Posted on 02/22/2010 2:10:33 PM PST by truthandlife
The saddest part of the Tiger Woods statement last Friday was his public announcement of his Buddhist faith. Woods mother is from Thailand and a Buddhist. Woods claimed that he has been a practicing Buddhist all of his life, though strayed from its' teachings years ago, helping to lead him to make the choices that caused his downfall. Sadly for Tiger, even if his marriage is restored, he goes on to win a hundred more golf tournaments, ends up winning more majors than Jack Nicklaus, and earns 5 billion dollars over his lifetime, when he takes his last breath he will end up losing the most important thing of all, HIS SOUL!
You see my friend, contrary to the popular universalistic lie that there are many roads leading to God, there is only one. That is faith in Jesus Christ. Why Jesus? Because Buddha didn't die for the sins of mankind, Jesus did! Following Buddha may help Tiger Woods stay faithful to his wife, but it will lead his eternal soul to the flames of hell with no escape. He won't be able to hold a press conference and escape the eternal horrors of hell. One of the major beliefs in Buddhism is karma. Karma originated from the false Hindu religion and has been adopted by other false religions like Buddhism and the various New Age philosophies. It literally means deed or act, and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect that governs all life. The basic teaching of karma is that for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant depending on whether the first event was pleasant or unpleasant. Karma is a philosophy that has NO basis in truth, and to be perfectly blunt, is a load of cow manure.
I have told you over and over how satan is the great perverter. Satan takes the perfect things of God and perverts them. He takes the truth of God and turns it into a lie. The TRUTH from Gods Word where the perverted lie of karma comes from is the law of sowing and reaping. We first read about it in Genesis 1:11. The foundation of the law of sowing and reaping was in agriculture. You plant seed into the ground, and in time that seed will produce a crop. This law of sowing and reaping also translates into our spiritual lives as well. The key passage is from Pauls letter to the church at Galatia where he tells them, The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8 NIV)
I share with you often how our rebellion to God brings consequences and our obedience brings blessings. When we choose to live our lives in disobedience to Gods Word; when we choose to sin, we are then left to deal with the consequences of our sinful choices. God is not going to bless your sin. However, when we choose to live our lives in obedience to Gods Word, when we choose to obey Him, we reap the blessings of God in our life. It is Gods good pleasure to bless His children, He loves to bless us and it is our obedience that unlocks the blessings of God in our lives. That my friend is NOT karma, it is God allowing the consequences of our sinful choices and the blessings of our obedient choices to occur.
The myth of karma is an attempt to explain what happens to us during our life APART from God. In this perverted lie from satan, God is not part of the process. That fact alone exposes this false philosophy since NOTHING happens in your life, in my life, in this world apart from God. God did not just create the world and then decide to go take a walk and come back and check on things later to see how they were progressing. GOD HAS A PLAN AND PURPOSE FOR EVERYTHING AND NOTHING HAPPENS OUTSIDE OF THAT PLAN AND PURPOSE.
This, of course, raises the question of why do we have all of the evil and horrible things that happen in this world and in peoples lives every day. As we have discussed in the past, the evil in this world stems from the hearts of men living their lives in rebellion to God. God has permitted the evil and sin in this world for these few years in His desire to see all men come to repentance and that none be lost. We know from reading the end of the Book, there is coming a day very soon when God will step in and wipe away this world as we know it and all sin and evil will cease to exist.
One of the key passages in the Bible to understanding the mind God is found in Isaiah 55:8-9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. What God is saying is to quit trying to get into His head because you cant. We simply do not have the ability to know or even begin to comprehend the mind of God. The fact is, there is no place in the Bible that says we are supposed to.
As humans, we have this insatiable desire to know why, and the fact is there are times in our life when we will not get the answer to that question. These are the times when our faith in God must become real and while we dont know why, God has a plan and purpose for everything and we have to trust Him. The interesting thing I see in my life and the lives of others is that we never ask God why when good things happen to us, only the bad things. Take a moment and think on that one with me. When was the last time something wonderful happened in your life and you asked God why? Probably never. It is almost exclusively when the tragic things happen to us that we are asking God why?
