When I came to know the Lord change was easy. How could I not?
But coming to know God and salvation, is not what this thread is about.
But I am not talking about coming to know God or ones salvation experience. The reason for this thread is rather the change [by choice] that only comes twice in all the history of the world--perhaps in a multitude of different ways--but only twice.
The first came after Israel was steeped in their way of following God for millennia, when along came John the Baptist, saying "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" Repent--you mean change? To them, they were as right as right could be (sound familiar?). They were refined in their way of seeking God to the nth degree, more than the world had ever known--the fear of every other nation! Change?--I don't think so! And, except for the few, they did not.
And after Jesus Messiah came to the house of Israel and finished His work, what did He say? "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd." The gentiles (every other nation and people). The second fold. Twice.
The change from our way--that way that seems so right--is now come upon us. But who will now even consider learning from the past, at the risk of loosing their religion?
But coming to know God and salvation, is not what this thread is about.
Briefly for introduction: I did not know there was a God, but felt the weight of the world--as we all do in our own way. For me, it was as if I was set up, I suppose I was. I suppose we all are. I mean, each of us enter the world in our own time, place, and in a variety of circumstances. But before us all lies a path upon which we stumble where we are forced to make a choice, a choice of what we believe. But it's more than that, it's a choice of who we are and what we will do based on what is inside us, in our soul. And if there is the smallest doubt or draw, we seem powerless--or perhaps empowered--to seek it out, to know its source; and that seemingly becomes who we are, or who we were at our core. Of this I am now certain.
For me--I'll not go into it in full--life began like a nursery rhyme, not easy, but good, and it all went the way I thought it should go. Then when I was on top of my little world, with a wife, two children, and my own moderately successful and growing business--tragedy struck. I say tragedy, because it gutted my everything. I was a victim of crime, that is, my business was--three consecutive times--and I lost it all: my marriage, separated from my children by bitterness, and my livelihood and assets.
There's much more, but that was just the beginning of a downward spiral to my very end, at which time--that time of my choice, my valley of decision--I called out to a God I never new...and He answered, and everything changed. And when I say He answered--I mean, like Paul on the road to Damascus--I was caught up to the third heaven, above the earth through the door of heaven into the presence of God, changed, and returned. Changed--like I said, how could I not?
For many, most perhaps, things are not so dramatic, some so subtle it is but a whisper.
But I am not talking about coming to know God or ones salvation experience. The reason for this thread is rather the change [by choice] that only comes twice in all the history of the world--perhaps in a multitude of different ways--but only twice.
The first came after Israel was steeped in their way of following God for millennia, when along came John the Baptist, saying "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" Repent--you mean change? To them, they were as right as right could be (sound familiar?). They were refined in their way of seeking God to the nth degree, more than the world had ever known--the fear of every other nation! Change?--I don't think so! And, except for the few, they did not.
And after Jesus Messiah came to the house of Israel and finished His work, what did He say? "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd." The gentiles (every other nation and people). The second fold. Twice.
The change from our way--that way that seems so right--is now come upon us. But who will now even consider learning from the past, at the risk of loosing their religion?
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