By Pastor Robert Perez

Greetings

As a true believer of Jesus Christ and all wisdom attributed thereof, I greet all with the essential power of love from God. My eternal wish is to abolish misunderstanding and foster genuine knowledge of the living God to attain a certain and everlasting bond with Him, for myself and for all.

What if it’s all true?

Uncertainty is at the heart of all naysayers and those living falsely as Christians. This was so from the very beginning, without cessation, and will continue to the end of days. I too (although always pulled by Gods energy even when not paying mind to it) am a man of this world, educated by this world, and had open questions. I knew I could not fully be committed to God and Christ if I truly did not believe it to be real, that is based in reality how a modern man of this age accepts the definition of what it means to be called real.

My own journey began when the strength of the pull from Gods energy was too strong to ignore. Even in my state of unrest and uncertainty at that time, I gave in willingly, with a determination to discover the mystery of Christ that would lead me to God. Arrogance was surely a poison in me, and still is. But my diligence was focused on truth-seeking and assuaged the effects of my egotism.

I wholly believed that some force was calling me and concluded it was more than an emotional need crying out from my psyche. Signs existed, and logic proved that the force was from outside of me. Besides, from a young age I had a persistent adage knocking about in my head, “If God is real it changes everything.” It would supersede every aspect of life – e.g. my humanity and all information gained by my senses. I now had to find out…

What if it’s all false?

My determination was to answer the question for certain and accept the outcome. If God is a fiction the adage is altered, but equally profound and impactful. “If God does not exist it changes everything.”

The acceptance that there is no God destroys much of what we humans cling to. It would be liberating, in a sense. Liberating to live a life without a moral compass, abandoning all emphasis on spirituality and refocusing the questions of life. My thoughts and actions would be my own and life subject to the concepts of man only.

As a philosophical movement, would Christianity still benefit me? Maybe. Jesus, if not Christ but only a man, would always be, at the least, one of history’s most potent thinkers, besides being the greatest influencer of all time.

Why believe at all?

Hasn’t science, history and philosophy proven Christianity to be nonsense? Science takes aim squarely at what cannot be proven by rational logic, if not directly from empirical experimentation, and deems it to be fantasy derived from the fallible and impressionable minds of humans. This is a fair and sound process with obvious results in wonderous human achievements. Why fix something that isn’t broken?

But is that good enough?

The answer again lies in the outcome of the question everyone should ask, “Does God exist?”. To believe or not to believe impacts with great force.

Who has the answer?

The confusion surrounding the question of Gods existence is really caused by our own limitations for grasping the whole of it and then effectively communicating what we think to be our understanding of it.

Most information about God can be attributed to thinkers, writers and artists. For instance, our vision of God, angels and Jesus are artist renditions that got propagated into our culture by artists simply copying each other with no one breaking the traditions, like angels with wings and halos on saints. These are all from the minds of artists.

Equally suspect are the sources of training in the ways of Christ that come from our institutions and their leaders. These too are subject to the effects of the cultures they’re in (like the differences between Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic) and the particular interpretations of the individuals who spearhead these institutions.

Throughout the history of Christianity there have been great attempts to create the definitive understanding of God and Jesus. But the truth is it was and will always be subject to the influence of man – keep this, throw out that, suppress this, highlight that – and on and on.

So, what we’re left with is a necessity to trust that they’ve done the hard thinking for us and we can just take their word for it. The problem with that is the nagging inside our heads that simply can’t accept things just because we’re told to. It is especially true of the modern man and woman.

So, what exactly is “it”?

Pull away the layers of information from available sources, chiefly speaking the bible, and what emerges are some running themes that stay consistent throughout. God exists but is unknowable. God is good and in control, but selective.

The New Testament gives us understanding of this as taught by Jesus, and later spread throughout by his followers. Jesus distilled the essence of God into behavior conducive to “living with God” with two distinct and essential concepts at its core, faith and love.

Faith?

How can one believe in something that you have no understanding or direct experience of? This one is hard to grasp. I’ve spent countless time reshaping my thoughts on this. And then it clicked…

To believe is to connect with God. Anything else is simply “thinking of God”.

Hope is insufficient, because hope by its definition still has doubt in its DNA. Even “Faith in God” comes up short. Faith is really just intense hope.

But to believe is to simply know, and suddenly it all becomes so natural. You can feel the change happen. Gods energy, whatever that is, begins flowing in and out of you, just because you believe it to be so.

What I’m saying is, forget the words and the thoughts, and just go all in – “I believe”.

It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s available to us all. Jesus implored his disciples with the simplest of imperatives – believe for it is so. Once they did they transformed…and so can anyone.

The truly glorious part is that you don’t NEED understanding of God. You don’t need churches and books and images and any support material whatsoever.

Wherever you are at this time – stop – and believe. Connect and don’t unconnect, no matter what.

DO NOT let anything break your belief. That is the key to your divine connection.

Jesus simply knew God and never questioned it, even under torture. THAT is the difference.

Love?

Now it gets really beautiful.

So, you’re connected to God and feel this energy from Him. What is that? That is love.

Unfortunately, the word “love” is so wishy-washy. I’ve toiled over what the heck this is all about. I knew the feeling of Gods love. I knew I loved those around me. But then I also knew I had the opposite of those feelings too. How could I reconcile the feeling of love and its opposite – along with romantic love, etc. and the countless definitions of love – and they’re all using the same word!

What is Gods love that Jesus spoke of?

I thought about those I loved and those that I loathed. The ones I loved were easy to explain and account for. But how can I be a Pastor and not love everyone? This troubled me greatly. I knew my loathing was real and justified, but now I must love?

Jesus had the answer. Jesus loathed and loved at the same time.

But I was still confused. I intensely focused on someone I loathed and asked myself “how I could love them”? It struck me like lightning.

It’s not my love that I’m giving. Its Gods love that I’m giving, and I don’t have to like you to give it to you. I wept. I understood.

Jesus didn’t like those people for all their horrific behavior inflicted on themselves and those around them, and eventually inflicted of him. But he without hesitation gave them all of Gods love through himself freely. And despite his loathing of their behavior he manifested his own “love energy” and gave that too.

Love is Gods energy. Love IS God.

Why believe?

No amount of training exists to make you conclude that God exists. It’s a knowing that must be experienced. But you cannot experience without knowing. Therein lies the conundrum.

Instead of following your doubt, follow your hope. Hope is the road, but not the destination. Take the road until you have the conviction to say, “I believe”. God will be there all long.

Final Prayer

Father, I believe. I know you and you know me. I know that all who say, “I believe”, will feel your flow of love and all your glorious energies from the Spirit that is Holy, in the name of Christ Jesus who opened our sleeping minds.