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Faith
Journey-Bob Yacobucci
Last Updated: February 3, 2007
How
do we know there is a God?
There
is a word we all know called
“Faith” that means we believe in something even
though we
cannot prove it. Faith is based on past experiences and
situations. You have faith that tomorrow the sun will rise up
in
the morning and that nighttime will follow. There is only one
difference with God. Through your faith, God will make
himself
known to you. It doesn’t matter how many times you
believe
the sun will rise tomorrow, you will never be able to prove that
tomorrow the sun will rise. With God, you just need to
develop
your faith in Him and then He will come into your life and He will make
Himself known to you.
We all know of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were the first two
humans on this planet that God created. It is important to
understand that Adam and Eve where more than just
“humans”,
they were given a special gift above all other creatures on this Earth
that he created prior. This gift was the gift of
“awareness” of knowing that they lived and they
were given
the gift of choice. An animal in the woods is not capable of
choosing between good and evil. An animal just lives
day-to-day and does not have and never will experience unconditional
love in
true sense that we experience. For an animal, the day before
is
the same as all the rest of the days in their life. Animals
exist
on this Earth for the pure pleasure of God (of which God later gave to
us to enjoy and reign over).
God wanted a special creature on this planet that can choose to worship
him. We are given the gift of freedom to choose to do good or
evil. He receives great pleasure from us above all other
creatures when we choose Him.
Adam and Eve failed their first test by God. God tested Adam
and
Eve with temptation. The apple tree from which they
ate was no
different than any other apple tree today. The only
difference is
that God commanded Adam and Eve to not eat from this particular
tree. When Adam and Eve failed the test of temptation, this
is
when God created death as a punishment to mankind.
What do Adam and Eve have to do with proving that God exists?
The
history of us is important to develop your faith in God. God
will not allow Himself to be proven to be in existence by Man using
science. God created this universe and left Himself out of
the
equation. God wants you more than anything. He
desires you
to believe in Him all on your own. This is a special gift
that is reserved for you through
your
faith in Him. Nobody else
can
do this for you. And you cannot afford to fail, since without
faith in God, eternal death is the only alternative.
How is it possible to
speak with God?
Adam
and Eve, Moses, and others throughout our history had the gift of
being able to speak directly to God. During the time
of Moses,
only Moses and other Priests
could speak directly to God. The
majority of souls on earth though could not. They had to rely
on
others to interact with God on their behalf. Sins were
forgiven
by animal sacrifices. God sent his son Jesus to the earth to
die on the cross and it was through Jesus that God allowed our sins to
be
forgiven. The other great gift that Jesus gave us was the
Holy
Spirit and this gave each of us direct access to God. No
longer
can Man have the excuse that we don’t know God or
can’t
talk to Him or ask for His guidance. The Holy Spirit is the
part
of God that exists in each and everyone of us. The Holy
Spirit
allows us to talk directly to God and what a great gift for each and
everyone of us!
Evil exists all around us. Evil are souls that have departed
this
life prior to us that have not repented their sins and God has rejected
these souls from his kingdom. These souls cry out to us
pulling
us away from God and distracting us from God. Their goal is
to
keep as many of us away from God as they can. This sets us up
with the internal daily struggle which we all have on a day-to-day
basis with
regard to sin. The Holy Spirit within you is the gift God
gave
you to lean on…use it. Cry out to Him, talk to
Him, and
worship Him!
Why should I read the
Bible?
There
was a very popular book recently that tried to discredit the Bible and
God. Please don’t let the word of man outweigh the
word of
God! Man is selfish by nature and books and movies that try
and
discredit the Bible are usually written for personal gain (the sell of
the literature). Don’t use this as an excuse to not
read
the Bible especially when you’ve devoted time to read a book
written by Man. The Bible’s true author is God that
he
provided to us for your benefit. Man wrote the Bible at the
direction of God. God provides the Bible to us to allow us to
know the history of mankind, but more importantly, to guide you in your
life to eventually to be in His glory. How will you be able
to
stand before God and say, “I didn’t know about
you!”
when His word is abundantly available through the Bible?
Believing in God is a lifestyle change, and you are capable
of making
the change and God will help! It’s natural to try
to bring
God down to our level or prove Him out of existence. This is
much
easier to do. We’d rather be absent of rules and
just do
what we want. You must resist these temptations.
