Here is a paper I wrote concerning some studies I did concerning other religions and what effect it had on my beliefs. I thought it was interesting and it inspired me to do some serious examination of my faith just by writing it and I hope it does the same for you by reading it. As always, I welcome your comments and as you probably know by now, It's The Truth AnyHow and The Truth, It Is What It Is. Enjoy.
When I entered this course I had a pretty solid view of faith and my beliefs , so my expectations was to learn about other faiths and compare them to my own and maybe get a better understanding of people. My intent with this new understanding would be to use it to communicate to other who believes differently than me. This would help me tremendously since my profession calls for me to interact with people of different faiths and denominations. But this didn't happen exactly as I planned. I blame this unexpected result of what I gained from this class on my idea of what faith is and the method of how this course was taught.
See I use to think of myself as a believer in God coming from a Christian point of view. If it could be compared to politics, I would be considered an independent coming from a Republican point of view. The bible believing, devil stomping, spiritual version of a Bill Oreily if you would.
I came to this conclusion because of several factors ( Oreily Factors, get it, lol). One of these factors is the fact that as a child I was raised as part of The Church of God In Christ organization. I married someone who was raised as part of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization (imagine our shock when we found out there wasn't any J's in the Hebrew language) .
Another reason is that as an adult I have been a member of many different Christian organizations. I have gone from Baptist to Pentecostals to Holiness and then on to non-denominational. In fact I would be so bold as to say I was a church hopper until my wife became secretary of a non-denominational organization of which we both became interactively involve in, with me becoming a minister and then on to assistant Pastor. I later became a pastor and founded Reigning Truth Ministries of which I am now a member.
So with all this experience, I could boldly say my belief was accurate.
Now having this accurate belief in who I am, I based my faith on something that I learned from the bible. This lesson that I learned from the bible changed my perspective on things and it changed how I received information and ideas. This powerful lesson that forged my belief of what faith is can be found in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 verses 1, 3, and 6. It reads
"Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
These verses changed me forever. What they showed me was what faith is and its power and how to use it. I don't have time to go into all of details of the transformation and every thing it entails but for the sake of understanding, I will give u some particulars.
I will first share this knowledge about faith. Everything that is, was, and shall be , at its core is made and continue to exist because of faith. It is an amazing fact that scientists cannot fully explain why atoms exist or how to they continue to exist without blowing up. It is some unexplainable force or power, I am told, that keeps this from happening, I believe this to be faith.
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Next information I would share about faith is that faith cannot be seen no more than the wind can be seen. When an opposing point of view is brought to my attention I just simple explain to whomever that the results of faith can be seen but not faith itself (like the wind), if u can see it's not faith but a product of faith( like the wind), hence, the saying "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26).
Thirdly I will relay the fact that without faith I cannot please God and if that is the case ( and it is) than I need to know what faith is which brings up my fourth discovery about faith and that is its definition.
The definition of Faith is faith. Confuse?
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Don't worry I will explain. Faith, like God, cannot be define which is the reason humans give it so many names, like God. We call it things like confidence, trust, belief, loyalty, luck, magic, positive thinking, and the list goes on, like God.
(by the way, the word 'luck' has a root meaning of "being blessed by Lucifer or Loki" but that's another study yet still interesting when listening and compared to the video.)
Since faith cannot be define we call it whatever suits the situation at the time, like God. (I can prove it but I must move on). Now I may not be able to define faith but I can define the God pleasing faith. God pleasing faith knows that God exist and He rewards those who diligently seek him. Now what was translated 'diligently seek' is the Greek word 'ekzēteō
'. Ekzēteō is better understood( especially for this paper) in today's English as 'to seek out, i.e. investigate,'. So basically you are pleasing God with your faith when investigate Him, or anything associated with Him ( which is any and everything)and not just accepting and calling Him anything that just suits the situation, like faith. Also because you are seeking him or looking for things that declare He is ( which is any and everything if searched enough) you know He will reward you or because of your searching you will be rewarded by Him.
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This leads back to the subject of this paper. Because of how this class was taught, it caused me to investigate others faith. The method of having the class write papers which put us as a believer in that particular faith combined with the technique of having to defend /prove a thought that was not ours caused me to investigate my own beliefs weather I wanted to or not. I don't think the results would have been the same had you not used both techniques.
Now there is two more lessons from the bible that I must mention as I end this report. One is the principal of sowing and reaping which is its simplest form is 0+0=0 and 2 x10=20 and 5x10=50. In English that means the more you put in the more return you get. The next principal is called seed harvesting. This in its simplest form is 1 +2 does not = a or if you plant apples you will not harvest oranges , better said as every seed MUST produce after its own kind.
With those two added lessons from the bible I am simple saying that my faith GREW tremendously because I put a lot of God pleasing faith in and I got a lot of God pleasing faith in return. Thank you for allowing me to use my faith.
Below is a clip of a message I spoke about 3 years ago concerning faith, Selah and The Truth, It Is What It Is.
