Posted by Rahab [Rahab] on March 31, 1999 at 13:55:17 {ohFII14TUcpGnXU/RvNMV/oSkQhGyc}:
Dear AF, Seeker , JH and Tap and any interested atheist/agnostics,
I wanted to reply to all of your comments regarding my �King and son Parable post�, at one time. I have so many thoughts that I am afraid I will end up writing too lengthy
a post. I will try my best to keep it as short as possible.If you would like more details or clarification on anything that I say, I will address it later. I also admit, what I say or my experience can not convince you of anything. I just
want to testify of His Love and hope that it will at least get you to think that possibly there is something to this. Please also I ask that you look up the scriptures referenced.
I want to be the first to say that I always have and always will question my own sanity! I will not pretend that I have it all together! If it were not for these past 15 years that I have known the Lord, and His faithfulness to me, I would not even begin to try to defend my relationship with Him. But as the scriptures say �If we are faithless, He remains faithful.� (2 Tim. 2:13)
I want to say from the start, I do not advocate a �religion�, but a �relationship� with God. Also I want you to know, I will not get my feelings hurt if you think I am �nuts� or a �fool�. I already expect that you will. You can even e-mail me if you want to say something to me that is not acceptable on H20. I just can�t hold back from proclaiming something I really believe to be true, however offensive it may seem to some (or most) here.
I had been raised a JW. I really loved Jehovah. �Religion� embittered me to what I perceived God to be. I knew I could never be good enough for Jehovah to love me. I got into drugs/alcohol anything that I could try to fill up this empty void in my life with.
Finally, at the age of 23 I no longer wanted to live. I had even attempted to end my life. The guilt and hopelessness was so overwhelming in my life that I could not bear to live another day.
I heard the message about Jesus and how he came so that we could have life, and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10) I heard that He took the penalty for our sin when he died for us. God proved that Jesus was who He claimed to be, by resurrecting Him.
God is Holy and God is just, and for us to have a relationship with him, we could not have sinned (past, present or future). We can never on our own be righteous enough for God to accept us. (Roman 3:20, Gal. 2:16)
But God, in His infinite Love, Grace and Mercy, sent His Son Jesus to pay the price that we could never pay. All that we have to do in order to have his forgiveness and relationship with God, is to accept what Jesus did
for us, and then His righteousness will be given to us. It is a gift of God that can not be earned. (Eph. 2:8)
God looks at us now through Jesus, and we now are reconciled to God, justified...just-as-if-we never sinned. (John
3:14-18, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 5:1-21)
When I came to Jesus and asked Him into my life, I did not make an intellectual evaluation of everything. That is not to say that it can�t be intellectually evaluated. I continually question and research things. I admit, there are things in the bible, that are hard to comprehend. But that doesn�t mean that the bible isn�t true and is wrong. In fact, science is catching up to things that the bible proclaimed long ago.We just don�t have the ability, in our human wisdom to understand everything.
But it seems people have this attitude �Show me and I�ll believe� but God says �Believe and I will show you.�
God wants our heart, and then everything else follows. To believe in God
and Jesus is not to intellectually acknowledge their existence. But the Greek word for �believe� means to �adhere to, trust in and rely upon.� He wants us to trust and have faith in Him. He wants us to come to him humbly and childlike. Not
childlike in ignorance, but childlike in dependence.
That morning that I gave my heart to Jesus, for the scriptures tell us to come to Him. The bible says that Jesus will reveal the Father. (Matt 11:27).
I didn�t tell anyone for several months that I had asked Jesus into my life, because I didn�t trust myself and my own mind. I wanted to be sure it was real...that God was real, that Jesus was real and that my experience was real. Like I said before, I am the first to question my mind. There was no one that was involved in my decision for Christ. Just me and God. From that moment on I was truly a new creation, in just one moment! I thought new thoughts. I had new desires. The interesting thing is, that it wasn�t necessarily thoughts and desires that I would have wanted to have. Who wants to realize that they need to ask forgiveness of someone? Who wants to realize that they need to say they are sorry? I didn�t want to think, �I can�t lie, that is wrong�, because it went against my old nature. But you see, something truly miraculous and supernatural happens when one really asks Jesus to come into their life. They become a new creation. They now have a new nature along with the old. (2 Cor. 5:17-21).
This new nature is what being �born-again� is all about. Jesus said in John 3: 3-8 �You must be born again, born of the Spirit.� Your spirit which was dead to God (which is the death that Adam and Eve brought into the human race) is now alive to God. God through the Holy Spirit indwells you. You are connected to God. The scriptures describe this �The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are a children of God.� (Romans 8:12-16)
Everything then starts to make sense to you. You see things very differently, for now you have the ability to see things with the Holy Spirit�s understanding, conviction and leading. The bible begins to make sense to you. It is something that transcends verbalization. (1 Cor. 2:1-16)
Believe and God will show you. He can�t show you until you trust and believe. Jesus did many signs and miracles. Still people did not believe in him. Sure they acknowledged his life and miracles, but they didn�t trust him. They attributed his miracles to something else. Just as you would say my changed life was the result of my willing myself to believe. Believe me, I can�t will myself to do anything! I have no confidence in �Rahab�.
I would agree with you that it would be an impossible thing to believe in Jesus now, so many years after his death and resurrection, if it were not for the Holy Spirit to help us to. (1 John 4:12+13, John 14:16-21, Eph. 1:13-14).
It seems one of the biggest reason people give why they can�t believe in God is because of hell. Let me say, (I know I will be ridiculed for this), I couldn�t believe God was just if there wasn�t a hell. I can�t say exactly what hell is, except that it is a place of eternal separation from God.
It is very difficult to go to hell. No one will ever go there unless they choose to. Let me put it to you like this: It seems I get from many of you that you say that you don�t need or want God in your life, right? Well, then I guess you won�t mind being eternally separated from him. Now that�s not so bad now is it? You got your desire.
Now God on the other hand, wants to have a relationship with you. He longs for you to be with him for all of eternity. You don�t think that it is an accident did you, that you are reading this message. He is calling out to you. How will you respond?
God is a just, holy and righteous God. He must by his very nature punish sin. Let�s say you had a child viciously murdered by some serial killer. And his killer was brought before the courts. The judge looks at the evidence and admits that your child killer is guilty but says �I am loving so I set you free. You do not have to spend any time in prison.� You would be so happy that your child�s killer went free wouldn�t you? Of course you would not! You would be outraged! What kind of fair Judge would set a killer free? What kind of God would not punish sin?
No one can say they have never sinned. It doesn�t matter what kind of person you are, compared to God you are a sinner. It only take one sin, to make us a sinner. But the Good News, the Gospel is that He provided His son to take the punishment for you that you deserved.(1 Cor. 15:1-4)
The only requirement is: for you to acknowledge your sin and your need for his salvation and then trust in what Christ did for you. He then seals you with the Holy Spirit, and you are a now a new creation, born from above, born-again.
Believe and you will see! No one is beyond the love and reach of God, if they truly want to know Him.
In the Love of My Savior,
Rahab