Re: an afghani-american's view

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: bryon, : I "have to say" that I find it rather odd that a short time after I posted a link to a page that had this paragraph in it: : "I am a thirsty student. Teach me. But I don't care for arguments that boil down to this: shut up. I believe in the power of communication, or I wouldn't be putting my time into fostering communication now, at a time, when so many have so much to say." (from the davenet is cool post) : ...that you basically post something that basically boils down to "shut up". : I'll let Paula talk about her experiences if she wants to, she is very private about her beliefs and her testimony. But I will say that I have rarely ever met anyone who was as intense about God as I am, and she is. It may be congenital in me, I remember having conversations with God when I was about 4 years old. I can remember distinctly talking to God in my bedroom about a Big Jim doll. I really wanted one. I was asking God for one. And I remember God speaking to me in that strange unconscious/conscious way where you know God has said something to you but not in an audible voice and not in a dramatic vision but somehow the message has come through. I remember the message was simply, "You don't need a Big Jim doll". And I remember going to my mom and telling her (I had been bugging her about getting me one for my birthday) that I didn't need one, that it was ok, and that God had spoken to me about it. I remember when it happened I had on a white t shirt, fruit of the loom. Of course I ended up getting a Big Jim after all. I loved the way I could push that little button in his back and he would do a karate chop. That was COOL. And if you bent his arm his bicep would POP right up. I wanted to be Big Jim with a big bicep (or two) when I grew up. : But anyway I have been talking to God pretty much all of my life. Paula is no different. We share that, we share that intensity, or that congenital need for communion with God. Whatever you want to call it or however you want to characterize it, its all good. : Some of us are quite immersed in the teachings and beliefs of other cultures. In my life this has brought nothing but new perspective, and it has made me healthier and less arrogant and it has also brought some of the teachings found in the Bible into sharper focus, especially those concerned with kindness and patience. I believe you quoted recently from 1 Cor 13 on love... there is an awful lot of good stuff about compassion (as the Tibetans call it in english) in Tibetan Buddhism that really sheds a lot of light on the practice of agape love, as we call it. : There was a period in my life when it wasn't "ok" to look into these things - buddhism, zen etc. I understand that some people would have a hard time with some of these concepts. I remember burning a bunch of records. I remember throwing away D&D books. I've been there. I understand it. But the situation here on this board with the people who are active on it like Paula and Bill and myself and others is that we find outselves looking for answers to questions that are derived from somewhere deep within and we have developed a vocabulary that draws on many sources and so the way we frame these questions, or the answers to them, is couched in this vocabulary, or in the context of many of the things we have been looking into. Maybe we are asking uncommon questions, I don't know. Maybe we are asking all the age old questions that everyone is always asking. : I'll just speak for me now and not anyone else. I find that there are answers to questions that are readily available in other traditions / religions / schools of thought that are not so readily available in Christian thought. I find that where I see truth it does nothing but enhance the things that I have already learned. I feel absolutely indebted to certain thinkers who may or may not have been Christian at all, and I am thankful that they were in the world. : At the center for me is always Christ. At the end of my life, at the end of the world, I can only see one face, the face of Jesus, who is for me God incarnate. When I think of the light at the end that everyone is supposed to go to, there is necessarily a shape in that light which must be the countenance of God, and for me that countenance can only be represented in Jesus. That is MY testimony. : It may not be the testimony of others, and I would hope that anyone and everyone would be welcome here, to express whatever they want to express, to ask whatever they want to ask, and to share whatever it is that has been a help to them along the way. For my part if this board were to dumb itself down to the cliches that get recycled in American christianity as I have seen it I would very quickly lose interest. I am a thirsty student. Teach me. But don't tell me to shut up. : : : This will probably seem harsh, but I have to share what I think about this and other recent postings. : : I thought this was a Christian message board. : : I get tired of seeing posts about other religions here and the tolerance shown towards other "doctrines" or "prophesies" such as this and the "The Essential Kabbalah " as though they are "just alright". They aren't. Jesus said that not one will come to the Father except through Him. These other religions do not teach that. : : Why should we aim to be "more educated" in these other teachings when most of us cannot even name all the books of the bible, let alone in order! : : I don't know who the Hopis are, but we had better be careful not to put anything above the provision and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. There has been an awful lot of talk about the prophesy of non christian sources and interest in other "religions" or whatever lately. Please don't promote this over Christianity. I am sure there are a lot of people that visit this board other than our "crowd" and I am certain there are some that visit who are new in Christ and this type of thing might become a stumbling block to them. : : I don't think people spend enough time praying and reading the Bible, let alone to be encouraged to dabble in the recent ideas posted. : : The reason I say this is not to ask for legislation of the board, it is to plead with my family to continue looking toward the prize and continue on the correct path. : : Put your faith in Christ. : : : : I don't think there are words to properly honor what this man has written. We saw some of this on the news last night and it's tragic. The truth in this matter is so heavy it's suffocating. There will be no winners. This is the real stuff. The Hopis prophesized years ago that the West would end up on their bellies trying to survive. Here we are and here we go. God bless the world.

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