems our encounters with God are mostly in church on Sunday and then for the rest of the week, we put him back into a box until the next time we take Him out all over again.
Well, God actually wants more than that. God wants to really know you and for you to know Him, but for that to happen you've got to take a leap of faith and believe this is the truth. Religion sometimes makes God out to be this omnipotent, all powerful force that is so far removed from our lives that we wrongly assume He doesn't care about us at all. But God created man and woman in order to have a close relationship with them, the same way we experience close relationships with our family, friends and loved ones. God is no different. God doesn't need us, but He deeply desires to know each one of us in a one on one encounter.
And in order to know God, you've got to understand who He is. God is a Spirit and when He created the first man, Adam, He breathed life into him, making man in His own image and likeness.
"God is a Spirit." (John 4:24)
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him..."(Genesis 1:26-27)
That makes us a spirit as well and it is here, in our spirit, where God tries to communicate with us. For instance, you may be sitting at home thinking about nothing in particular, when a random thought comes over you to turn on the TV and there, surprisingly enough, is a Christian pastor preaching about God. Or maybe the name of a friend you haven't seen in a long time comes into your head, and you soon bump into this person, who has found Jesus and wants to share His findings with you.
Now, I'm not saying God is trying to take over your thought life, but He's definitely going to use every means available to reach you--through your dreams and inspirations, people you meet, Christian music, Christian books, the bible, nature, etc. Until the day you leave this planet, God will never leave you alone. But don't depend on religion or anyone else to help find Him, just go after Him with all you've got. The world offers fame, wealth, fortune--all fleeting illusions, but God is the real deal. He has been there since the beginning of time and He will be there waiting for you, for that amazing moment when you suddenly realize He is the one you have always been searching for.
"No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will...separate us from the love of God." (Romans 8:39)
Faith Rocks
C Willson
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
God Encounter
If I were to ask the question, "Do you believe in God?" I think it's safe to say I'd get the backing of a few individuals. If however I asked those same people to prove to me that He's real--I would probably be left standing alone.
Well, you don't have to prove to me that God exists, because once I began to seek God with everything I had, I experienced a real, personal encounter with Him that you only just read about. But for most people, encountering God is not something they can easily relate to--possibly because they weren't raised with a concept of God or maybe had issues in their lives that left little room for God. But the reason I believe most people don't get God is because of religion. Religion, like all institutions, was created for a sole purpose--in this case, to bridge the gap between God and man. But religion can only go so far to make God real because religion is founded on man made ideologies or doctrines and at some point, will fall short in the long run.
As I stated earlier--in my quest for truth I was led to Christianity and once there, I found the ultimate truth I was looking for. And while religion offered me a place to belong and a place to come to know God, I felt there was more about God that I needed to know. So, even as I attended church and bible studies, I took it upon myself to seek God, to go after Him the way you might go after a dream job or that perfect relationship. And it was when I started to look for God anywhere and everywhere--through philosophical conversations with friends, surfing the web, reading anything I could get my hands on, listening to inspirational music, and even crying out to Him--that I finally found the real God I had been searching for. And the surprising thing I uncovered on this journey of discovery is that God wanted to be found and that He was always there, but that I had to first move out of the box that is religion in order to encounter Him in a heartfelt one on one relationship.
Now I know this all sounds very cliche, but just as you can only learn so much through book learning or head knowledge, you've got to discover and relate to God on a more personal level in order to really get Him. And religion, unfortunately cannot always give you that, because sometimes religion's focus on doctrine paints a distant picture of God, one that is far from the truth. The truth is that God not only wants a one on one relationship with you, but He also wants to be the one you come to when you have problems and He also wants to be the one to bless you so that you can know how much He really cares. But until then, God remains in the background, an omnipotent power that holds the world together, an unseen force that guides our lives-- all the while waiting for that moment of discovery when you come to the realization that He does exist and that He is more than religion has ever made Him out to be.
God has placed a deep desire in each of our hearts to want to know Him and it is when you take that first step to go after Him with your whole heart and soul that you will find Him waiting there for you.
Faith Rocks
C Willson**********************
Well, you don't have to prove to me that God exists, because once I began to seek God with everything I had, I experienced a real, personal encounter with Him that you only just read about. But for most people, encountering God is not something they can easily relate to--possibly because they weren't raised with a concept of God or maybe had issues in their lives that left little room for God. But the reason I believe most people don't get God is because of religion. Religion, like all institutions, was created for a sole purpose--in this case, to bridge the gap between God and man. But religion can only go so far to make God real because religion is founded on man made ideologies or doctrines and at some point, will fall short in the long run.
As I stated earlier--in my quest for truth I was led to Christianity and once there, I found the ultimate truth I was looking for. And while religion offered me a place to belong and a place to come to know God, I felt there was more about God that I needed to know. So, even as I attended church and bible studies, I took it upon myself to seek God, to go after Him the way you might go after a dream job or that perfect relationship. And it was when I started to look for God anywhere and everywhere--through philosophical conversations with friends, surfing the web, reading anything I could get my hands on, listening to inspirational music, and even crying out to Him--that I finally found the real God I had been searching for. And the surprising thing I uncovered on this journey of discovery is that God wanted to be found and that He was always there, but that I had to first move out of the box that is religion in order to encounter Him in a heartfelt one on one relationship.
Now I know this all sounds very cliche, but just as you can only learn so much through book learning or head knowledge, you've got to discover and relate to God on a more personal level in order to really get Him. And religion, unfortunately cannot always give you that, because sometimes religion's focus on doctrine paints a distant picture of God, one that is far from the truth. The truth is that God not only wants a one on one relationship with you, but He also wants to be the one you come to when you have problems and He also wants to be the one to bless you so that you can know how much He really cares. But until then, God remains in the background, an omnipotent power that holds the world together, an unseen force that guides our lives-- all the while waiting for that moment of discovery when you come to the realization that He does exist and that He is more than religion has ever made Him out to be.
God has placed a deep desire in each of our hearts to want to know Him and it is when you take that first step to go after Him with your whole heart and soul that you will find Him waiting there for you.
Faith Rocks
C Willson**********************
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