My post is not related to B_T_S, it,'s related to religionbut I really felt the need to answer. From my personal experience I know that God is just amazing.Discovering Him was the most beautiful and fascinating experience of my life. I was born into an Orthodox Christian family(I live in Eastern Europe and the majority of people here are Orthodox and I just looove my religion and I wouldn't change it for nothing in this world.)
Christianity is just the most beautiful and perfect religion ever, but unfortunately many people don't appreciate it or don't actually know what the true Christianity is. There are so many Christian sects and cults and they have different interpretations of the Bible and this is not OK. And I don't want to offend anybody and I respect everybody but not all of the religions or cults are correct, because there can't be more truths but One truth. And Jesus Christ said that He is the Truth AND the Life.And the Orthodox Church never changed over the centuries and it is based on Jesus Christ Himself. But again I respect everybody's beliefs as long as their beliefs don't affect negatively the others.
But even if I was raised in a pretty religious family I was far away from God and my mind was full of bad thoughts and I was suffering from anxiety and I was about to make a big mistake that could have distroyed my life, but God protected me and now I am so thankful.
It's not about going to hell or heaven. It's about having a relationship with God,it's about letting Him embrace you and about accepting His love. Heaven(or I should say God's Kingdom) and hell are first of all in our hearts. If you let God love you and heal you and if you live with and for Him everything becomes easier. When you love someone you are able to do a lot of things for that person even if it seems hard.
God's commandments for example are not given to us to irritate us or make us feel pressed or stressed because we can't do what we want, but to guide us in life and to protect us from what could harm us and destroy outlr lives. And sins destroy us and we can't deny this,because we see what's happening in the world. When we sin our life our life becomes a chaos and sin doesn't affect only me but also the people around me. The commandments are actually God's love for us. God is not threatening us, He is warning us:"Don't do this because you will suffer." And we can see what's happening in the world:so many addictions,so much pain. We all have free will and people choose to sin and then they suffer. The suffering is not God's punishment, but the consequence of our sins and the suffering can also be a way of turning back to God and a life lesson.
About the thing with fearing God. We know from the Bible that "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom". But it's not OK if we obey God only because of fear. God is love and He identifies Himself as our Father. Here it's about another kind of fear. It's not about terror, but the fear of not loosing God because we chose to go on a wrong way. But we have to admit that sometimes this fear of God can be very good. You know why? Because if people would fear God a little, maybe there wouldn't be so much corruption, so many crimes, so much bullying etc.
But even if we choose to reject God and we do a lot of bad things, He doesn't love us less than before. His love is exactly the same for everybody. Christianity is the religion of love. Not blind tolerance to the bad thing, but true love. God hates sins because they destroy humans, but Loves the sinner. The parable of the lost son said by Jesus Christ describe perfectly God's love for us and I always get very emotional every time I remember it. The son left his father, he spent his fortune,he lived a sinful life, he lost everything and he regretted what he did. And when he came back home, he didn't expect to be completely forgiven, but what happened? His father saw him coming and he run to him and he hugged and kissed him, because he was happy that his son is back home,this meaning that his father has been for him since the day he left.
And yes, I know that a lot of Christians are feeling pressed or stressed by their faith, but that's because it's not explained correctly. And a lot of people have a wrong conception about God. They just don't know Him, Who and How He truly is.And we need to know Him.
And also, we can't change the others. We don't have this power. We can only change ourselves. And the others will see the changes and maybe one day they will turn back to God and change their bad behaviours. Miracles happen. People can change, because I am one of the people who changed. We can only give advices, warn the people, try to make them change their mind, try to "seduce" them with our joy
))), pray for them etc, but we can't force anybody to change.It's their decision and of course God will make a way.
I am sorry if my post was a little bit too long and I hope it didn't bore you, but I felt I needed to say this. I hope this help you clarify some things. And I also hope that someone understands me. And I am sorry if I made some grammar errors. English is not my first language. Thank you very much for reading this.
<3