These
feelings and actions are the work of the devil fighting for your
soul! Yes, I’ve questioned the existence of God and
I still
do occasionally, but my faith always reels me back in towards
Him. I bring those feelings to God and He once again
reaffirms
his presence and my faith is restored. The devil loves
complacency. It is one of his favorite tools to separate you
from God.
Once you have become complacent about your relationship with God, you
are at your weakest and vulnerable point and sin becomes more
acceptable.
Do not think of the Bible as a boring book. This is the
furthest
from the truth! The Bible is full of terrific stories and it
will
naturally bring you closer to God. God does not expect you to
devote 24 hours a day to Him. God wants you to enjoy your
life
with your family and friends, to experience your first true-love, the
sight of mountains, going skiing, bike riding, swimming, and many other
gifts which He has provided to you on this Earth. He only
asks
that you make Him part of your life and worship Him.
Worshiping
God does not mean knelling on your knees for long periods of time;
it’s practicing what He and his son Jesus teach us in the
Bible. And I’m sure you would agree that this world
would
be a better place if we all practiced what the Bible teaches.
How do I get started
with my faith in God?
You
need to relinquish yourself to Him. This doesn’t
mean
giving up your personal possessions. God does not want your
possessions. God wants you! To relinquish yourself
to Him,
you must first have a relationship with Him. You will not
trust
or have faith in God if you do not have a relationship with Him.
The first thing you need to do is make time for Him. You will
never be able to start your relationship with Him if you
don’t
start off by making time for Him. How many times do you get
home
from work and watch an hour or so of television? Or work on
weekends to make an extra few dollars that only fuels more
desire. In our family, we disconnected the cable and have no
television. We do not miss it! But for most (and
maybe you)
this is too drastic. Go to bed early once or twice a week,
and
just think about God. Maybe say a small prayer like
“Please
God, I know I am not giving you much time, but please help me get to
know you better.” Or just think about the great
gifts He
has provided all of us, like mountains, seas, and stars in the night,
or anything in your mind that pleases you, but give God thanks for
those gifts because He is the one that created them for you and without
Him they would not exist. Read just a few pages of the Bible
every night. I have not yet completed reading the Bible and I
don’t expect too for another year or two! But I
read a few
pages every night that only takes me about ten minutes.
After you’ve made some time for God at night, slowly make
more
time. And your next step is to visit a Church in your
area.
The Church will bring you closer to people that are building their
relationship with God. Everyone needs a faith family to lean
on
and the Church provides this for you. And the Church can be
fun
too! Sharing experiences, learning, and being with others
worshipping God is a terrific experience!
Why doesn't God just
show himself?
Oh
how easy that would be. If God would just show himself to me,
then I would believe. This is normal for all of us to ask
this
question and for us to desire a quick and simple solution.
What
you are asking God is to prove that He exists without faith.
God
has never shown himself to any human. God has made himself
known
to Moses as a cloud and spoke to him out loud, but no human have ever
seen God. This is not what God desires and it is not what you
really desire. When God did make himself known directly
(without
requiring faith) to humans, we quickly forgot that moment and moved
on. Faith is much stronger. As a parent, I desire
my
children to know of me, this will enable them to have the strength they
need when I am not around. When they are faced with a
decision to
do good or evil, my desire is for them to choose good over
evil.
I know if I teach them correctly and they know who I am, then my
presence is not required. They will draw on my
strength.
God expects the same from us. Have you ever seen something
“amazing” and then later questioned if it really
happened
or that you imagined it? Do you really want to have a weak
faith
that is based on sight that soon will disappear into the many other
clouded memories in your mind? God provides something much
better! He will make himself known to you once you place your
faith in Him. This is what will carry you on, day after day,
until your time comes to go be with Him.
How will I know when God
has come into my life?
God
will make himself known to you slowly, and as your faith grows, you
will see Him and His works even more clearly as you live your
life. The best thing with God is the closer you get, the more
you
will desire to be with Him.
Do you really believe that you were put on this earth to live
“day by day?” The answer is no.
God has a much
bigger plan for you, but He cannot work through you if you will not
open your heart to Him. Until you begin to fulfill
God’s
desire in your heart, you will always have this empty
feeling.
