What does it mean to be a good person? The reason for many religions is to reach God, but can God be found by any other means than faith? I believe faith is the principle way a person has a relationship with God, but I also believe our actions are very important. I do believe our actions have a direct relationship to the universe and the world around us, kind of like when you skip a stone on a pond, our actions have a rippling effect on the world around us. Some religions call this karma, and others say we have real choices to make after we become believers. The debate of the 21st century is do works save you? I don't believe they do, but I do feel that they directly effect the harmony of the earth, our health, our spirituality and others. The second greatest question is "Is the bible enough to save us?" I personally believe it is, however it must be lived out.
There has to be an acceptance in our culture that works matter, in the sense that we are all connected. There is no secular/sacred divide that we should be adhering to. There should be discernment, and yes you shouldn't mix religions, but there should be more of a focus on works, especially in a world that is starving for love and truth. Not only do we need to be more responsible people of faith, we have to grow more of an awareness of our actions, we cannot lose that, because then we go back to living in our bubbles and end up not loving each other.
If religious people have more of an awareness of our works, we should see more harmony in the world. The confusion comes from not being responsible enough to ourselves, and to one another. During times of crisis, we can reevaluate what we value and consequently respect, as human beings. We don't need to fear saying our works save us, because in a real way they do. When we are kind to each other, when we choose to love rather than to hate, when we forgive instead of holding a grudge, we are acting in accordance with our faith and our traditions. We can run into problems when we fail to see this, when we look at works as our burden and not our responsibility. It's a big responsibility to say we are believers, we in a real sense become accountable to the world, not in a materialistic way, but a spiritual way.
When we pray for the salvation of loved ones, or strangers we become responsible for them. It's not like we are some kind of babysitter, in a sense God is the one ultimately responsible, but there are times when he gives us humans some responsibility. That is what I am talking about here. That's why when one suffers in the body, we all suffer, because the human race may all not be united spiritually but we are all united through our humanity. This is Mike.
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