Reflections on Chrisitianity
By Patricia Britt
Each
of us has to determine whether, or not to have spirituality in our
life, In whatever way we choose as humans. Larry King, a legendary
radio personality, and CNN newsman stated on occasion he was
Agnostic, which means you neither believe, or disbelieve, which
translates essentially to, you’ll believe it, when you see it. He's
been one of my favorite people in the world for decades, because he
taught the art of logic, by example. Therefore I must believe my
Christian God would certainly accept a man like this into heaven, even
though one of our main precepts is belief in one true God. This
newsman indicated compassion for humanity through his perception. As a traditional
journalist he's fair, and objective in most instances. I once recall him making a simple
statement to an American power broker once. He essentially said, no
one should go hungry in the world, because the technological
advancement exists to feed the entire world today, and that was a few
years ago. This journalist gave people the facts gently, and
countered intensely when necessary to obtain the entire answer from a
guest. I say all this to say that someone with a heart that large,
has to be destined for heaven, where ever heaven is. Not being a
minister, I still have much to discern spiritually. I hope heaven’s
gates will be open to all who knock, and that we all get as close to
sharing our God given gifts on earth with equal opportunity as time,
technology, and science continues to evolve.
The
only religion I know much about is Christianity. In Christianity
there is one God, and a lot of rules. In the major religions of the
world there is one God, which is what I choose to believe, and I
might be right, or wrong. I’m content to find out when the time
comes. Many of my spiritual beliefs are not written in the bible, for
instance, we live in an imperfect world, and God will answer all the
questions of needless suffering some day. If one endures all things,
and if we love the God within, and without we allow the heart to stay
intact intact through disappointment. The spark of humanity inside
each of us can carry us through anything if we believe in a higher
power throughout the vast universe, and beyond this plane.
As a Christian raised Catholic, my simple reason for belief is that time is measured from the birth of one being that existed, or passed through the earth in a life span of 33 years, named Jesus Christ. BC equals before Christ. – AD equals after Christ, We are some 2,000 years after the birth of Christ, and people are still talking about his life’s path, outlined in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament.
~ Scientists who are believers, and non-believers are trying to independently verify that the miracles described did, or did not occur in addition to verifying Jesus Christ's life timeline in reality matches verses bible accuracy. Scientists have searched mountains for Noah’s Ark, and carbon dated relics from the time of Jesus Christ, and the list of scientific analysis is long, and well documented on the Internet. There is the Josephus historical time line, the Gnostic gospels, the ancient records of the Vatican (Catholic Church archives http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm ) that scholars of all faiths request to examine, and there are numerous writings on Christianity. So for now no one can prove anything, about God, and his son Christ either way. One can only choose to believe, or not to believe. And if lightning strikes three times the same day, in the same place we might have an answer from above, however until then we won’t know, and no one can say they know what will be. All anyone can do is search their heart, or the holy book of your faith for love, because love, and unity of soul is the answer to most problems.
Christianity contains logical soft spoken preachers, loud, and scary ones that you secretly believe may not know as much as you about spirituality, because you’ve found your own established path to inner love. Then there’s Karma, and reincarnation. I once heard the question posed, if your first “carnation” was as a perfect loving being, why would you have to be reincarnated to reach perfection? But, regardless of whoever is right wouldn’t we rather live in a world populated by spiritual people who universally believe love will prevail over cruelty in the arc of the moral universe, and strive to work together.
It’s our choice to choose to accept Budhism, Hinduism, Judaism, or the Islamic faith as the major spiritual followings in the world, over a godless world dominated by anything goes, and do onto others as you feel like at any time, versus doing onto others as you would have them do onto you. Spirituality helps maintain, or materialize order out of chaos most of the time. Every one wishes to hold onto the spirituality that is their internal guiding force of love.
How is it possible when you can tell one acquaintance, friend, or family member one thing, that it ends up completely changed when it comes back from another source? There have been studies done to show how communication changes between people in a single room on a single day. If you take the example of the movie the Mummy for instance. It was a great movie that I believe was loosely based on the bible, or maybe a lot of holy books combined, with the books of life, in the scene that implies anyone who changes the words of the book will be punished… and man oh man was there some creative punishment from nature in that product of Hollywood. I say all this to say that it’s possible there are passages of all our holy books that could have been changed over time, and in translation that have allowed gaps (Gnostic text that this writer has not read yet.), and some of us suffer for it worldwide, by misinterpreting the essence of love, and universal truth. When you consider the sky, nature, and the human body it seems there must be a higher power of unity, because all of these systems are logically ordered as if designed, like our man-made machines. It makes you wonder about the possibility of the universe, in essence God.