When was the last time that you felt good about living “day
to
day?” We all have these feelings. You are
here on
this earth for something more. You will know you have a
relationship with God when you ask God “What can I do for
you?” When you truly have a burning desire in your
soul to
serve God and when you beg Him to show you what your purpose in life
is, He will answer you.
The following are some brief stories that I’d like to share
with
you to let you know how God is working in my life. These
stories
are very personal to me and I struggle with sharing them with you
because I am a reclusive person by nature. Your stories will
be
different and just as important to you as these stores are to me.
Over a few weeks period of time I would struggle with questions
relating to my relationship with God. I had several questions
I
struggled with and I’d ask God, “What should I
do?” The answers were made to me the very next day
in a
book or web site I just happened to visit. I was not
consciously
looking for the answer. And in fact, the first few times the
answer was in front of me, I recall thinking “What a
coincidence!” However, after about the fourth time,
I
realized God was providing me the answers. And each time the
answer was given to me I was stunned since I was not expecting the
answer to be given to me so clearly. One of my struggles I
recently experienced was when I had resolved that I wanted to be a
great speaker to spread God’s word. The next day in
a book
I was reading a sentence that stood out to me that basically said,
“God has given you a gift, it may not be the gift you desire,
but
use the gift God gave you so He can do His work through
you!” God was telling me “Don’t
struggle trying
to be a great speaker, and instead use the gift I gave you to spread my
word.” This gave me great relief since God was
telling me
not to spend my energy learning to be something I am not, and instead,
I should concentrate on dedicating my time towards Community Day for
God. One of the gifts God gave me was the gift of
organization. I never imagined this gift could be used for
God’s glory.
During the summer of 2006 I was watching my daughter’s
softball
team playing a game. I recall thinking of God and even though
words cannot ever do the experience justice, I can only say God gave me
a very small glimpse into heaven. As I was watching a girl
begin
to pitch the softball everything went into slow motion.
Normally
I would watch the pitch and just see the end result (strike or
hit). However, on this day and for a very brief period of
time I
was made aware of everything that was required for the girl to pitch
the ball. I was sensing things I had never sensed or
experienced
before. The movement of the girls’ arm, movement of
her
legs, the hand opening, the release of the ball, the arch of the ball
as it began to rise, the ball spinning through the air, the expression
on the girls face, and her eyes focused on the plate. God was
showing me everything that He allows to happen and what He made
possible for a girl to pitch softball. I’m not sure
why
this happened, but I do hold onto this memory because it is one of my
biggest anchors. When I question, “Is this all
worth
it?” I can refer back to that day and say,
“Yes!” This one gift alone that God
provided me can
never be repaid. I could spend a lifetime trying to justify
this
one gift, and it will never be enough. But God
doesn’t
expect us to repay Him for His gifts, only that we do His work through
the gifts he provides each and every one of us.
About five years ago my brother Mike was diagnosed with ALS (Lou
Gehrigs Disease). ALS basically robs your body of your
muscles. You slowly loose your muscles, unable to talk, walk,
swallow, and breath. After about 2 years when the disease
began
to really show itself in my brother I recall asking God, “Why
do
you allow small children to have cancer?” At this
time, my
brother Mike was not in my thoughts. I had an image of a
small
child who had no hair. God responded and said, “I
do not
choose small children to have diseases. I provide the earth
to
live on and it is not perfect. Your life on earth defines who
you
are and how you respond to these situations defines your relationship
with me.” I recall thinking, “Ok, God, I
understand,
if everything was perfect on earth then it would be heaven and that is
reserved for later.” But then my question became
selfish
and I asked God, “Why are you taking my
brother?” And
God responded, “I am not taking your brother. I
went to
your brother and said to Him “It is time for someone from
your
family to come be with me, who shall it be?” and your brother
responded without any concern for himself, “Lord take
me!”
and because of his devotion to his family I gave him the gift of time
to say goodbye to his family and this is why your brother has
ALS.” After this conversation, my feelings turned
from
absolute fear for my brother to valuing every minute I had with him
from the point forward. He passed away on Dec 21,
2003. I
treasure the time I had with him. At Mike’s funeral
the
priest said Mike had asked him “Is it a sin to want to
die?” I wish Mike had asked me that question,
because I
know Mike wanted to live, but the cross he had to bear became too much
that he was ready to go be with God. We should all strive for
the
day that when our time comes that we aren’t afraid, that we
desire to leave this place and go be with God. Please
don’t
confuse my brother’s situation with suicide. My
brother was
not advocating suicide. He had a terminal disease and as
death
approaches, it’s natural to want to relinquish your life to
God. If you are having problems dealing with life (and we all
do
at times), please seek help from God and family.
