I'd like to relate an experience I had many,many years ago.
I was residing in a Church-owned and run-Christian boarding house,with several other church members.For some reason I can't recall for the life of me,I had conversations over the phone with a lady I had never met.Maybe through an online or phone-based dating service.I rang and talked to her,mainly during my lunch breaks at work,during the day.
Over time I guess she must have gotten bored with me (endlessly talking about my church and beliefs or the fact that she never really said anything so I generally talked and dominated the conversations) or something and passed me over to her younger niece;who eventually confided in me that her Auntie didn't want to talk to me any more because she felt I talked too much,and she had a boyfriend anyway!
So we talked, and over time we agreed to meet. I was reading the book of Proverbs in my spare time or quiet time (a period of solitude where believers study the scriptures in their Bible,and pray,or fast) and was reading the verses:
"Why be captivated,my son,by an immoral woman..."
Prov 5:3 : For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. Prov 5:4: But in the end she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword.
Prov 5:8 Stay away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
And something inside my head, kept telling me; "don't go to her house and be alone,with her there, because you will fall prey to her seductions etc and sin".
Even close friends in that boarding house were saying,"don't go there,mate,you'll fall,you''ll end up doing the dirty deeds, you're not that strong spiritually, and will fall into temptation!"
Well,the voice inside my head kept on at me saying...
"You've read the scriptures,and now know of the dangers,so don't go to her house!"
And my friends kept telling me the same thing!
But I didn't listen; and yes even though I tried not to fall prey to her seduction, I fell just like the voice and friends had said I would! She turned out to be schizophrenic - she ran extremely,hot one minute,then was the Queen of Ice,the very next!
Even though she was attending a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall,later on I found out through her mother, she had been continually sexually abused by a close relative for several years.
Much later it hit me hard like a brick to the forehead,that I could relate scripture to many of my personal experiences I'd had.
Of late I have been reading Neale Donald Walsch's "Conversations with God Book 1",Page 4,paragraphs 3 & 4.
And in it he claims God talked to him, telling him:
"All (Christians) have placed so much importance on the Word of God,and so little on the experience."In fact,all have placed so little value on experience that what is experienced of God differs from what's been heard of God,and all automatically discard the experience and own the words,when it should just be the other way around.Experiences and feelings about a thing represent what one factually and intuitively knows about a thing.Words can only seek to symbolize what you know,and can often confuse what you know."
So study and relate your experiences (and feelings) to the Holy texts.
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