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Old 02-09-2007, 05:37 PM   #5 (permalink)
eastcoastgirl
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 43
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Thanks to both of you for your opinions. I am new to IMing and a new Christian (less than 2 years).

If I may, I'm going to add my 2 cents. I am going to speak of God in human terms because that’s all I know. I believe, however, that God is so big and powerful that I can’t even comprehend it. I hope I don’t sound like I’m preaching. My thoughts about this are not fully formed yet, but here’s where I am heading.

I believe that God loves us unconditionally and wants us to be happy. I believe that He wants us to live life to the full. I think He has provided us with the Law of Attraction to help us do that. I also think that LOA raises our consciousness so that we can be closer to God. The practices of gratitude and forgiveness, which are part of LOA, bring us closer to God.

I have come to believe that God gets joy from our faith in Him, but I also believe that deeds are meaningful, not because they will make God love us any more but because they strengthen our spirits and help us to reflect His love. If we don’t do good deeds, God won’t stop loving us. It’s a given that He loves us. But I don’t think God wants us to believe in Him or to do good deeds simply for His love or to get into heaven.

For myself, I believe that God wants me to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. To me, that means loving and helping my fellow humans, withholding judgment and criticism, taking care of the planet, loving and respecting myself, standing up for social justice, etc. It does not mean trying to convert people to my way of thinking. It does not mean that I have to be perfect or to become a nun. It means something as simple as helping someone at the grocery store get something off a shelf, helping someone who is sick, or helping the homeless. Following in Jesus' footsteps may seem like a easy thing, but it’s not. Up to now, I have been a very selfish person, not respecting or caring about others very much at all. The principles I am learning in my personal development pursuits, including IM, are helping me to do all of that.

I think that IM and raising your consciousness fit in very well with the idea of following in the footsteps of Jesus. The path I was on in my Christian journey is turning out to be the same one I’m on for personal development. The ideas are often the same. I believe that we have free will but that God intervenes in our lives; we just don’t know it. I believe that God put me on this path for a reason.

Thanks for listening.
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