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Since I was a young child I had always been taught that Jesus loved me. I had always sung "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" and "Jesus Loves the Children of the World" with conviction. But now suddenly they were telling us that it wasn't enough to love God and Jesus. We had to have a Born Again Experience where we acknowledged our sins, tearfully apparently, and ask for forgiveness. And that would become the Moment of Salvation.
Since I was a young child I had always been taught that Jesus loved me. I had always sung "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" and "Jesus Loves the Children of the World" with conviction. But now suddenly they were telling us that it wasn't enough to love God and Jesus.
We had to have a Born Again Experience where we acknowledged our sins, tearfully apparently, and ask for forgiveness. And that would become the Moment of Salvation.
Apparently loving Jesus wasn't salvation enough.
That's what Born Again means to people now..?..tearfully asking for forgiveness, etc? Oh.
I didn't know loving Jesus was 'the thing' either...I thought it was 'believing' everything in the Nicene Creed.
Btw, Mods, this isn't meant to be a Christian thread...2 verses were from the OT.
Even Krishna says, Focus on Me and you will surely find Me. See?
I'm picturing a lonely widow sitting alone at a dining table, so lonely she could die. She prays this verse, "Jesus, you said you'd come and sup with me if I just called on you. I hear your voice at the door. Come in and dine with me please."
She's done all the church stuff all her life--sung hymns at service, prayed, taken part in church drives and other activities and generally immersed herself in Christian life. Magically, Jesus appears and he looks just like all the pictures of the Caucasian bearded long haired Jesus she's come to know. She recognizes him instantly and invites him in. He enters and sits with her and chats with her and they have a grand time.
Her neighbor next door is in the same boat--widowed, lonely. But this widow has never gone to church and has never even though of Jesus until this moment. She also prays this prayer and waits for Jesus to come to her door to knock. And she waits. And she waits. And she waits. And she waits all night but Jesus never knocks. Exhausted she stumbles into her bedroom and takes a bottle of sleeping pills with a 5th of Bourbon.
I'm picturing a lonely widow sitting alone at a dining table, so lonely she could die. She prays this verse, "Jesus, you said you'd come and sup with me if I just called on you. I hear your voice at the door. Come in and dine with me please."
She's done all the church stuff all her life--sung hymns at service, prayed, taken part in church drives and other activities and generally immersed herself in Christian life. Magically, Jesus appears and he looks just like all the pictures of the Caucasian bearded long haired Jesus she's come to know. She recognizes him instantly and invites him in. He enters and sits with her and chats with her and they have a grand time.
Her neighbor next door is in the same boat--widowed, lonely. But this widow has never gone to church and has never even though of Jesus until this moment. She also prays this prayer and waits for Jesus to come to her door to knock. And she waits. And she waits. And she waits. And she waits all night but Jesus never knocks. Exhausted she stumbles into her bedroom and takes a bottle of sleeping pills with a 5th of Bourbon.
Since I was a young child I had always been taught that Jesus loved me. I had always sung "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" and "Jesus Loves the Children of the World" with conviction. But now suddenly they were telling us that it wasn't enough to love God and Jesus. We had to have a Born Again Experience where we acknowledged our sins, tearfully apparently, and ask for forgiveness. And that would become the Moment of Salvation.
Apparently loving Jesus wasn't salvation enough.
Salvation is very broad, and salvation isn't being born again. I have no doubt you are saved, being born again is to become a priest.
(Btw, in, "Life in the World Unseen"...the first thing I noticed : that a simple, sweet, young woman,
hadn't gone to church.. sure, she believed in a God...was in the exact same place as a priest. Ha!
This is on the Other Side...)
So tell us your idea, thrill....btw, how ya been?
Wait!...The second widow didn't open a door? Do we get a prize?
When I read the verse now I see it as more of an Old Testament thing now. But a child
has no hopes of understanding something so symbolic.
Is it symbolic? "Open the door to me"...ok, granted...open your heart's door...notice he didn't say beg, cry, plead, give to charities...
or any other number of things...'open the door if you hear my voice'...I WILL come...
Pretty strong message...unless John of Patma made it up, dreamed it.
Is it symbolic? "Open the door to me"...ok, granted...open your heart's door...notice he didn't say beg, cry, plead, give to charities...
or any other number of things...'open the door if you hear my voice'...I WILL come...
Pretty strong message...unless John of Patma made it up, dreamed it.
Perhaps the question is, what does it mean to "hear his voice" in the first place? And since it says "if" not "when", what did the author think it took to be able to hear?
Here's the whole section:
‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.'
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