THESE THINGS I BELIEVE
Our emotions, interests and faiths happen in our spirit. It is the technical heart of man. We know it isn’t our physical heart which only supports our body. What we discover and know is recorded somehow in our brain. I think that our spirit, knowledge and experience is what we call our soul. This is only mysterious if we don’t know its source. We reflect imperfectly and incompletely our Creator. This does however still allow us to relate to Him.
We are spirit, mind and body. Our parents gifted us with our bodies but we aren’t just body. God gifted us with our spirit without which we wouldn’t even know we are alive. We should rightfully thank our parents for our bodies and thank God for our spirit and our ability to grasp the concepts and relate to Him.
Truth uplifts our spirits and minds. Untruth destroys our knowledge and perverts our souls. Body and soul, we need nourishment. The soul depends on God’s truth, or it becomes sick. Truth depends on seeking and evaluating. We can seek wrongly and evaluate incorrectly. We are given that choice. It is part of our designed freedom. We need a proper measure of truth.
We can’t love unless we are free to choose. To choose we must have a chance to discover. God leaves us free to discover and choose. To discover, we must ask the right questions.
Seeking truth is tied up in this. We can be led by the Holy Spirit when we seek real truth.
We primarily relate to God and to each other one-to-one. We are made for relationships
one-on-one. Love God & love one another.
Our politics should flow from proper relationships and serving others, not from an insatiable desire for and pursuit of power and/or wealth which can corrupt some people.
This life wasn’t built on my beliefs alone. It requires a lot of humility and continuous
learning. Everything in life is not true and good. I must learn to tell the difference.
It is called discernment. I may “know” something that is only partially true or wholly wrong.
A valid philosophy would feature freedom and understanding. A philosophy is a person’s accumulation of what he believes is true or allowable. It might vary over his life. It usually
varies by what he may seek to discover and believe.
As a Christian, I believe that Jesus gave His life to pay for my sin. This is His claim.
This is His offer to all people. He lived among us and we can relate to Him.
His self-sacrifice was for me individually, but also for you individually.
These are some basic elements of what I have sought, thought, taught, read much about and now believe. I do not look at experts and I am not an expert. Everyone has things to discover in this life. Some don’t seek. Some don’t understand or discern what they have discovered, sometimes accidentally. If we seek truth validly and are willing to accept it, we are wise.
There are too many who do not seek any truth and are not wise. The question applies also to me, not only to everyone else.
If we don’t self-examine and learn true things, we cannot understand why life is so great
a complex puzzle. I am responsible to share with others the truths I have learned. It’s up to them to accept or reject it. Hopefully, what I have learned is really true, not just relatively
true.
This is written to give to my brothers. I may yet include other ideas & beliefs.
8/15/2020
This is one of my meditations and themes for the last several years. It is like a unfathomable, universe-wide subject. This is a good starting discussion of this subject. It is packed with meaning.
Humans are made in GOD’s Image and HIS likeness.
That Image in humans is this: our individual spirit & attributes.
The reason is so that we can relate to HIM. Our excuse that GOD isn’t human and a figment of our imagination is totally destroyed by Jesus. Freedom is in this discussion.
GOD created humans to be able to relate to HIM. Jesus came to be our individual, sinless Lamb of sacrifice. He will come again as the Messiah that the Jews are expecting but it will be to return believers (all those who have chosen to believe forever) to the Eden relationship with GOD. {The Biblical book of Leviticus is what perfect obedience would look like.
I finally understand its meaning and use.}
What GOD and a human creates are reflections of themselves. They are alike enough for the ...
(updated 5/24/2023 je)
While it is humanly impossible for humans to be totally good, we always can do much better than we have been doing if we individually want to do so! There is no concept that humans can totally achieve in this life. This applies individually, in groups or collectively.
The pathologies of today’s culture are apparent. However, they are called benefits & loudly proclaimed. They must be clearly seen as dangerous & wrong to our once-free country!
They are deliberately destroying Christianity, our country, our families, our individual personhood & our individual freedoms. Does this seem to be too extreme a statement?
Our media are calling evil “good” & good “evil”. Should that be totally right & silently allowed? Free speech & opinions must not live there? Freedom of speech is not absolute. This severe problem should be curtailed & limited within the proper bounds & situations!
Is it possible or allowed to seek those limits that do not destroy freedom of speech itself?
...
I do not support ANY, ANY political personality cults!!!! Left, Right, middle, it doesn’t matter! If you take the political part out, it is still so! Is this clear enough? I don’t support cultish “groupyism”!
My expectation is that any American who wishes to serve America in a political office would speak and act in support of our cherished American principles that are reflected in the best writings of our founders and all sensible people since then!
I am disgusted by the pragmatic politics and the excessive partisanship that the media love, especially for Democrats, it seems. I am disgusted with the pro-to-total leftism in our media. They do not represent thinking, peaceful citizens’ views! Individual humans are all over the belief spectrum with the issues. That is why discussion is necessary!
The people that I enjoy watching and reading at least attempt to tell the truth as they see it and are willing to listen to varying opinions and discuss them! From libertarian to center ...
