Being a Christian and Doctrine

Before my brain tumor I was a Christian, I usually prayed daily, but Christ was not a daily part of my life. I did not attend church, nor was I a member of any church. Even so, I would run to Christ for comfort when life got too tough to handle alone. That is, when life gave me chills, I would warm myself by the fire and then move on back to tackle life by myself. I would never push Christ on anyone. Even if Jesus had just saved my butt, I would be to reluctant to tell my friends or business associates that Jesus Christ had helped me for fear they would think I was weak or worse, that I was a Jesus Freak. I did not have the courage to even mention His name, “Jesus Christ” without being afraid of being labeled a weak, kooky, Jesus Freak. I know some of you reading this can relate.
Now I would shout to the world how much I love Jesus Christ and how much He loves me. He loves you too, whether you know it or not or believe it or not. He is there for you. When you get cold, you can warm yourself by the fire as well, Jesus will always be there.

If you decide to move to the next level and make Christ an intimate part of your life, I can testify from experience, it just gets better and better.

What I will write next many of you may disagree with. You may be compelled to supply me verse after verse in argument. First, I have a personal doctrine based upon my personal experience and limited study of the bible. My doctrine is mine. I accept no other man’s interpretation of the Bible and subsequently developed doctrine. For centuries we have fought over church doctrine. We have fought war after war over differences in doctrine, killing each other without mercy. We continue to do so, punishing our most gifted because truths they discovered went against current church doctrine. In the name of church doctrine, consider what we did to those who suggested the theory that earth is not flat after all or that the earth may not be the center of the universe, or that evolution is a force in the universe.

IMO, we have made all this way over complicated. Every time we come up with a new doctrine, we disagree on details, squabble, split into groups, and form even more new doctrines. Each new doctrine ends up with what was right is now wrong. What was wrong is now right.

It is difficult for the common, intelligent man who thinks for himself to accept a doctrine blindly without question. Unable to accept a doctrine blindly or seeing poor logic demonstrated in a doctrine, sets up a wall between the individual and Christ. In my case, Christ picked me up and showed me the first three points of my personal doctrine. No man or church doctrine had to show me these corner stones or convince me they are true. I was show by direct experience. These corner stones formed the foundation for my personal doctrine to expand upon:

+ GOD and his son Jesus loves me.
+ God and his son Jesus will always be there for me.
+ GOD and his son Jesus will always take care of me.

Over the last few months, through reflection and reading, I have added to my doctrine these concepts:

+Mankind is evil and sinful by nature. We commit sins and don’t even realize it. Sometimes, only by reflection we may realize a sin we are guilty of. We do not need a list of rules to tell us when we are sinning. We know right from wrong, good from evil, we acquired that skill and knowledge in the Garden of Eden. If we just stop and think, each of us knows when we have done something that has disappointed God.

+ Heaven is a gift. It is neither earned or deserved.

+GOD loves us so much He sent Jesus, his only son to be held accountable and die for our sins. Each of us can be forgiven for our sins through Jesus.

+GOD is pure and good. Only through Jesus can we stand in the presence of GOD.

+Love yourself, be kind to yourself, you are the child of the King.

+ We should love and respect each other, slow to judge, quick to help.

+GOD’s WILL will be done. Everything has purpose. Just because you can’t see it, does not mean something is without purpose.

+There are things as human beings we cannot understand. We do not have the skills to comprehend some things. Evil exists and bad things happen. This does not mean GOD has abandoned us.

+We should use the Word of GOD to comfort us, give us knowledge and strength to meet life’s challenges.

+We should not use the Word of GOD as a basis to fight and disagree. This is my doctrine. Perhaps you should develop your own doctrine if you do not accept a church’s doctrine. My point is to not let any doctrine determined by man keep you from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A personal doctrine should stand up to the challenges of man. For example, if we have proof tomorrow that life previously existed on Mars or that the earth is really only 5000 years old, my doctrine remains intact. And nothing in my doctrine has to be changed. You see “Jesus still loves me”.