Spiritual Ponderings

Will the right Jesus please stand up and make Himself known. There are counterfeit gods galore. The problem is many of them claim loudly that they are the original, that they are in fact Jesus. They use Scripture to support their actions and personality; some claim to work the same miracles that Jesus worked; all claim to promote correct theology, so how is one to know who is the right version? There must be a way to detect deception in clones that are not authentic. I am not speaking here of antichrists running around in the world. I am referring to the internal versions and beliefs about God that each of us holds; what we imagine the all-powerful God in heaven to be. There are likely more versions of God than there are people, but one thing is certain, we are all born with distorted perceptions of what God is like in our heads that are further twisted for most of us through the examples and abuse of those in authority over us throughout our lives. I am d...

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus . (Revelation 14:12 KJV) This verse has been a staple of my religious diet since I was very young. This verse was drilled into my head repeatedly and was used to define my church's very identity. Yet at the same time this verse seemed to present and reenforce a nearly impossible demand for me, because if I failed to perfectly keep all of God's commandments and also work up enormous faith, maybe as much as Jesus demonstrated, then the chance of me being saved appeared to be rather shaky. Recently my mind has been opened to many new things about God, truths that have eliminated many of my fears and apprehensions and have unlocked many things to my understanding that used to make little sense to me in the past. Even now as I read nearly anything in Scripture I can now see new and amazing things I could not appreciate before because my comprehension...