Note:Everything in this blog is completely and totally serious. I use a lot of sarcasm in the other six blogs, but I assure you sarcasm will have no place here. Please know that everything I write here is written with sincerity and humility
Shalom! Life is good. Life is very very good. When the spirit is at peace, it seems like everything else just falls into place. Everything works. That's sort of a loose interpretation of what "shalom" means. Any language using that as it's primary greeting receives my full endorsement.
Spirituality is a cornerstone of history, culture, society, and life itself. No endeavor more than spirituality has impacted mankind more. Spirituality created religion - a standardized method of enacting one's spirituality. Religion has its pros and cons, and can do a lot of good for a lot of people. But it can also harm if used as a tool of manipulation. Religion without spirituality is extremely dangerous and almost always used for harm. The pursuit of spirituality by the majority of our fair planet is what gave religion its power, and I think a lot of people are starting to discover that they want more of one and less of the other.
I am a born-again, holy spirit filled Christian. But what does that mean? Isn't that just a name for a set religion? What does "Christ" mean?
It certainly wasn't a guy's last name. Jesus was given the title Christ which comes from the Greek "Khristos" meaning "anointed". It was a title given to him in Greek chiefly by the apostle Paul long after Jesus had left this earth. Anointing in this case has a clear connection to divinity. The power and the miracles that Jesus displayed on this earth and the influence he still has today are a direct reflection of his own anointing - his divine power.
So, when I say I'm a Christian, I don't mean that I belong to a religion. When I call someone a Christian, I don't mean that they are part of a religion. When I say Christian, I'm talking about the spiritual anointing that Jesus himself had. A Christian is an individual that has regained their anointing from God.
I say regained because it has been given to everyone. It's a gift - an endowment to all mankind. But some large number of years ago, a fellow named Adam and a lady named Eve introduced sin into the world, and we've been doing it ever since. And that is how the anointing is lost. The divine power of God that we're all supposed to have is taken from us by our own sins. We have to get rid of the sin in order to get that power back.
So how do we get rid of sin? It's simple. Something has to die. In the time of Moses and Abraham and leading right up to the day of Jesus, one would pray and pass the sins to an animal. Then, the animal is destroyed and the sin right along with it.
Well, when mankind was ready, a new sacrificial lamb was sent to this earth. God himself came to earth and lived a life free of sin. During his time here, he showed us how to live and how to regain the anointing, and then he died. But it wasn't just a physical death as with the animals of the old testament. On a spiritual level, outside of the bounds of space and time, every sin that was ever committed and every sin that ever would be committed was placed on Jesus Christ and he was destroyed and was sent to Hell because one cannot enter Heaven under the weight of sin.
Now conisder that. A person says something mean, and they feel bad. A person knocks someone down and hurts them, and they feel worse. A person kills another person, and they feel terrible! Sin is a huge weight. When we sin, it takes a terrible toll on us mentally.
So imagine living a sinless life, avoiding temptation, and dealing with the struggles of the everyday world, and then after you've helped so many people in so many ways, you have to take all of their sins and the sins of their ancestors and descendents on your shoulders. It's impossible to think about - all that sin at once! Then Jesus had to go to Hell!
And that was the plan all along. Jesus was the avenue for God to enter Hell and take what Satan had stolen from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden so long ago. 3 Earth days later (who knows what that is in Hell days), Jesus had defeated Satan, and he rose from the dead and all mankind was given the chance to regain the anointing.
I have taken Jesus up on his offer because the power of God seems an extremely useful tool to have in your arsenal.
However, I am a long way from perfect, and I have to repent regularly just the same as any other God-fearing individual. So, in what will become a regular part of this blog, I will repent publicly for everything I write during the week that offends anyone or that I deem was sinful to write. As for everything else that I do, well, that's going to stay between me and the big guy.
Periodic Penitence:
Dear heavenly father...
- Forgive me for making light of Alcoholism in the Spectating Savant on Monday. It is a problem that plagues a lot of people, and I apologize for trivializing it
- Forgive me for making Nancy Pelosi out to be a man in the Political Pariah on Tuesday. Also, forgive me for suggesting that she is unqualified for her position with little to no evidence supporting the claim.
- Forgive me for comparing playing Nintendo to having sex in Video Gaming Virtuoso on Thursday.
- Forgive me for the story I wrote on Friday in An Alliterated Blog Name. I didn't write anything explicit, but there were certainly implications of sex and violence.
That's it, I hope you liked the first week of patrickjdobson.com!
Tschüs!