DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: HOMELESS MAN
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1. What is your religious background?
Mostly Baptist. I’ve been to a Methodist Church before. I don’t really affiliate myself with any particular denomination. I don’t see in the Bible where we were instructed to have divisions amongst ourselves. But they all point to the true God through Christ.
My mother was a Christian. My dad left when I was two, but I’ve heard that he has sense turned his life around and accepted the Lord.
2. Do you currently practice a religious faith? If not, why?
I’m a Christian. I go to church. I’d like to be more involved. I guess, over time, that can happen, you know?
3. What comes to mind when you think about God?
I have to be honest to say that I have animosity about things that have happened to me, and things that haven’t happened for me. But we don’t wanna view God through our frustrations. We want our view of God to be the one He gave of Himself in the Bible through the Lord’s walk on earth. That truth needs to be the ultimate authority when it’s all said and done, regardless of how I feel about anything.
The devil masquerades as an angel of light. He can seek to influence people to harm someone before they know any better, and cause someone to [conclude] it was God. [People say] “God’s all powerful. He let it happen…” You know the deal, know what I mean? You can’t blame God for the sins of man and the evil influence of the enemy. We may have our feelings about the whole situation, but we gotta realize that when it’s all said and done, God is sovereign. He’s the Almighty. And you can’t beat Him so you might as well join him. {laugh} You know what I mean? And let God work it out over time.
Sometimes it don’t feel like God is involved in my life. Maybe I’m focused on what the devil is doing in the world rather than what God’s Word is doing in me. When I’m focused on the wrong things, I don’t want to admit it because I know they’re wrong. We can’t stop the whole world from sinning, but we can certainly stop ourselves. And if enough people did it, our influence could be felt worldwide, you know what I mean? We could say, “Hey, this is the right way to live. Can you find anything wrong with it?”
This kind of environment has the appearance of la-di-da land, but it’s vile. The Bible says that man’s heart is so wicked and deceitful that man can’t even realize it because it’s so normal to be that way. You say, “Well, they’re going to do it to me if I don’t do it to them.” That’s the excuse that keeps it all going.
4. What comes to mind when you think about Satan?
I don’t wanna follow him where he’s going. So therefore, I don’t wanna be like him in this lifetime on this earth. I guess the more we walk in the Spirit, the more we can see the devil’s influence in our minds, and subsequently, in our lives. You know what I mean? The more you can see where the devil gets his shots in on you, then you can do something about that. “Hey, this guy keeps knocking me out with the left hook, man.” That’s what you need to work on.
5. What comes to mind when you think about Heaven?
Don’t wanna miss out! The Bible says the Lord is gonna restore the earth to its original state of perfection, and that the saints will rule and reign with him. It will be Paradise on earth. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the situation.
6. What comes to mind when you think about Hell?
Misery. Torment. Unimaginable pain. I never wanna experience it. A lot of people think they’ve been to hell. Nobody’s been to hell. I understand what they mean though. The term “hell” is used to describe the common grave actually. Hell is [also] the lake of fire. I don’t wanna end up in the lake of fire, no. It’s too serious of a situation to think its nonsense. And if it is nonsense then at least you had that covered just in case it was real. The Bible says its forever.
7. What comes to mind when you think about the Bible?
Final authority. [Its purpose is] to reveal God’s plan of salvation. To deal with sin, because God can’t partake of sin. Therefore, he had to atone for that. So in a way, you can be mad at God and say, “God let sin into the world, and He didn’t do anything about then and look what happened.” Yay, yay, yay. But look what the Lord went through, and he personally did nothing wrong as a man on this earth.
{Those people are looking at me, man. You never know what they’re thinking. It doesn’t matter too much, but it does matter some}
8. What comes to mind when you think about Jesus?
Mediator between God and man. He makes us acceptable to God and he makes us assessable to God. He said he would send the Spirit. The Lord can give us peace with God. It’s usually over time.
