Is Christianity a religion or a lifestyle? A religion! (III): What about doing good?
----continuing
And so what about doing good? I thought religion is about being a good person? I thought religion is teaching how to live a good life?
I love this story about the rain which waters the earth. It is about a drop of water in a lake. This water always looked to the sky and it always amazed at how beautiful it was to be a rain. This water wanted to be a rain, because a rain can create a wonderful rainbow, and people love rainbow. And so everyday this water always prayed so that one day it would become a rain that create rainbow. And so one day, the wheather was so hot and the water was changed into gas and lifted up to the sky, and it meets other waters who became gas as well. And the next day, the sky became dark, the rain fell down to water the earth.
The question is: can the water choose not to water the earth once it becomes a rain? Of course Not! Rain waters the earth. This is what rain is.
And God is Love. How is it possible that we do not love when we are in union with this God?
"... By this we may be sure that we are in him (Jesus): he who says he abides in him (in Jesus) ought to walk in the same way in which he (Jesus) walked."
(1Jo 2:5-6)
"He who does not love does not know God; for God is love."
(1Jo 4:8)
"No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
(1Jo 4:12)
"... God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
(1Jo 4:16)
And so Love, Good, and Kindness, is the character of God. And when we are in union in Him, we will be like Him. We will be loving, good, and kind.
And this is the problem with todays Christian: we find it so difficult to follow the teaching of Christ. We say, "How can it be that I can be loving, good, kind, etc, etc? That is for the saints". We find The Invitation as a Rule. We look at the calling as things that we can never do.
The question is not "How can I be...". The question is: "Am I in this union with God?". Yes, we will only reach the perfect union when we are in heaven. However, we need to change our mind set about Christianity. If we see Christianity as just a rule to be good, to do this and that, then we are 100% WRONG.
Christianity is about this union with God. It's about sharing The Very Life of God: a perfect union of Love. And when we are in union with God, we will see ourselves change, day by day, to be more like God. And all those are no longer rules, but they are just the manifestations of who we are as we come closer and closer to God.
The problem is that many of us trying to be good without God. And we find it so difficult, and so we choose not to be good. And yet God calls us to be in union with Him. And only in union with Him, we will find the source of Love that will never run dry: God, who is Love.
Why don't we listen for a while to what Mother Teresa said.
Non believers, but also christians, wonder where this sister, this small creature in cheap white sari, finds the courage, the power and the strength to do what she does since years and that seems to us both genius and heroic.
When you ask this question to Mother Teresa she points to the whole community of the Missionaries of Charity and above all to the love of God.
The activity of the sisters, all what we do is only the fruit of prayer, of our unity with Jesus in the Eucharist. Thanks to this unity it is possible for us to spend ourselves in the service of the lepers, the dying, the children, the unwanted and other people. When we come home in the evening, we have an hour of adoration. This is the biggest treasure of the Missionaries of Charity. (M. Teresa)
All that she did is only the fruit of prayer, of her unity with Jesus in the Eucharist. Doing good is not a rule to do, it is just a fruit of union with God.
Next: Closing
-------to be continued
And so what about doing good? I thought religion is about being a good person? I thought religion is teaching how to live a good life?
I love this story about the rain which waters the earth. It is about a drop of water in a lake. This water always looked to the sky and it always amazed at how beautiful it was to be a rain. This water wanted to be a rain, because a rain can create a wonderful rainbow, and people love rainbow. And so everyday this water always prayed so that one day it would become a rain that create rainbow. And so one day, the wheather was so hot and the water was changed into gas and lifted up to the sky, and it meets other waters who became gas as well. And the next day, the sky became dark, the rain fell down to water the earth.
The question is: can the water choose not to water the earth once it becomes a rain? Of course Not! Rain waters the earth. This is what rain is.
And God is Love. How is it possible that we do not love when we are in union with this God?
"... By this we may be sure that we are in him (Jesus): he who says he abides in him (in Jesus) ought to walk in the same way in which he (Jesus) walked."
(1Jo 2:5-6)
"He who does not love does not know God; for God is love."
(1Jo 4:8)
"No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
(1Jo 4:12)
"... God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
(1Jo 4:16)
And so Love, Good, and Kindness, is the character of God. And when we are in union in Him, we will be like Him. We will be loving, good, and kind.
And this is the problem with todays Christian: we find it so difficult to follow the teaching of Christ. We say, "How can it be that I can be loving, good, kind, etc, etc? That is for the saints". We find The Invitation as a Rule. We look at the calling as things that we can never do.
The question is not "How can I be...". The question is: "Am I in this union with God?". Yes, we will only reach the perfect union when we are in heaven. However, we need to change our mind set about Christianity. If we see Christianity as just a rule to be good, to do this and that, then we are 100% WRONG.
Christianity is about this union with God. It's about sharing The Very Life of God: a perfect union of Love. And when we are in union with God, we will see ourselves change, day by day, to be more like God. And all those are no longer rules, but they are just the manifestations of who we are as we come closer and closer to God.
The problem is that many of us trying to be good without God. And we find it so difficult, and so we choose not to be good. And yet God calls us to be in union with Him. And only in union with Him, we will find the source of Love that will never run dry: God, who is Love.
Why don't we listen for a while to what Mother Teresa said.
Non believers, but also christians, wonder where this sister, this small creature in cheap white sari, finds the courage, the power and the strength to do what she does since years and that seems to us both genius and heroic.
When you ask this question to Mother Teresa she points to the whole community of the Missionaries of Charity and above all to the love of God.
The activity of the sisters, all what we do is only the fruit of prayer, of our unity with Jesus in the Eucharist. Thanks to this unity it is possible for us to spend ourselves in the service of the lepers, the dying, the children, the unwanted and other people. When we come home in the evening, we have an hour of adoration. This is the biggest treasure of the Missionaries of Charity. (M. Teresa)
All that she did is only the fruit of prayer, of her unity with Jesus in the Eucharist. Doing good is not a rule to do, it is just a fruit of union with God.
Next: Closing
-------to be continued
posted by Oka | 9:58 pm
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