Hmm perhpas at the beginning new convert expects much from fellow
believers. But the truth is any Christian should only look at Jesus
and not passing judgment of Jesus teaching on people who claim
Christians. Otherwise the convert is only following the masses. And
when fellow Christians are letting him down he would lose the faith
and instead of seeking God he would seek companion in his new found
community(though nothing wrong with that) but the purpose of being
a Christian is not to find a new community but rather to be Jesus
follower and to get to know God so that God grants him salvation
that is life after death and if lucky power after death. If lucky
without having to wait if not after spending some time . . .
.
anyway I'd be more than happy to share with you
At first I just believed because I grew up in a Catholic family and
I has been baptized since baby. Then when I was in my 7th grade I
was given a vision of Jesus while being fully awake. God then gave
me a strong love for Jesus so that I could ask something from Him
and I did. I asked to be allowed to see Jesus face as all the
pictures of Jesus are only man made. Was immediately given the
vision of Jesus. I was expecting to see a man in robe but I saw a
being enclosed with such an immense white light that even His
slightest figure was not able to be seen. The light was coming from
the direction of His face. I tried stubbornly to look in the
direction of His face for several time until God made both my
eyeballs hurt because of the sheer intensity of the light which was
coming out from the direction of His face.
And I knew It wasChrist because I just asked to be allowed to see
Him and I knew that Christ was truly without sin, the only 'man'
worth defending and fighting for. I expected to see a man but was
confronted with something beyond my wildest expectation. Now I know
that Christ is alive and glorified. I know that Christ is my God,
my savior.
There are other things I'd like to share with you but I think this
is enough for now. Darn typos everywhere.
I agree with you that a new convert expects much from fellow
believers. I did experienced that disappointment before. As for
looking only at Jesus instead of his followers, how shld
we evaluate any teaching/organization? Shld we look
at what is preached, or what is done? ("Do what I say, don't do
what I do.") We have an entire group of people forming a Church to
learn abt God, so we'd expect the results of that learning to
be expressed in the organizational culture (and therefore behavior
of the believers as individuals and as a group).
Looking at the recent AWARE saga, the new exco (comprising
mostly women from COOS, with support of 100 new members with <=3
months membership) hijack a well respected organization built
up with 25 yrs of sweat and toil from the old guards. The biggest
contention was not about the homosexual issue, but how the new exco
plotted to overthrow the old guards in a very sneaky and
underhanded manner. And it was precisely the good will and
inclusive nature of AWARE that allowed the new exco to succeed.
This incident will create distrust in NGOs, if I'm in charge of an
NGO, I'll change the constitution to prevent this kind of
coup.
Quoting from http://blog.alicecheong.com/?p=395,
Ms Mathi said: ‘The building of an institution takes many years;
building its value system is even harder... Why can’t they come in
and be part of the process, and build it together and in a more
evolutionary manner? That way, the comfort level will be high for
everyone.’
I feel that the ten commandments were violated,
- You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.
And the new exco terminated the services of the AWARE
centre manager (in the midst of a severe recession, this can affect
an entire family's livelihood).
-----
Thank you for sharing on your visions of Jesus. Pardon me for
bursting the bubble, but visions are a common occurence.
Hitler heard a voice that saved his life, and he thought he was the
next messiah (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/osshitler1.html). And
how do you know that the vision was not a natural phenomenon (like
dreams), or a trick by the Devil?