Your personal relationship with God will become your personal
stories. God has provided a gift for you and you need to
discover
what the gift is and your purpose in life. To move forward,
you
must first build you relationship with God and ask Him how He wants to
use you in this lifetime. He will give you an
answer. Just
open your heart to Him.
I am a good
person...isn't that all God expects?
Being
a good person is a good start, but you can only be in God’s
glory
by being enveloped by God. Consider a child that is your
niece,
nephew, neighbor, or a friend’s child that treats you
nice.
This child may respect you, but this child can never express the love
to you in the same way that they express the love for their own
parents. When you love someone, you go beyond treating the
person
nice. God expects the same from you. God is your
Father and
he expects you to go beyond mediocrity to the level of expressing
unconditional love.
Think of a horizontal line and on the left side is Evil and on the
right side is God. Where do you place yourself on this
line? Perhaps you consider yourself in the middle or slightly
to
the right of middle. With God, you must be all Him, you must
be
the furthest right point.
We expect God to reward good and to punish evil. God expects
no
less from us. You must punish evil by doing away with it in
your
life! It is through Jesus that you slide yourself all the way
to
the right. And God will help, because without God, we cannot
conquer sin on our own.
Moving yourself on this line is a process, and not a goal. It
is
not something you achieve at some point in the future during your life
here on earth. You need to commit yourself to God.
Once you
do this, you begin building your relationship with Him. As
you
build your relationship, you are “moving” yourself
on this
line to the right and towards Him. You only achieve the
furthest
right point once you pass from this life and into heaven and enveloped
by God’s love.
I am a sinner and I always will be. But I strive to walk
towards
God by slowly conquering my greatest sins with Gods help.
Here
are some personal rules I’ve set for myself; they reflect my
weakest points in my life at this time. After I tackle these
sins, I will move onto others, and slowly over time defeating as much
sin in my life as I possibly can.
I cannot talk down to people (this places me above another person)
I cannot judge (I will always be wrong and only God is capable of
judging).
I cannot show anger (Only God can control anger)
I can hold out my hand and offer help.
My actions should reflect what Jesus would do.
I cannot gossip (this is a polite way of spreading hurtful information)
The next time you are tempted to commit a sin, substitute something in
it’s place. The next time you are tempted to
gossip, think
about the person you are gossiping. How would they feel and
how
would you feel if they heard your words? This person probably
does not feel good about what they have done, or the people they
affected by their sin. Change the gossip to a more
compassionate
and constructive dialog. When you are gossiping, you are
condemning a person for their actions. And none of us is
worthy
of condemning another person.
What are you biggest vices? Write them down, conquer them,
and
slowly move your soul towards God. It’s a struggle,
sinning
is a bad habit, sinning is natural to us, and like anything natural
it’s difficult to curve the temptation to repeat.
It’s a journey over time, but you can do it! Just
take it
in small steps.
A place seperated from
God
Many of us have our “biggest” fear in
life. My
biggest fear in life at one time was dying, drowning to death, and
recently wondering if I would have enough money to retire.
All
these fears are now gone from me. None of these fears exist
in
me. Why? Because God has come into my life and he
has shown
me something different and beyond this world. Yes, we all
hear
these words frequently to put trust in God, but how many of us actually
practice this in our lives? If you put your trust in God and
worship Him, you will realize nothing of this world can conquer you.
My biggest fear now in life is not retiring or dying, it is being
separated from God. Many people wonder what
“Hell”
is. I can say undoubtedly that Hell is being separated from
God
for eternity. Think for a moment that you were to die today
and
you are placed in a dark place just existing, no love in your life,
nothing to enjoy, nobody for company, all by yourself. All
the
things you enjoy here on earth, the mountain, bike riding, swimming,
singing, playing a musical instrument, all of them are gone.
Without God, the only thing that exists is
nothing. You are filled with internal pain and regret,
spending
your time crying out for someone to love you, to comfort you, and it
never happens. You know that somewhere “out
there”
there is love, warmth, and God and you cannot find it, and it is just
beyond your reach, and you wander aimlessly throughout
eternity.
