Faith is described as a seed. Seeds grow when they are placed in the right environment. Seeds grow into something much bigger than the seed.
- He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. (Matthew 17:20)
Faith is an attribute that is resident in every child that is born. Therefore, when faith has ended, the human race has ceased to be. For faith is an integral element of being a consciously aware sentient being. Without faith, it is impossible for a person to know that one’s self exists, or anyone else exists, for that matter. Knowledge itself is dependent upon faith for its acceptance and validity.
As for religion, this is often misconstrued by a description that is more appropriate for a blind one-eyed supporter of a football team. This is because those, who lack understanding, think that life is about kicking a ball between a couple of posts and then getting off with a thrill. Because of this, one is not sure whether a new globe sweeping religion is a reference to some new ball game or a virtual ball game. And when it comes to the virtual world, there are many possibilities, but they are always restricted to being virtual.
Real religion is about seeking the reason why we exist and why we are born only to die. Real religion is a quest for the truth. Real religion is a serious matter and concerns life and death. Real religion is about finding the way to the truth that leads to eternal life. In which case, there has been a real religion, as far as each one of us is concerned, that has existed ever since each one of us was born. Whether we want to embrace this ourselves, or spend time focusing on self-eroticism, depends upon whether we are willing to waste our time being vain in front of a mirror, or we want to experience the reality of our purpose for being. Anything less than eternity is short-sighted.
What is old to some is new to others. But note what we find in an Epistle of John concerning the new religion.
- Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and in it there is no cause for stumbling. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:7-11)
While religion may be seen by some as a vehicle that attempts to assist humans accommodate the pain of being born only to die, the more perceptive of us grasp that discovering the way to the bridge over the rubicon of the bottomless pit is really what’s required. Concepts like love, faith and hope are often spoken of. Faith in humanity is a historical lesson in failure, leaving any hope of finding everlasting love in this world a dismal passing thought; the concepts are known, but unable to be fully realized in this temporal existence bound by death.
Maybe this is why we read:
Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him. And some said, “What would this babbler say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the Are-op′agus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.But then to quote another ancient text:
So Paul, standing in the middle of the Are-op′agus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for
‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:18-28)
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)Each one of us ends our days in this temporal existence at some time, whether we like it or not. Some sooner than expected.
The question each one of us needs to have answered: What happens if we have not secured our visa, and we have not had our passport stamped, before we go on our journey into, what is otherwise referred to as, the great unknown?
The Way To The Truth That Ensures Life Is Always New For Those Who Find It
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