Staying In Love

[Edwin]

Well, mystic, my description to further clarify means converted not from another religion, but from not being a Christian. Many unchurched people come to know the Lord with their hearts. My mother was a Baptist, but she wasn't a Christian, so she became converted from not knowing the Lord to walking with Him. My Dad had a mother who was a Christian, but their family didn't live with each other. The older kids lived on one farm, and the parents and younger kids lived on another farm, and consequently he only got to go to church once or twice while he was growing up. I think when you repent you become converted from serving the Devil to serving the living God, and all things become new, because you are a new creature or creation, or become a new renewed person in Christ Jesus. Old things pass away, and behold all things become new. You are suddenly interested new things, spiritual things, heavenly things. Proselyting is when one church steals members from another church. It is okay to see that another church has what you need and change churches for your own betterment, but it is not good for religious leaders or church workers to try to steal people from other churches so that they can build their church. We call people who are involved in this church hoppers. They go from one church to another church for who knows what reason, and they never get any stability. They may be attracted to another church for many reasons, and some people just have trouble getting along with other people, so when any kind of a problem arises they are off and away to another church. Yes, mystic, enthusiasm in church attenders is great. The natural tendency is for people to really be enthused and ready to go for it in the beginning, and after they have attended church for many years they tend to lose some of the enthusiasm. In Revelations, Jesus calls on the people to return to their first love, when they loved God and served Him enthusiastically!

I guess another way to put it is that new Christians have higher expectations often for themselves and others than people who have been Christians for a long time. Often times they are offended when people fail to meet their expectations, or they become discouraged when they don't live up to the expectations they ahve for themselves. They often are like Peter who was ready to conquor the world for Jesus, but when the test comes they fail, and then they need forgiveness and words of encouragement!

[mystic]

Oh, I call that rebirth, or second birth. Well, here they teach that once you are baptized, you are a Christian and can never change that. Even if you don't practice. So it's just a different way to call things.

Indeed, I learned about rebirth from a Protestant mystic, who is my favorite author. I never heard it in the Catholic congregation I was in, when I was young.

[Edwin]

Yes, mystic, another term for it is born again, or born again Christian. That is a very good description, but it has fallen into misuse by some where they even talk about volkswagen bugs being born again, and other descriptions that I can't remember right now, but for a while it was over used/misused! This is like when there are a few Christains, people really are Christians, but sometimes when many people are Christians, or like they used to say, "I am a Christian; I was born in a America, a Christian nation, they really are not Christians, only in name. The Bible says that the Way to eternal life is narrow, and few find it, but the way destruction is broad, and many go that way. So, I am suspecious of many Christians, or a large percentage of the population being Christian. They are Christian in name, but they may not be Christians in God's eyes, and they may not get to heaven. There is more to being a Christian than saying, "I am a Christian," Jesus also said that many will say, "I worked great miracles in your name, cast out deamons, healed the sick, and so on, but Jesus said, "I will say, depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you!" That is a sad state of affairs, but it is reality. We must really be Christians, not only in word, but in deed also!

[purex]

Oh, I call that rebirth, or second birth. Well, here they teach that once you are baptized, you are a Christian and can never change that. Even if you don't practice. So it's just a different way to call things.

Indeed, I learned about rebirth from a Protestant mystic, who is my favorite author. I never heard it in the Catholic congregation I was in, when I was young.

We need to be born again. That is spiritual born again not physical. We are condemned but Christ has quicken us. We must believe that Christ has paid our sins and He has given us the free gift of salvation through Christ Jesus. No man can enter into the Father but by me (Christ).

[mystic]

We must believe that Christ has paid our sins and He has given us the free gift of salvation through Christ Jesus. No man can enter into the Father but by me (Christ)

I will share some views that might make somebody uncomfortable, but for me they are valid explanation and can reconcile the past with the present. They come from a respected Lutheran theologian.

