The few, the humble

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Dec 27, 2015 at 02:51

Hi, Moh

You're making things far more complicated than they are. God is minutely described in the Bible. The Bible is like a map. All you have to do, is read it, believe it and trust in it; and it will get you where you need to go. Most people lose it at "trusting". They see the street and address on the map, but insist that they know better than the map, and go off in some other direction.

If you look "into yourself", all you'll find is your own self: your own feelings, your own, thoughts... you can't break out of it, not even with drugs. Quite a few people have tried, and ended up in La La Land.

I had a subjective experience when I "met the Lord"; but this wasn't a stand-alone experience. Before that time, I had already heard the gospel portions in the Catholic Church for 18 years, and had read all the New Testament and most of Torah -- some of it twice. I had a pretty good picture of who the God of the Bible was, and what he was about. But I had also been exposed to a secular high school education, studied Yoga, and read the Kybalion, the Thought of Chairman Mao Tse Tung, the Qur'an and the Bhagavad Gita; so I had to choose which to believe.

Besides reading all the above, I had observed the behavior of people who held to various doctrines. While studying Kundalini Yoga, I sat at the feet of Yogi Baijan and heard him say "What we need is strong nerves; and KY gives us strong nerves." Then I drove my Yoga instructor and some fellow students up a dangerous road to a Buddhist colony; and I discovered that my instructor did not have strong nerves. In fact, he was screaming for me to slow down, and virtually climbing up the widscreen. I had similar experiences with my Revolutionary "comerades", with the hippie "all you need is love" culture, and with various transient kooks who were looked upon as "spiritual".

They weren't everyone was bogus. Then I found myself staying at a Christian commune for a few days, and was blown away by the practical outworking of love among the brethren. That convinced me that they had something, and that it was real. Still, I went off for another seven months, figuartively looking under this rock and that to find happiness. Then, when I thought I was about to die, I had my conversation with God and asked Him who He was. He convinced me that He was God -- not in my intellect, but in my whole being; and when I asked whether He was Jesus, I physically felt a hand on my shoulder. That convinced me, in a way that I will never be unconvinced.

I said this was a "subjective" experience, because I was the only one having it; but it came from outside of me; and what brought me to know God was not the experience, but my faith in His word. It's like reading the map, believing it, then following it and arriving at your destination. That's it! No GPS, no introspection, now spiritual radar, crystals or auras, none of that. Jesus said,

Matthew 7:
[7] Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
[8] For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
[9] Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
[10] Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
[11] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

and,

Luke 11:
[9] And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
[10] For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
[11] If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
[12] Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
[13] If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

and,

James 1:
[5] If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
[6] But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
[7] For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
[8] A double minded man is unstable in all his ways

and,

James 4:
[3] Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
[4] Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
[5] Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
[6] But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
[7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
[8] Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
[9] Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
[10] Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

James was talking to believers, telling them how to find their way back to God after falling away. It wasn't really a mental exercise; the struggle wasn't between faith and ignorance; it was between faith and pride: like the person who has the road map, but thinks he knows a better way. The Bible says elsewhere,

Psalms 138:
[6] Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

That's all I know. It's an old teaching, but not complicated. Wise men stumble on it, but children understand it. I heard it taught from my youth; but it didn't sink in until I was grown up; because I was too full of myself. Then I wandered around, hearing Bob Dylan singing,

"...You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hanging out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal

"How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone"

-- http://www.metrolyrics.com/like-a-rolling-stone-lyrics-bob-dylan.html

Then, as the Bible says,

Psalms 34:
[15] The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
[16] The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
[17] The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
[18] The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Then Jesus says,

Matthew 5:
[3] Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[4] Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
[5] Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
[6] Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
[7] Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
[8] Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

but again, he says,

Matthew 5:
[12] Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
[13] Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
[14] Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Few. There's a US Marine Corps recruiting slogan:

"The Few. The Proud. The Marines."

Here's God's recruiting slogan:

"The few, the humble: the followers of Jesus, who hear his voice and obey his commandments."

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