A very frightful thought indeed.
I do not know how God will judge a person when they pass away from this
life. But I do know what He says we must do to ensure that we
are
with Him for eternity. So why fall short of God’s
expectations? Treat God as if your life depends on it,
because He
is offering you much more than the life you experience here on earth,
He is offering you His unending and unconditional love.
You are God's Temple
I
always struggled with “Does God change his mind and if so,
does
that make Him not perfect?” I realized that God
does change
His mind. The most notable to me is when God planned to
destroy
all Man with a flood, but changed His mind when he saw Noah and how
much Noah loved Him. God changed his mind and spared
Noah’s
family, and therefore, Man. God changes his mind out of
Love. He Loves us and is willing to go to great lengths to
express His Love. He exhibits patience and He is willing to
change to accommodate us. Please imagine for a moment living
before Jesus. You could only be cleansed of your sins by
sacrificing something like a perfect animal and you could only seek
Godly guidance from another person that was a high priest.
This
left the “normal” person at a great disadvantage
and with
no direct relationship with God.
God sent his son Jesus to change all of this. It is his final
gesture to us for us to be able to draw closer to Him. He
will
not
repeat these gifts to Man. This is His final act of Love to
us
expressed through His gift. Because of these great gifts, Man
may
no longer harbor excuses for not drawing closer to Him. This
is
why Jesus will come back to judge the living and the
dead. How will you stand before the Father and say,
“I did
not know you?” He has given these gifts to you for
a
reason. Do not take them lightly. For
these gifts can
only be received by you with an open heart.
The three gifts God gave us through His son Jesus:
1) Forgiveness of sins–Jesus
gave us the gift
of being able to wash ourselves of our sins by repenting our sins
directly to Jesus that would make us pure. “He is
the
perfect Lamb”. In the old times, God required
perfect
animals (without blemish) to be sacrificed to him to as a means of
cleansing ourselves of our sins. Jesus is the perfect
lamb.
You must be forgiven of your sins through Jesus to be in the glory of
God.
2) God’s
Presence–Jesus gave us the Holy
Spirit. In the old times, Man could only have a relationship
with
God through high priests. These high priests had the direct
relationship with God. Through Jesus, God gave us the Holy
Spirit
that exists in each one of us so we can have a relationship with God
and seek guidance directly from Him.
3) True Worship–Jesus gave us
the ability to
truly worship the Father. In the old times, Man could only
worship God at temples and synagogues. Jesus always preached
the
theme, “It is through Me that you have a pathway to my
Father.” Worship is what God seeks from
us. It is
only through Jesus that you can worship the Father, not a building or
place or ritual. Jesus said to become his disciples and go
out
into the world. Jesus was conveying to us that you must
follow
his ways and follow his teachings as a true worship of His father, our
God. God does not desire thoughtless prayer or idle worship
at a
building. Your truly worship God by following the teachings
of
His son Jesus. Worship only occurs at a Church when we
strengthen
our own relationship with God; learn what is expected of us, and by
helping others around us that are struggling with their
faith.
But we must be disciples and go out into the world and spread the
word. We do this by following the teachings of Jesus.
All of the above represent the three parts of a
“Temple” in honor of God. Only God can
grant these
gifts and he has joined these three gifts together and given them to
you as the one temple. You must consider yourself a temple to
God
because you are. This allows God to judge us an independent
person that can no longer claim we were not provided the means to
eternal life.
Churches are built by Man and based on Man’s belief of what
God
desires. There are many denominations of Churches, but only
you
can worship God. Only a child can worship the
Father. The
rituals that Churches exhibit only honor God if it results in the
people understanding what it is to truly worship the Father.
You are the temple, you are the Church, and you are the one.
Only
you can worship God, and God is watching you since a temple that does
not worship and honor him will be torn down.
When Jesus spoke about tearing down the temple and rebuilding it on the
third day, He was referring God's final gift to you. God
destroyed the traditional meaning of the temple, and He rebuilt it in
you. The temple was completed on the third day when He raised
His
son Jesus from the dead, this completed the third part of God's temple
and gift to us through his Son–the gift of True Worship.
“We
heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple
that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not
made with
hands.'”
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