What is "The Way" really?

In this page will be a number of statements that are challenging, or that you might want to dismiss out of hand because of prior training or experiences. Or just because they sound stupid. But stick with me, and all will become clear. I have to start somewhere. It sounds too simple, and it is... if it is just said. But it must be lived.

First please throw away everything you think you know, and look at what we present objectively, then evaluate what you actually know, and where your thinking needed adjusting. You are the only one who can do this. No one can do it for you, and you cannot do it for someone else.

As implied by "The" in "The Way", there is only one way, but what is it?

We need a reference for "truth" that is actually truth, or we have to spend our lives experimenting, with every wrong experiment destroying us a little if not outright killing us. This reference is our designer, creator who left us with a User's Manual. He will also speak to those willing to listen. Ignore these facts at your peril. It is your choice. A loving creator won't force you to do anything against your will. Don't believe me? Proof is coming.....

If you don't believe in a higher power, that creation must have a creator, then I will have a link here soon, that you can look at and consider before you go on.

First let me define "God". This is our creator, the supreme being, the creator of everything.

The Bible contains the word, the message, even the love letter of this creator to his creation. This book was was written and preserved by God through human hands. Not convinced? we will have two links here soon, that you can look at and consider before you go on. One for the Old Testement, and one for the New. Why? Because if you don't believe this, then the rest of this site will be foolisness and irrelevant to you. You need to have faith that the advice you are taking is in fact true.

So what is "The Way"? The essence of it is:

Good News! Trust and Believe God. Renew your mind. Learn to think like God, to make the same decisions he would make in any particular situation. This can only be done through building a relationship with him. Believe it or not, this is what God has been standing by help you with for your whole life. He keeps putting people and things into your path so that you will realize it and choose to take him up on it. But he'll never force you. He loves you, waits for you, woos you. He is not the source of the suffering you've had, but he wants to heal it. To turn all the bad in your life to good!

But how can any human possibly do this? Ask for wisdom! Guidance. It requires far more information and experience than I have yet told you about.

More specifically:

"Conciously evaluating every thought that comes into our minds as to right or wrong, and choose to immediately dismiss that which is wrong, while dwelling and acting on that which is right."

One has to trust and believe God, not do it like Adam did, grabbing godship for himself, taking control of his own life (and that of others) without God's leadership and wisdom. Making his own decisions while lacking sufficient truth, evidence or facts. It is clear that God had prepared him to make the right choice, and then stood back to see what his "teenager" would do. Just as you might have done with your own children at times.

Develop a habit of evaluating each thought you have by what you know of God's word. The implication of course is to "keep learning".

When Adam took of the wrong tree, he was telling God "I can't trust you". He took of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, instead of the tree of life. In Hebrew the word translated Knowledge means "Know because of Experience". Instead of trusting God to tell him what was truth, the difference between good and evil (tree of life), he chose to learn for himself. No, he wasn't "set up" he had a true choice to make. Bottom line, he didn't believe God, after the devil questioned God's integrity via a question. Despite the fact that God had never been anything but good to him. Despite knowing God personally and walking and talking with God every day.

Everyone has the opportunity to decide whether to trust God, or trust the devil. Unfortunately the majority of people consistently refuse to do the right thing.

What a shame, because all God is looking for in us is trust, he's looking for people who will dare to trust him, truly believe him without having to "prove it" first. As you live trusting God, you can't help but come to love him. The proof is in the pudding!

Proof comes from the doing. Let's start with right, not wrong, because wrong ruins our lives. And there is only one source of the knowledge of right.

In true science,when experimenting to find the truth about something, which makes more sense; to start with the most likely scenario? or to just shoot in the dark trying things at random? The most likely scenario in life is that God exists, and knows best.

The reason Jesus was called "The second Adam" is that he made the right choice. The first human to do so. Human?

Trust and Believe God, which cannot help but lead to loving God. Because he is a good and faithful God. Because he loves each of us, and really is not interested in whacking us.

There is something God cannot do. He cannot force anyone to Love him, and he cannot force us to believe or trust him. If he tried, it wouldn't be true or real, it would be fear, or programming. "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still". Sometimes cliches are cliches because they are true.

