From: davidh@cascade.ens.tek.com (David Hatcher)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Top 10 Reasons for Believing in the Deity of Jesus Christ.
Date: 13 Apr 92 17:00:14 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.


  I have a few things that I'd like to interject here if you don't mind.

In article <54393@hydra.gatech.EDU> rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard Pitts) writes:
>Richard,
>    Do you adhere to any religious order?  Which?

  I'm a lover of the Beloved. 

>What do your base your belief system on?  

  I have no "belief" system upon which I base my spiritual life upon
other than that there is no God but God. It is within the "experiential"
aspect of this that it becomes true for me. Otherwise, it's just another
belief that I have to work through.

>I have been given information
>via Christianity and the Bible, which tells me how we got to this point
>in history - how the world was created, how sin entered the world, how
>God provides us salvation and eternal life.  This is the light I have
>been given - I am responsible for that.  

  And as there are over 2000 different sects of Christianty that each
has their own understanding of the very same words, how good is that
light if it is not somehow internalized and experienced as a manifestation
within a person? With out that inner manifestation, it is nothing but
another belief. Wars and division happen over beliefs. They do not 
happen over inner spiritual experiences of the Divine.

>A benefit of spirituality, as you put it, is that you can have a 
>relationship with God - where there is no barrier between you and God.

  True. So, how do we deepen this spiritual state? 

>We
>all have fallen short of what God wants, but through what Jesus did for
>us, we can have this relationship by placing our trust in him and the work
>he did to pay for our sins - we are transformed out of God's wrath 
>into his kingdom, which includes eternal life.

  This is a perspective of looking at Christ as "other than" you. As
a result, because it is not internalized, it is nothing more than
one of a thousands other "beliefs" upon which wars are fought over.

  What happens to ones perspective as they become United with the Divine
through Jesus? What happens to the perspective of others of other spiritual 
paths who become United with the Divine through the window of the Divine 
through which they are looking? 

  I'm not talking about "beliefs" here. I'm pointing towards what happens
within the Heart and Souls of these people when they go through he
mystical experience of Uniting as One with the Divine. 

  The mental activity that swirls around conceptional beliefs, to me, 
does not lead towards a very deep relationship with my Beloved God.

>Sure I can think and dream up theories on how the world evolved or whatever, 
>but in your mind what differences does it make....

  For me though, it's in my experience of the glory and unlimited 
creative potential of life itself that pulls me up in a joy of
gratitude and thanks giving to my Beloved God for this most wonderful
gift that we are a part of. This experience raised my capacity to
praise God in ways I could never reach through purely mental activity
and a focus on conceptional beliefs.

>If you want to compare various religions
>with Christianity, let us do that.  

  I'd like to see you compare not the "beliefs" of the various religions, 
but the inner experiences of the Divine that raises within the heart
and soul of the people of the various spiritual traditions.





	Ecstatic Love is an ocean, and the Milky Way
	is a flake of foam floating on it.
					Rumi

	David Hatcher