As a 21st century human I can’t help, but question some passages of the bible i.e.” If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out.” No one would literally pull their eye out of its socket, because they saw something they shouldn’t have seen, because it would be painful, and the eye is one of the greatest tools of our mysterious body, but pluck it out is in the Christian bible. Now bible scholars might say this is a metaphor, that one should deny themselves gazing upon people, and things that would tempt one to go astray, or commit a sin, in essence, by doing something wrong that would not be acceptable to the community of man, and hurt oneself in the process. Many people have names from the bible, which can hypothetically be a heavy burden for some causing them to turn away from the bible, then again it can make a person delve into the bible Attitudes about the bible, and organized religion can be good, bad, or indifferent, because that is our choice as humans. Just as attitudes about different cultures can be impacted in many ways, by our religious views.
You can read spiritual philosophies leaning toward secular, and non-secular thoughts www.wikipedia.com, and the web sites listed in this article. The best way to learn about Christianity, and Jesus Christ is simply to read the bible, and grasp that Jesus Christ was Jewish. It can be inferred from study that a gay king commissioned the King James bible to be compiled from several scrolls, gospels. So essentially you must love everyone in your heart to live up to God’s goals for your soul in my opinion. Christianity’s rules, and guidelines is the belief instruction manual to live each day in peace, and order even though many wars are included in the poetically philosophical text of the bible. The true guide to understanding the Christian bible is to read it for yourself, and search for the love, and maybe skim over the drama - i.e. Psalm 150, Old Testament.
As Steve Harvey says, he only sees himself in certain versus as he uses his gift of gab to share his evolving spirituality, bless you Mr. Hightower. Many preachers just use a few versus to preach an entire hour long sermon, or more many times, because a few poetic words are so beautiful, and have so much good meaning, then they’re followed by something harsh, and hard to understand. Let’s pray the Cardinals walk in rhythm, in the discernment to select a new Pope to lead, and protect us all inside, and out with the white smoke of spirituality, because we need the good of the good Priests, and Nuns in this world for the kindness they give of themselves.
Christians, and believers of all disciplines can have occasional doubt due to tragedies around the world both from nature, and man-made, but like the Psalmist David wrote we still hold on to our faith for the common good of humanity. Love, forgiveness, and belief is at the center of Christianity that followers strive towards. Pastor Clifton Davis, Pastor Joel Olsteen (www.joelolsteen.com), www.josephprince.org (each human is a new creacher in Christ) appear to be three of the most pleasant “people” on the planet, setting an example of the goal of holiness. Pastor Fred Price is one of the pioneers of television evangelism (www.faithdome.org), and an American faith leader who once said, “God is rewarder,” therefore you can infer from his sermons that God is a loving God of abundance, not a capricious punisher.
Soul ministers of other denominations; Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith (www.agapelive.com) leaves a good spiritual impression being a charismatic leader. Deepak Chopra's theory of universal positive vibrations stays with you.
Technological treasures for pleasure from humanities spark; youtube.com, iheart.com, pandora.com.
In the end all we have is faith that God is good all the time revealed thru the nature of our universe, in addition to the good vibrations of the universal gifts of art, and music worldwide. Spirituality casts sweetness to all, because kindness is universal, and that is the rock of reason for all seasons. Twinkle, twinkle little star up above the clouds of mystery...
Zimation Arts & Letters Ink
Copyright - Sunday, March 10, 2013, Revised June 2013.
Post Script: On Wednesday, March 13, 2013 Pope Francis was chosen this afternoon to guide 1.2 billion Catholics in faith at St. Peter's Square. Cardinal Bergoglio was elected by 115 Catholic Cardinals signaled by white smoke from the Sistine Chapel. Pope Francis is the 1st North American Pope. Pope Benedict stepped down February 11, 2013. God's blessings, and Amen.
