JACQUES GAUVIN, RELIGION

Why am I a Christian?

We face both life and death. The Bible tells us to choose life. I want to live so I want to choose life. Being a Christian is the only hope that I have of salvation, which is eternal life. There is no way to God and eternal life except through Christ, I learned from the scriptures and deduced from historical awareness of Jesus. Being a Christian is accepting God^s creation as being worthy of eternal life and accepting God^s offer of eternal life. It may seem somewhat selfish in a way but you can^t help others if you can^t help yourself and God can^t help you if you don^t trust in Him.

How do I know that I am a Christian?

Everybody falls short of God^s glory. But this does not annul Christ^s sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. The way is straight and narrow and there are few that find it. There are many sins and we all continue to sin some, but not all sin leads to death, so we must not loose hope because of our weakness. We must persevere in our righteousness and continue to do those things that we know are right according to the Bible and Jesus, the Word of God, and pray for help to overcome those other sins that create obstacles for us. This is what makes us Christians. It is not pretending to be already perfect and not needing correction, instruction, change and growth.

No Christian should expect to become perfect at baptism or at the laying on of hands or immediately after an anointment. A Christian should not expect to become perfect until after his transformation into a spirit being possessing eternal life. As long as a Christian lives in a human body he should strive for perfection, until death, knowing all along that it has not yet been reached. The resurrection onto life will awaken him into an indestructible, permanent spirit body in the likeness of God our creator.

If we look at the ant it is very apparent that the death of one ant goes practically unnoticed and seemingly has no effect on the colony. I once came across an ant hill about six feet in diameter and three feet high, who knows how many ants I might have crushed approaching this hill. The ants go on working no matter what happens to those around them. They do not seem to get disheartened. That is how we should be, always keeping our eye on the goal and staying on the path. Of course we suffer human emotions from time to time but this does not separate us from God and our goal. Jesus knew sorrow and overcame to His last breath and so should we.

If the way was easy and obvious in every respect we would have no sense of growth or having participated in our own development, have no need to set goals, have no need to develop character, have no sense of accomplishment and have no need to develop a relationship with God. God wants us to seek Him. He wants those who want Him. He wants us to learn His ways and apply them to our lives. He wants us to actively participate in our growth and development willingly. The first steps are to accept Jesuss sacrifice, leadership and rule. He is the Lamb of God, the Shepherd and the King of king^s. He showed us how to live and how to die so that we might also attain life.

How do I grow as a Christian?

Having been born into a Catholic family and brought up with Catholic traditions and faith, it is very difficult to grasp some of the concepts of true Christianity. They sometimes simply don^t register or are camouflaged. You have to relearn how to think, how to react, how to feel about many things, primarily religion. You have to change your mind, your actions and your emotions. You have to learn how to be an obediant child basically on your own. You have to be able to tune out all those inner voices that speak lies and deceit and tune into the voice of God that speaks truth and leads you to life through obedience to it. This can even be more difficult and complicated if you are prone to hearing voices because of schizophrenia or some other mental illness.

I neither intend to be making excuses nor to deny the work of the Holy Spirit. I am simply stating the facts as I experience them. To give an example, is it ok for me to be putting on a little weight every year? My metabolism has slowed down, my energy level has decreased, my enjoyment of food has increased, my will and desire to exercise has decreased, my appetite to read and write has increased, which don^t require much energy, my understanding of what makes life more enjoyable has changed and my view of what makes people live longer is more sophisticated. It is very difficult to get in tune with what God wants me to do every hour of the day in this regard. Obviously it would be different if I were a quadriplegic, for example. I do know that God wants me to pray always, even every second of the day, and in this regard I often pray for forgiveness of my transgressions as I overlook what others are doing.

I know what some are thinking; there he goes twisting the scriptures to fit his own ways. To those who think that way let me remind you that the scriptures were not written in English but in Greek and Hebrew predominantly, so you too are not quoting the Bible verbatim, you too may not understand exactly what was said and intended originally or know precisely how to apply it to your life today.

Christianity is a matter of faith, faith that God and His Spirit are truly working with you personally, that you are not just imagining it, wishing it or conjuring it up in your mind. God^s ministers can only encourage you they cannot decide for you. Christianity is building a living relationship with Jesus and our Father. The religious confusion around this statement resonates in my mind predominantly because of my Catholic training. I am speaking of our Father in heaven not a human father, a priest or a Pope. I am not promoting blasphemy by worshiping anyone but God or of using God^s name in vain. It does little good to know and quote the Bible perfectly and to not follow its instructions. To deliberately make efforts to change the meaning of Biblical passages is sacrilegious.

You have to decide how much time you devote to prayer, study, writing, working, investing, planning, eating, sleeping, playing, visiting, spending time with family and friends, entertaining and vacationing. Some of these things you have less choice in than others. God requires that you, as a Christian, make time for the weekly Sabbaths as well as the Holy Days and the Passover every year. You have six days in which to do your work and pursue all those things mentioned above then you must take a day of rest. Even on God^s appointed day of rest he does not give specific instructions as to how to keep it Holy or how long the gathering of the brethren should last or what are appropriate topics of discussion aside from scripture. We are given considerable freedom and trust.

Like a boss, schizophrenia demands respect but it is not your God. You cannot always tame it or appease it but you can trust in God who can, and hope and believe that someday He will. Some things you can take a break from, like a boss, some things you can t, like a disability. If you trust and love God then there is something that you don^t want to take a break from but sometimes do for whatever reason, usually being distracted by Satan the Devil and his wiles. If you have mental illness the distractions can be rather pronounced or even severe, like a tempest that can only be tamed by God and faith in God. It is rather presumptuous to think that a victim of mental illness can overcome his trials by simply changing his mind or attitude. How many people do you know who can quiet a tempest? Many however survive them. Survivors is a term used when speaking of the mentally ill.

We hear of many in the church who have physical problems but not very many who have mental problems. Mental illness is often kept secret when possible. It is consequently not as rare as is perceived. Fourteen percent of the population suffers from some form of mental illness. The world population is around 6.5 billion which means that there are about 900 million people suffering from some form of mental illness globally. Schizophrenics make up about one percent of the population. Forty percent of people with schizophrenia attempt suicide and five to ten percent of people with schizophrenia commit suicide. The great discrepancy in the suicide rate is due to various ways of determining what is considered a suicide, as best as I can figure. As many as 51 million people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia at any one time. Most suicides occur in the early stages of the illness or during the time of diagnosis.

It seems to me that the hope of living without schizophrenia and receiving eternal life through Jesus is much better than resigning to the illness unto death then nothing.

2007 Jacques Gauvin

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