It's correct that Christ = salvation. But Christ does not necessarily mean Jesus. Christ, from Greek, means "unointed" and is just a title, not a proper name. Priests, mystics, and every Christian with Confirmation receive the oil. The oil represents enlightenment, or rebirth, since it's the fuel of light (oil lamp). Moreover, there are many accounts of mystics that, when they receive the influx of the Holy Spirit, feel like a pot of hot oil was poured on their head.
Thus, the condition of being Christ (receiving the holy oil) is the path to rebirth and salvation. The term Christ refers to the "enlightened condition" that was present in Jesus, which let him act the way he did. But the term Jesus represents the human being, the mortal part. Being Christ is not an exclusive of Jesus, as it was common for every prophet at his time and before to be called Christ.
"Receiving the Christ" means just receiving enlightenment. It has nothing to do with Jesus, except for the fact that we are using the example of him as our reference.

Theoretically, Christians (Christ - Christians) should be the ones who receive the oil of enlightenment, and thus are the only one who are saved. In reality, getting the material oil is not enough for one's transformation. It must happen in the spirit too. So, there are many Christians who appear everything except what they should be.
However, even non Christians who receive the holy (spiritual) oil can have their share of the Christ condition, even if they are not Christians. Christians only applied something that already existed before and may be called by different names. Jesus has no exclusive of the process. But there is nothing wrong to take him as one of the many examples. The term Christ, instead, is one for everybody.

Another nuance: We are called Christians, not Jesuites...

[crisipicada]

Oh, I call that rebirth, or second birth. Well, here they teach that once you are baptized, you are a Christian and can never change that. Even if you don't practice. So it's just a different way to call things.

Indeed, I learned about rebirth from a Protestant mystic, who is my favorite author. I never heard it in the Catholic congregation I was in, when I was young.

We need to be born again. That is spiritual born again not physical. We are condemned but Christ has quicken us. We must believe that Christ has paid our sins and He has given us the free gift of salvation through Christ Jesus. No man can enter into the Father but by me (Christ).

My outlook in life change when I become Christian. He changed me and my inner man. I knew it because there is difference the way I live and the way I think. And my moral conviction is so strong and can see people who choose the life in the world is really true that there is always emptiness. Fulfillment in life I found in Christ, the Son of the Living God.

[m&m]

staying in love is keeping your heart away that make it out of love. What i mean is that you need to renew your heart daily in the Lord. Like, Create in me a clean heart oh Lord. This is the prayer that needs to be done in our daily life.

To stay in love is to always keep God inour hearts.

[mystic]

I thought to repost this. Not a Christian thought... but all religions share the same principles.

Title: Never Turn Back

Never turn back to the results of what you have done.
Give all to the Lord, and work and think not of it.

When the whole soul pours in a continuous current to God, when there is no time to seek money or name or fame, no time to think of anything but God, then will come into your heart that infinite, wondrous bliss of love.

All desires are but beads of glass.

True love of God increases every moment and is ever new; it is only to be known by feeling it.

Love is the easiest of all disciplines.
It waits for no logic, it is natural. We need no demonstration, no proof. Reasoning is limiting something by our own minds. We throw a net and catch something, and then say that we have demonstrated it. But never, never can we catch God in a net.

Love should be motiveless.
Even when we love wrongly, it is an expression of true love, of true bliss. The power is the same, use it as we may. Its very nature is peace and bliss. The murderer, when he kisses his baby, forgets for an instant all but love.

Give up all self, all egotism; get out of anger and lust; give all to God.

'Not I, but Thou. The old man is all gone, only Thou remainest.'
'I am Thou.'

Blame none. If evil comes, know that the Lord is playing with you and be exceedingly glad.

Love is beyond time and space. It is absolute.

~ Swami Vivekananda
Inspired talks, June 24, 1895

[crisipicada]

I believe that to love someone needs to grow everyday. I believe that it would take effort and time, but it is worth it.

[mystic]

Despite all the cores, efforts and work that having one's family means, one should always be able to save a little space to let the love grow.

Sometimes it might be difficult to separate contingency needs from love and the harmony in the family becomes subdued by one's whims or exigencies. But we should stay happy with what we have and thank the Lord, and not let our many other necessities or desires hinder the way of love. At the end, the only thing that matters and that we will remember is the love.