Just like with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden at the beginning, God stands aside, and offers us two trees, two choices. And the means to know what is right. Here are our two choices:

A) To try to learn from experience and find eternal Joy for ourselves (not possible, proved over at least the last 6000 years), often find temporary happiness that ultimately leads to sorrow. It does not stick, because we were created for relationship with God.
OR
B) believe and trust God, which for those who do, has in fact yielded true Joyous life, over and over again. Believe, trust, do, harvest fruit. Do you like the fruit you are harvesting? No? Get smart! The bible is full of examples of right and wrong choices, and the fruits of those choices. It is better to learn from the example of others than have to experience consequences of wrong choices for ourselves.

So ask for wisdom. But how? In increasing levels of power....

A) Read and believe God's word. If science and the bible differ, we have misunderstood one, the other or most likely both. Have the humility to believe and see the fruits come. That will be the proof. Don't insist on proof first. In the meantime there is the testimony of others, and also the history in the bible. But can the bible be trusted? And is Jesus who he said he was? This is a start. Unfortunately, unchecked, knowledge alone puffs up into pride and legalism. Oppression of others, and this is where all human led religions have gone. Theologians have made the simple complicated so they could feel good that they understand it and look down on others that don't. Too many people have bought into this lie, and being controlled by humans and human organizations. God has been so misrepresented by humans, it is no wonder that many hate him. But they need to come to realize it's not God they hate, it's the human ways that have been foisted off on them because God allows each person's free will to rule their lives. And the results of the interactions of everyone's misguided choices creates an environment where evil can thrive. There is a better way

B) Hang out with others who believe, and live what they believe showing that they trust, and have fruits to demonstrate that this is the case. Interaction and testimonies can build us up like you would not believe. This is the "church". Most of what today is "understood" as being church isn't God's way at all. People who are willing to be true brothers, rather than stand on hypocrisy, putting on one face, and actually being something different. In this area is brotherhood. God has no interest in our "Church attendance score", he is interested in whether our hearts are after his or not. How we seek and choose to serve him. Trust him, believe him, live like we do.

C) Build personal relationship with God. Directly. No other humans (living or dead) in between you and God. Talk to him, but more importantly listen to him. He is speaking to you all the time, and if you are truly listening, not just asking him to agree with your agenda you'll begin to hear him. This is the most important of these four points, as it enables the other three to actually mean something, to be lasting, to become real in your life. There is a related issue here. Hardening or softening of your heart. A hard heart cannot hear God, but a softened one hears him well. Every one of us is a mixture.. harder in some areas softer in others. In this area is salvation. God will not say "I never knew you". If you truly seek you shall find....

D) Share what you have learned and your physical blessings with others, so that they will want to live like you do. Start with sharing by example. When they ask, teach. Be a light for God, of what living his way can do for a life. Increase over time in your ability to do this under God's direction. Be a disciple of Jesus. Not a hypocrite who says "Do what I say, not what I do". With it comes prosperity and health.

I put before you this day blessing and cursing, life and death, choose life!

Now is time to define a word that religious people throw around--SIN. I believe that that the Bible shows there is only ONE sin, and that is unwillingness to trust God, aka unbelief. That is our struggle in life, to cast out unbelief, and replace it with trust. Along with that comes everything good and lasting. Everything else people like to call sin, is just instances and ramifications of this one core issue, possibly combined with lack of knowledge that one could have had if we'd only trusted and believed, and because we do also grow in grace and knowledge.

Refusing to believe / trust over a lifetime, this is the one and only unpardonable sin! It's called blaspheming the Holy Spirit, refusing to listen to him, to believe him, for a lifetime.

Another possible definition of sin which meets the above test, is "That which dishonors God, harms another human being, or harms yourself."

Many say to be saved once and forever you only have repent of your sins, believe with your heart and confess with your mouth... which is true if you mine the depth of the word "believe" over your lifetime. That which you "truly believe" is that which you live your life by. This is not a one time event, it's about where your heart is. Does it truly love and seek continually more of the Lord and his ways?

This has been a very simple writing. And in fact God's truths are so simple that people need help to misunderstand them. Unfortunately there has been all too much help in this area.

Please follow along, and visit the links of this trail of documents and breadcrumbs, so that you too can share of the growing Joy that we have found in our lives as we have learned to walk in "The Way".

It is said that "The Devil is in the details", and this is true, unless we seek to have "Jesus in the details". This is "The Way" to true life and Joy everlasting.