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W HAT I BELIEVEKathy Bernard - Publisher “For the Scriptures say, 'As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.” – Romans 14:11
Do you believe in
reality of God and Jesus Christ? MANY people
stand on the precipice of indecision, hoping
for clear cut proof. They cannot hear God
speaking within that place called soul. Others
do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God and is our Savior. If you talk to someone about this belief and what
it means, they may take this as a clever ruse to rattle their thinking, and it is hard for
them to understand what is very clear to us as believing Christian Catholics.
I am a believer in God, the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son, and God, the
Holy Spirit. It is by faith that I believe, a faith that the bible in Hebrews 11:1
describes“faith
is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith
opened the doors to the relationship I now enjoy today with God the Father. He is the living entity that lives within my
consciousness and sustains all that I need to make my way to Him someday. I believe and trust that Jesus Christ, His Son,
shed His blood as foretold in the scriptures, made payment for my sins and all who believe
that He died and rose again in this fulfillment of the bible will be saved. I know
personally the Comforter called the Holy Spirit Who is a constant in my life. And I
believe implicitly in the bible for it is the window of understanding the teaching of
Almighty God and the Son Who brought salvation to me.
It is a detailed account, with instructions, God wants me to follow. Through it, I forge a path to my relationship with
Jesus Christ. To believe in God is to be humble and admit that nothing I can do will save me from from that sinful nature we all inherit. It is through God’s eternal love and grace alone that saves me because I cannot save myself. Perhaps this is a theory deeply rooted in our faith that some find puzzling and unacceptable. I attest to an infinitely perfect God Who is my heavenly Father, Who eternally exists as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sharing a Divine Nature. I know by the power of the Holy Spirit that God is the creator of the universe, my heavenly Father Who made all mankind in His image. He loves me so much that He made sure that I and all those who are willing could come to know Him so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to pay the debt we owe Him for the sin we commit. People
might ask, “Why do you believe?” The
answer “I believe by faith” is substantiated by the word of God in the bible,
and I trust in those sacred, inspired writings.
There is nothing in this life that I cannot find an answer to, for it contains all
I need to make it to glory. It is an answer others might scoff at, since that isn’t the
kind of proof they seek and there is a sly judgment or much humorous musing before they
walk away, caught up in what they feel is their reality of this life. And there are some who concede that there must be
a God because they can see the evidence of His creation and yet they refuse to accept the
Son, Jesus Christ because it is too big of a stretch to accept that the Son of God came
down to earth as a human being and by His death and resurrection we are able to, through
faith and acceptance, gain entry to eternal heaven. I believe that Jesus Christ is God, the incarnate Son, the second person of the Trinity Who came to offer salvation. Whoever accepts Him gains the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, and through that Holy Spirit we have our verification of all that Jesus, our Lord, taught. I believe in the life of Jesus Christ and His ministry. It was He Who was foretold in Isaiah Chapter 53 of the Old Testament as the Savior Who would carry all our sins to the cross and pay for them with His life. I also believe in His eternal pre-existence before He came to earth to save us, and stand firm in the assurance of His virgin birth, His sinless life, all His miracles, and His sacrificial death on the cross. I am confident in my certainty He rose from the dead. I believe He ascended into heaven, and is rightfully seated at the right hand of God, the Father. And I fully believe He will return one day in glory to resurrect us all for judgment. I believe this because the bible tells me so, and the Holy Spirit Who lives within confirms it. Those of us who persevere on this earth will go home with Him and live forever in His Father’s kingdom. There
are those who say that Jesus was a good man, a great teacher, and an incomparable prophet. I say He was the Son of God with all these
attributes or He was the greatest liar this world has known for He claimed to be the Son
of God. He claimed to be God Himself. He was the beginning of Christianity, the bearer
of eternity, the hope of all who want salvation. In a short life of only thirty three years, He became one of
the most influential men in the history of the world, and His works shine through even
today. Those who flounder can gain
credence in believing in Jesus by the Apostles’ eyewitness accounts to the fact that
Christ lived, He died, and He was resurrected from the grave. Some paid with their lives for continuing to
spread this message of Christ to those who thirsted to hear in spite of danger. I know, through common reasoning, no one would
give up precious life for blatant untruth. Consider
St. Paul, known as Saul before his conversion, who was NOT an eyewitness to Christ or the
crucifixion. What the apostles shared with
