"Thus says the LORD: 'Stand by the roads, and look; and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls..." (Jer. 6:16, ESV).
"... And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Neh. 8:10, ESV).
"When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad..." (Acts 11:23, ESV).
"I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart" (Ps. 119:32, KJV). [Emphasis added.]
Many long for the so-called American dream, thinking of success--a materialistic lifestyle. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, now canonized, said that we are not "called to success, but to faithfulness." God doesn't demand achievements, but obedience! Not our success; He wants us! Ethics is the study of how one goes about the good life--living as we ought, right living. "If God does not exist, all things are permissible,' according to Dostoevsky. Plato said that if he were to know how to live, he must know what God is like.
There can be no ethics without absolute truth, and no final arbiter of truth without God. We all pursue the good life to some degree by chasing fantasies and dreams, but only in Christ can we find it: "I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly" (cf. John 10:10). God's command: "Be fruitful and multiply." We are "restless" till we find "rest in God" (Saint Augustine). We don't want to just exist, but to live! Alive in Christ!
God cares a lot about right and wrong and has given each of us a conscience as a moral compass and fabric to know His law (cf. Rom. 2:15). Everyone knows it, though we flaunt it. No one has obeyed or listened to his conscience in toto, though Jiminy Cricket said, "Always let your conscience be your guide," and Martin Luther said, "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe," when asked to recant or burn at the Diet of Worms. The resultant good life is composed of orthodoxy or right belief, and orthopraxy, or right [faith into] action.
The good life is something inside you, it's a spirit that you attain in finding fulfillment and meaning or purpose is life. If you don't have a worldview you will never put things in perspective, though. Religion can change you, and in fact, some may say that you got religion! But Christ transforms from the inside out, He doesn't just reform you like a recovering alcoholic. It's not walking on Cloud Nine, or always being "spiritual" either. We are given new life in Christ and a fresh start with a clean slate, and we don't have to look back! The proof of the pudding is in the eating: "Taste and see that the LORD is good..." (cf. Psalm 34:8). Peter said: "[I]f indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" (1 Pet. 2:3, ESV). "... God] delights in the welfare of his servant!" (Ps. 35:27, ESV).
The reason people follow some of the world's religions is that they work (this is pragmatism)! Yes, but whether something works is not the test of truth. Christianity isn't true because it works, but it works because it's true. Yoga, TM, and meditation work if you believe in them, but this is what the world and the devil have to offer as cheap parodies of the real thing. They are a sham and their effects are deceptive, for the devil can appear as an angel of light and bring about great wisdom (like Buddha's Eightfold Path). He thought of the Four Nobel Truths, but you cannot get saved nor save yourself, no matter how many noble truths you dream up for enlightenment.
The goal in life is to know Jesus in fellowship, serving Him for fulfillment. There is a great intrinsic reward in knowing divine wisdom, which is superior to religion. We are set free in Christ as believers from our sin but don't have permission to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit. Pascal said: "There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart."
The Lord promises to take care of all our needs (cf. Phil. 4:19), that we will never be in want (cf. Psalm 23:1), and that He will "withhold no good thing from him walks uprightly" (cf. Psalm 84:11). He gives us richly all things to enjoy (cf. 1 Tim. 6:17) and gives us the ability to transcend materialism and "possess our possessions" (cf. Obadiah 17). John prays: "Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health, just as your soul prospers" (3 Jn. 2, HCSB). There is not a "prosperity theology" whereby we are promised material blessings consequential to our faith, but God promises to bless us in all our endeavors if they are the Lord's work done in His name. Even our work, food, and drink are the blessing of God (cf. Eccl. 3:13).
Religion doesn't ask you to sacrifice yourself and doesn't talk in terms of lost and saved, but Christ came to save those who are lost and to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him--a high cost for discipleship; not cheap grace or easy-believism. But it costs more to reject Him. Christ alone diagnoses our problem as our sin nature and gave us the power to overcome it. Jesus never made salvation easy, but well-nigh impossible--what He wants is you! But the reward is worth it.
Isn't it more rewarding to live your life knowing without a doubt that you're headed to heaven? No religion can duplicate this assurance of salvation, because, in a works religion, you never know. In Christianity, you aren't saved by works, but by grace, a word foreign to religion. Religion is defined as a way to gain the approbation of God by works, then, without grace.
Only Christianity offers the thrill of a lifetime and the joy of knowing God (cf. John 17:3) because we believe He is a personal, immanent, and approachable, and loves us (cf. 1 John 4:8). We were designed to know and love God while walking in fellowship, the Bible is our Owner's Manual and God knows best how to give us the good life--being fulfilled. The eternal life we receive isn't just in longevity but in quality!
As Jesus said, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3, NIV). Knowing God is part of the package and is the most rewarding of any relationship. Paul considered everything he had "that was to his profit" as "rubbish," compared to knowing Christ (cf. Phil. 3:7-10). Soli Deo Gloria! Hallelujah! Amen!