9. What comes to mind when you think about the purpose of life?
Sometimes you wonder, “What is the purpose of life?” But that’s usually when you’re trying to find the meaning of life by watching other people, most of whom are lost. They’re just blind guides and dead ends, you know?
The purpose of life is to…to…to glorify God. To be free from the bondage of sin and Satan. And be prosperous and successful, and right before the Lord, and uh, fulfilling the Word of God; the calling on your life.
10. On a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being no confidence, and 10 being complete confidence), how would you rate the level of confidence you have that your beliefs (regarding questions 3-9) are accurate?
I’d say I’m pretty much a… I don’t know if I wanna say ten, because I don’t know if, off the cuff, I’ve perfectly dissected and analyzed every question to every strain of ink. I’d say 8.24. {laugh}. 8.24.
11. What would you say have been the biggest obstacles in your search for truth?
I don’t want to have flashbacks, so to speak. So I’ll just… No. I think it’s mostly people, man. The teachings in school, the programs in society, the media, the kids in school, the bullies, the people who think they run and control everything. The world is not as nice as it appears to be. There’s always a lack of love somewhere.
12. Hypothetically, if you were to stand before God today, how would you feel about meeting Him?
I would feel very…I would feel much sorrow that things weren’t better. That I didn’t do better. Because maybe I wasn’t taught better. Maybe I didn’t have better friends and influences around me, or a coach. Someone like Tiger Wood’s father, puts him in golf at what, the day before he was born. It stands to reason that he would be a professional golfer and make good money. Money answers all things. I mean, if you got money… {laugh} Give someone a couple million dollars and they suddenly have a lot of influence. Take a couple million from somebody and leave them broke, and see how much influence they have. Like trading places, you know?
[Back to meeting God] I’d prefer to meet God in a better frame of mind. I would like to have had a chance to of worked out things about my life that have been a failure and loss, and try to make them gain. Try to redeem myself. Like maybe somebody who misses a play in the World Series, and somehow ten years later, gets back and has a chance to make the same play, and comes through, whereas he failed before. Know what I mean?
[If I didn’t have that chance] God would accept me because the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That’s the only way any of us get in. I mean, yeah, there’s rewards for what you did with your Christian life, but it all starts with the blood.
I don’t want to sound like a pious hypocrite because I speak about the blood. I don’t always live…I’d even probably have to say, most of the time, I don’t feel as though I live like a Christian. Even though I basically try, but it’s hard. You gotta be in the world but not of it. If you can’t be around a bunch of alcoholics without drinking, then don’t be around a bunch of alcoholics, if that’s what it takes to stay sober.
13. On what basis do you believe God will or will not accept you into Heaven?
The blood squashes all doubts.
14. If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
“Why did [You] create me with seemingly no hope of a future?” With the condemnation of the past with the abuse, mistreatment, and misleading. Why did He let me get so down and dirty? As soon as He knew the mind of the devil, why didn’t He shut him down?
15. If you could ask 1,000 people who are not Christians one question, what would it be?
“How can you explain the changed lives of those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ?”
16. If you could ask 1,000 Christians one question, what would it be?
“If you’re Christians, why don’t you act like it?” Often times, people in the world will do more for you than Christians. Because they generally really want to do the right thing. They just really don’t know the real truth. Because it’s been kept from them by those who are in power that influence culture and society, that are ruled by the devil. They got most of the power, it seems like. But they’re getting ready to have a power shortage. {laugh} They’re getting ready to suffer a blackout. A long one. {laugh}
17. If you picture where you want to be, how could someone help you get there?
I think the main thing is prayer. But anyone can pray, “God, help him,” and absolve themselves from any responsibility of actually being the vessel God uses to provide the help. But as far as like, tangible actions and whatnot, my main need is…I mean, money is a need, but I don’t expect everybody in the world to give me a dollar. My main need is the Holy Spirit. If people had a genuine concern for my well-being, that’d be the greatest place to start. And I, likewise, should be concerned with their well being.
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