Jesus Christ was a physical fact, but St. Paul witnessed it in a spiritual vision on the
road to Damascus. Please consider that Saul who later became Paul was
a dedicated and avid persecutor of all Jews who believed in Jesus, watching with full
approval the stoning of Stephen, a leading Jewish convert. Read Acts 6 and 7. Unlike
the Twelve Apostles he came with apostolic authority that was based on his revelation from
the resurrected Jesus Christ. Read
about it in Galatians 1:11-12. This reversal
and conversion to Jesus was a complete turnabout because Jesus Himself stepped into his life and Saul answered that call. Why would a prominent man give up so much? Because
he believed. Today I owe much to
the fact that this Jewish man named Saul, later known as St. Paul became the apostle to
the Gentiles. He tells “Dear
brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not
based on mere human reasoning. I received my message from no human source, and no one
taught me. Instead, I received it by direct
revelation from Jesus Christ”. St. Paul willingly died for his beliefs. I trust in the tenet of the Holy Spirit as a co-equal with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is my Watchdog for earthly sin, my Conscience, my Comforter, and my Yardstick to the truth that was promised to me by Jesus Christ Who speaks of this in John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” This Holy Spirit empowers me to make rightful choices in full obedience to the teachings of the Son. Those who accept the salvation of Jesus Christ are blessed with this holy gift that Jesus promised to give as He returned to God, the Father. (John 14:26)
I accept that the ways of God cannot be understood except through
prayer, faith, trust and reading His sacred Word which points the way to the
recesses of the soul, a soul that we all possess. It is here that we encounter God’s
presence in the form of the Holy Spirit. It
is knowledge that is implanted there at birth and it waits for us to recognize and
activate its heavenly power, and it is within that
soul that this gift will vindicate our awareness of God’s existence.
I firmly believe God to be absolute. He speaks to me during the dark hours of this earthly life, giving hope in this sin sick world. He has matched His mighty steps to mine and continues to sustain me when I thirst for justice, and offers hope where there is no hope. Although we live in this imperfect world and face our adversaries of sickness and discouragement, hatred and losses, disillusionment and finally death, God is a God of truth and on this I depend for He does not lie. All mankind is entitled to establish and foster, through prayer and trust in God’s word, a personal relationship that will eradicate the skepticism from the unbeliever. We are all aware that we go to God in times of need, but many have not explored the full extent of what it means to be on a “one on one” level. We sometimes forget we are created in His Image, therefore we share on a human level a God-like association. This is the spiritual joining that we are all born with, our basic link so to speak, whether it is recognized or not. Our Heavenly Father is no longer that unseen entity that makes Him unapproachable except from a worshipful distance. Through our relationship, He invites you and I to approach His throne of mercy with confidence for we are His children. The more I pray, the closer I am to Him, and I began to know the joy of fulfillment that God intends all of us to have. He offers me small miracles as reminders that He loves me. And I know it is from His hand. Like a lover, He sometimes offers me a tiny treat to let me know He is there to cheer me on. What would I do without Him? When friends desert, who will come to my aid? Who would I run to in times of trouble? Who would be there 24 hours a day and always listen and calm my wounded spirit? And what human could reach down deep into the recesses of my earthly sorrows to ignite a small spark of hope that I did not know was there? God can. IF you sin, the great deceiver Satan will tell you “You are mine now”. He will constantly remind you of the sin that you committed. “God doesn’t care about you anymore so give it up and follow me. He won’t forget, you know, there is no forgiveness for you. You may as well enjoy yourself while you can. You are a sinner now and you will never be anything else. But don’t worry about it, I don’t care if you sin.” But
Jesus Christ, that Almighty Prince of Peace, will lift you up as a rare, precious and
unique jewel and say, “I have already paid for your broken and sinful life. I have looked down from the cross on Calvary
through the annals of time and saw you even then committing this very sin. I already paid for you through the shedding of my
blood. But you must hand me that sin so I can
cleanse it and make it as white as snow. He
implores me “Come, I will make you brand new. Ask
for my free gift of forgiveness and by the mighty power of My Father, I will forgive you
so all your sins will be erased from My Father’s memory forever. Confess it, go, and sin no more.” (See John 8:11). I
do not have the world to fear, for men can kill my body but can never kill or destroy my
soul (Matthew 10:28). Someday I will live forever in the kingdom of my loving
Father. God promised it, Jesus Christ died
for it, and I believe it. I rest my case.
“You
are my Savior. You have saved me from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. And so I walk in the Your presence
as I live here on earth!”
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