"... And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Neh. 8:10, ESV).
"When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad..." (Acts 11:23, ESV).
"I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart" (Ps. 119:32, KJV). [Emphasis added.]
Many long for the so-called American dream, thinking of success--a materialistic lifestyle. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, now canonized, said that we are not "called to success, but to faithfulness." God doesn't demand achievements, but obedience! Not our success; He wants us! Ethics is the study of how one goes about the good life--living as we ought, right living. "If God does not exist, all things are permissible,' according to Dostoevsky. Plato said that if he were to know how to live, he must know what God is like.
There can be no ethics without absolute truth, and no final arbiter of truth without God. We all pursue the good life to some degree by chasing fantasies and dreams, but only in Christ can we find it: "I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly" (cf. John 10:10). God's command: "Be fruitful and multiply." We are "restless" till we find "rest in God" (Saint Augustine). We don't want to just exist, but to live! Alive in Christ!
God cares a lot about right and wrong and has given each of us a conscience as a moral compass and fabric to know His law (cf. Rom. 2:15). Everyone knows it, though we flaunt it. No one has obeyed or listened to his conscience in toto, though Jiminy Cricket said, "Always let your conscience be your guide," and Martin Luther said, "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe," when asked to recant or burn at the Diet of Worms. The resultant good life is composed of orthodoxy or right belief, and orthopraxy, or right [faith into] action.
The good life is something inside you, it's a spirit that you attain in finding fulfillment and meaning or purpose is life. If you don't have a worldview you will never put things in perspective, though. Religion can change you, and in fact, some may say that you got religion! But Christ transforms from the inside out, He doesn't just reform you like a recovering alcoholic. It's not walking on Cloud Nine, or always being "spiritual" either. We are given new life in Christ and a fresh start with a clean slate, and we don't have to look back! The proof of the pudding is in the eating: "Taste and see that the LORD is good..." (cf. Psalm 34:8). Peter said: "[I]f indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" (1 Pet. 2:3, ESV). "... God] delights in the welfare of his servant!" (Ps. 35:27, ESV).
The reason people follow some of the world's religions is that they work (this is pragmatism)! Yes, but whether something works is not the test of truth. Christianity isn't true because it works, but it works because it's true. Yoga, TM, and meditation work if you believe in them, but this is what the world and the devil have to offer as cheap parodies of the real thing. They are a sham and their effects are deceptive, for the devil can appear as an angel of light and bring about great wisdom (like Buddha's Eightfold Path). He thought of the Four Nobel Truths, but you cannot get saved nor save yourself, no matter how many noble truths you dream up for enlightenment.
The goal in life is to know Jesus in fellowship, serving Him for fulfillment. There is a great intrinsic reward in knowing divine wisdom, which is superior to religion. We are set free in Christ as believers from our sin but don't have permission to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit. Pascal said: "There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart."
The Lord promises to take care of all our needs (cf. Phil. 4:19), that we will never be in want (cf. Psalm 23:1), and that He will "withhold no good thing from him walks uprightly" (cf. Psalm 84:11). He gives us richly all things to enjoy (cf. 1 Tim. 6:17) and gives us the ability to transcend materialism and "possess our possessions" (cf. Obadiah 17). John prays: "Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health, just as your soul prospers" (3 Jn. 2, HCSB). There is not a "prosperity theology" whereby we are promised material blessings consequential to our faith, but God promises to bless us in all our endeavors if they are the Lord's work done in His name. Even our work, food, and drink are the blessing of God (cf. Eccl. 3:13).
Religion doesn't ask you to sacrifice yourself and doesn't talk in terms of lost and saved, but Christ came to save those who are lost and to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him--a high cost for discipleship; not cheap grace or easy-believism. But it costs more to reject Him. Christ alone diagnoses our problem as our sin nature and gave us the power to overcome it. Jesus never made salvation easy, but well-nigh impossible--what He wants is you! But the reward is worth it.
Isn't it more rewarding to live your life knowing without a doubt that you're headed to heaven? No religion can duplicate this assurance of salvation, because, in a works religion, you never know. In Christianity, you aren't saved by works, but by grace, a word foreign to religion. Religion is defined as a way to gain the approbation of God by works, then, without grace.
Only Christianity offers the thrill of a lifetime and the joy of knowing God (cf. John 17:3) because we believe He is a personal, immanent, and approachable, and loves us (cf. 1 John 4:8). We were designed to know and love God while walking in fellowship, the Bible is our Owner's Manual and God knows best how to give us the good life--being fulfilled. The eternal life we receive isn't just in longevity but in quality!
As Jesus said, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3, NIV). Knowing God is part of the package and is the most rewarding of any relationship. Paul considered everything he had "that was to his profit" as "rubbish," compared to knowing Christ (cf. Phil. 3:7-10). Soli Deo Gloria! Hallelujah! Amen!