Yesterday someone reached out to me that is from my past and is also Catholic and asked if I entered a cult. The answer is no. I haven't. I'll get my story posted on the blog sometime soon. But the short answer is the reason I am doing this is because for the last 14 years I have watched people fight, argue, sever relationships, slander, leave churches, all the while rarely to never attempting to live their own faith at all. Almost giving the impression that God is their magic genie in the bottle. I don't care if you are Catholic, Methodist, Protestant, Seventh Day Adventist, or even Jehovah Witness or Mormon. Personally I was baptized Catholic. I was also baptized at least a half dozen other times in the Protestant Church. Sharing my faith journey will hopefully give you the tools to interact daily with God on such a deeper level that not only does it inspire a change in the depth of your belief in God, but it changes your belief of God's existance to a personal knowledge of God and daily relationship with God. If your response to that statement is "that is WAY to religious! You have gone WAY over the deep end." Maybe, maybe not. But that's between me, my wife, and God. Everyone is going to define God differently. It's not my job to judge you, how you define God, or even if you define God. In my humble opinion that's God's job, I tried to be God for over 30 years and failed miserably at the job. Reading scripture, absorbing different perspectives, using different spiritual disciplines, interacting with God throughout your day to seek God's wisdom and will leads to better choices. Better choices lead to a better quality of life. I don't even consider myself a Christian. Me calling myself a Christian is an insult to the first century real Christians. They changed the definition of what a "Christian" is a whole bunch over the last 1,900 years or so. I'm just a disciple of Jesus. I'm just a guy, trying to love God, and love my neighbors each day teaching others how to do the same.
Read Matthew chapter 3 today. Today's sermon is from Verve again. Determining your level of belief impacts your life. As your level of belief gets deeper, expect your first natural impulses to change. It may also increase the amount of time and service you give to your neighbors, friends, and family. If you're one of those people who want to keep your faith private I respect that. Check out Vince's sermon Deist to Theist.
What if Jesus really meant what he said in the beatitudes and the gospel when he told us how to live? What if everything we've learned all our life about Christianity was based on definitions which led to us receiving inaccurate data? What if we have rejected the existence of God because we made our decision not to believe based on those inaccurate definitions, what we were taught in our youth, or what we were taught in school, or by the lives and actions of other Christians?
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