I started to read the Bible and want to know more about it since I learned the meaning behind the stories from Pastor Jiāng. I would like to share a concept with you so we can remind each other to understand the Bible in spiritual way. A lot of times when we look at a story but not in a spiritual way we will have doubts about it. This is because it is hard to be understand in the logical sense. The Kingdoms of God (loftiness) is very different from the human world (worldliness). The principle of how things work in the Kindom of God usually is opposite from what we humans would think and would do. For example, to be humble, serve others in the position of the lowest in order to help lift others up is one of caracteristics of the Kingdom of God. Sacrifice, be willing to give up what we have and offer it to someone in need and not think about the risk we will face. In our thinking when people are poor we tend to think they do not work hard enough.  In the human world position and money represent power. If a person knows the difference between loftiness and worldliness he or she will know how to use power in the right way.  Spiritual growth happens by knowing the difference between worldliness and loftiness and practicing to think and to act with more loftiness. In order to understainding the attributes of God or God’s Love, we can’t understand the Bible with the  same logic as our old way of thinking. We must empty our old wineskins and fill new wine skins with new wine. 

Let’s look at some stores from the Bible to know about the “Amazing Grace” of God. First we will talk a little bit about  world religious history and mention that at each stage the Prophets  God has sent revealed more truth for us to grow our spirit. At the Moses and Buddha stage, the “wages of sin is death,” but with the coming of Jesus this changed to redemption through Him.

 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23). 

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.    ( John 1:14 )

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1 )

When a person first reads this he would think how could it be possible that one can die for others and also that Jesus is not living in our era so how that related to me? There is spiritual meaning, God released the spiritual power through Jesus Christ to forgive our sins. What is sin? Sin means we diverge from God and it is the stage of the separation from God. If we are separated from God we need to follow His commandments so we can go back to Him. Understanding it as the stage of separation so we can focus on how to get back to Him. Imagine  a child that lost his memory and got separated from his father. The father would hire people, broadcast and use all the resource he has to find his child and help the child to recognize him. This is what God does by sending new Prophet in each age. He helps us recognize Him and wants to bring us back to Him. If we understand it in symbolic way, then we won’t be caught up by the story itself. The Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God are beyond human understainding. But we can try to learn about God by understand the symbolic meaning in or from the relationships around us. The relationships in mankind are another aspect of God’s creation and wisdom for us to learn about Him. The existent world is a gift from God. Not just for us to enjoy but  also for us to learn about Him and the invisible spiritual world.  I Hope you have a better understanding the meaning of Jesus Christ now and know a little bit more about God’s love. God’s love does not just stop there. Through Muhammad  and Baha’u’llah God also released spiritual power to mankind. This spiritual power is His Grace and we are all submerged in His Grace. How great is our God!! 

We will continue with other stories.