Re: Re: Re: A Question for Believers
CWL said:
First of all, greetings to you and thanks for playing! 
As to your testimony, I must say its hard to follow as it seems rather personal (one of the problems with answering my question from the POV of the believer which Frisian has indicated ). In which way do you feel that your experience "ought to be compelling also to others"?
Maybe to spark a curiousity about something more, that we often take things as symbols or what we see in front of us. And there is so much more. I will try to explain that this way..
I recently spent some time on vacation in one of my favorite places Arizona. Now, maybe when one thinks of Arizona you may think snakes, flat open desert, hot dry, no life maybe catcus. These would be the symbols of what it is. But symbols are not understanding or experiencing it.
I will tell you of the land how it is filled with hills and canyons. These are made of a soft sandstone rock which is red, not like a fire truck but fire red and shades of it and orange and purple. Think of a valley with craggy rocks and smooth rocks and lumpy rocks all ranging in colour from light beige, reds and purple.
In the morning it is one shade and as the sun comes up parts become brillant and the colours change and this happens all day as sun and clouds move along. The sky is so blue with the contrasting red rock below is wonderful. The white clouds are pink on the bottom as they reflect the rock below. Then as the sun goes down it is a most amazing sunset, it lasts forever. Changing colours and taking up the entire sky behind and in front of you.
The peace is infectious, it does not take long to get under your skin. Relaxation comes like a blanket to cuddle up in. The desert seems empty but if you are still you will see that the stick is actually a lizard pretending and if you blink he is gone. At night the crickets sing so loud you think you may never sleep. But the lullaby puts you there. Or you can listen to the song of the coyotes as it drifts and it chills and sooths you.
Now, if you haven been maybe I have compelled you somewhat to think about going there as you wont be disappointed.
But there is even more I have not spoken of the lakes and streams and the many different formations of canyons that stick up and others are slots in the ground where it is cool and the air smells of the earth.
All I can give you is a glimse, an idea, a hope of things.
Such as it is with Christ, what is written in the Bible is only a glimse, an idea, a hope of things to come.
We were made to do more than we do now, U2's song I havent found what Im looking for alluded to that. There is more than the symbols you know now.
When I described Arizona in more detail and said theres still more, it is the same with discovering what WAS Christ actually saying. Not just what is parroted around, just what DID He mean, where WAS He going with that. And when you see a particular idea and the light bulb goes off above your head, then a whole understanding floods in and you know and say "OH thats why, I get it now" then one wants to find out even more.
This is where you start to see things as a whole and how they interact and relate to one another and are not isolated. And then one gets a glimpse of that peace from God everyones on about.
But all we see or do here no matter how great or knowledgeable is still only a glimpse of what Christ had in mind. There is more to come.
Enough of my boring history lesson.