Forgotten Treasures

I found a copy of a book that I bought a couple of years ago at Barnes and Noble for $3.99. It’s called “The Positive Bible”. For the past year or so, I’ve become more interested in other belief systems. I‘ve been studying Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth”. I am taking a class in Buddhist meditation. I am a fan on Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Wayne Dyer, and others. So I was curious, as a former Born-Again Christian, can I still relate to the Christian Bible. The book that I found just contains quotes from various Biblical translations that are inspirational, not judgmental.

Thumbing through the New Testament section, I found from Matthew 5:44-46 (NKJV):
4 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[h] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

Well, the above underlined phrase just about jumped out at me. As a Christian, I believed in a personal God. Of course, I could not completely explain “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People”. There is the concept of Free Will, which I think states that we are all given a choice, to be good or evil and God does not force us to choose the right way. We can also say that God permits difficult, even unfair situations to occur to teach us. Now, I don’t know if I can ever explain everything bad that happens. I really can’t say that I’m wise enough. But reading the above phrase gave me an additional thought (assuming of course, that there is a personal God). First of all, I think that the first part of the phrase denotes something good, whereas the second half is an example of something negative. Rain is life-giving, but at the wrong time, it can produce catastrophes like mud-slides and floods. So, God the Father, permits both. He does not just love those who love him. He is the Source of Love. We are encouraged to love all, as well, so we can be “sons” (Bible language, not mine) of our Father in heaven. Also, by loving our enemies, blessing and praying for them, we are following God’s example of love.

Just a thought (don’t know if I’m right or wrong). I didn’t even realize that I still believed in a personal God. I kinda like it, though.