Isaiah 25:9, "This is our God. We trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is the LORD, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation He brings." 26:1-9, "We are surrounded by the walls of God’s salvation. Open the gates to all who are righteous; allow the faithful to enter. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock... But for those who are righteous, the way is not steep and rough. You are a God who does what is right, and You smooth out the path ahead of them. Lord, we show our trust in You by obeying your laws; our heart’s desire is to glorify Your name. All night long I search for You; in the morning I earnestly seek for God."
When I sit and think about other religions/other gods, my heart is light compared to the loads that others carry because of the gods they follow. With New Age, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism... all religions that either believe in reincarnation or earning your way to the celestial heavens, these teachings are so strict, and what seems to me, hopeless.
With reincarnation, how unfair this seems to me. You live your life all to pay for this life in your next life. When something bad happens to you in this life it is passed off as karma. But with karma you have no idea why you deserve the punishment you are given. You are not given the chance to make right what you once made wrong and if you are truly evil you just come back as a bug. The Hindu belief is one of constant suffering and punishment all because of something that you did in your past life, and now in blindness to what it was, you are having to make right what you once made wrong. In Buddhism you are having to live and relive this life until you finally, once again in blindness, make right what you once made wrong. With both, there is a cast system that puts people where they belong because of sins they have no idea they committed. Everyone gets what they deserve, because of something they once did. With Mormonism, you are constantly having to do works in order to obtain the celestial heavens. There is no grace and once again you are bound to works.
I can see the lure of all of these religions. In Hinduism, there are over 300,000,000 different gods. You can choose the god you serve. You not only can choose the god, but the different parts of the god that appeal to you the most. If you like this god for these attributes, but another for theirs, you merely have to combine the two until you get just what you want. In Buddhism, there really is no god to answer to. You just go through life until you finally reach Nirvana. The lure of Mormonism is the lure of becoming god. You will one day not only be with god in the celestial heavens, but you will become god.
But I serve a God unlike all other gods. I worship Him in a way that none of these other gods offer. I serve a God that made the heavens and the earth. I serve a God that took compassion upon me and came to earth for all my sins. I do not have to work my way into the celestial heavens. I do not have to come back again to this life and make right what I have done wrong. He has already cleansed me of every wrong that I have ever done or will do in the future. He does not ask me to tear at my body with whips or to pay with penance everyday that I live for the wrongs that I have done in the past. All that He asks of me is to love Him the best that I can for this moment, today. I can look and see if I am doing the right thing, for everyday of my life I can read in His word the instructions for living. He does not want me to run blindly through life, for He has given me His Holy Spirit to help me as I study Him. As I seek Him in the mornings, my life is filled with knowing I will be safe because of what He has paid.
Oswald Chambers, "Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. The experience the psalmist speaks of— “We will not fear, even though...” (Psalm 46:2)— will be ours once we are grounded on the truth of the reality of God’s presence, not just a simple awareness of it, but an understanding of the reality of it. Then we will exclaim, “He has been here all the time!” At critical moments in our lives it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it should be unnecessary to be constantly saying, “Oh, Lord, direct me in this, and in that.” Of course He will, and in fact, He is doing it already! If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence."
"Mehul Gandhi, a devout Hindu, said that he found the cross of Christ to be the most overwhelming aspect of the Christian faith and singularly unique. Martin Luther King himself, voiced the same," (RZ). There is a quiet assurance in following Christ. There is a peace that no one else can give. Have you taken hold of that peace today. It is daily that we must seek Him and daily that we must choose to live for Him. Are you following Him today? Or are you settling for someone else that only offers a cheap imitation of salvation through work, not through love? He loved us enough to come to earth for us, to offer us Salvation by Grace, through the Cross. It was His work that purified us. It is His love that He offers. Do I love Him enough to allow Him to change my life?
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