I love you and care about you so much. As I have asked you in the past, keep praying for Tiger Woods to come to the knowledge of Christ's love and the truth of the Bible that clearly teaches there is only one name by which men are saved, the name of Jesus. Pray for his wife and children and the healing of this marriage and family. If Tiger would come to faith in Christ, it would be a great testimony of God's redemption and no doubt, would help lead many to Christ because of Woods still enormous impact on people worldwide.
Remember, there is no such thing as karma. It is a philosophy born out of the false religions to try and explain the things that happen in our life and is nothing more than a perversion of Gods law of sowing and reaping. Let me tell you something else that doesnt exist, and that is LUCK. I know I am bursting many bubbles today but luck is a perverted concept of chance that doesnt exist so take that word out of your vocabulary. The reason karma and luck dont exist is that they operate apart from God and NOTHING happens apart from God! There is nothing that happens in your life apart from God and that is why we are totally dependent upon Him.
I will be praying for you today. Praying for the Lord to keep you focused on the fact that in this life, God is on His throne at all times. He doesnt need to take bathroom breaks, He doesnt need to leave to fix a sandwich, He doesnt need to take a nap, OUR GOD NEVER SLEEPS NOR SLUMBERS AND HE IS ON HIS THRONE AT ALL TIMES!!! Nothing in this world or in your life happens apart from God allowing it to happen. God allows the consequences you have to deal with from your choices made in rebellion to Him, just like He blesses you for your obedience. That is NOT karma, it is Gods law of sowing and reaping found in His Word.
The only thing Buddhist about Tiger is his wanting to be one with his ball.
Nothing arrogant in recognizing there is only one way to God the Father, namely by the Son.
thank you.
it was perfectly in context and you know it. if it wasn’t you would not have needed such a lengthy sermon to prove that your JUDGEMENT of the situation was ever so much more enlightened than mine. and in your first response to me, you JUDGED me to be a non-christian who could not possibly understand such complicated theology as your original post. this has nothing to do with how one word is interpreted by our culture. our culture did not exist when those words were written. it means what it says... judge not, lest ye be judged the same way. it is not your job, nor mine, to judge who deserves the right to practice their religious beliefs as they see fit. God will decide who was right and who was wrong. religious freedom gives everyone the right to find out the answer.
Thanks for "judging" and reading my thoughts. No need to respond back we will just have to agree to disagree. Good night.
Very well said....and I believe they chose not to get back up.... :)
Nope. The saddest part was when he said he would play golf again. We’ll have to go through all this shi’ite and million more times before it’s over.
The worst part is he didn’t say ‘’You’ve enjoyed kissing clintons’ axx and excusing his behavior and lying for him, over 20 years you can just kiss my axx as well,,,for 40-50 years.’’
“...losing the most important thing of all, HIS SOUL!...”
A Christian should never pass judgement on another’s soul though we may have to end their Earthly existance. We may warn that their soul is in danger but it is a Biblical sin to pronounce final judgement. Final judgement is for God.
“As you can see, the Son of God said it, not a frail, sinful human being. “
Actually, some king in about 450 A.D. decided that sentence should be there, not Jesus.
Kinda sucks for all the billions of people who were born and died earlier than two thousand years ago. They all went to hell and could do nothing about it, because Jesus hadn’t come yet. Or, if you aren’t a witless fool, you realize the premise of this article is absurd and contradicts the very religion it intends to support.
Statements like yours is what creates the notion that the Republican Party is only for Christians. I am not a Christian but am a down the line conservative on every issue. I vote in every election, pay a huge amount of taxes and raise a family. I am staunchly pro-life and campaign frequently for conservative candidates and have never taken a handout in my life. So just because I am a Hindu do you want to lose people like me, how is the conservative movement better off ?
BTW Hinduism is a major religion that does no attempts to proselytize anyone. Have you ever heard of a Hindu in America creating any kind of problem at all ? Indians in America are the model legal immigrant community, your statement is just ignorant.
The Gospel of John was written by John before 100 A.D. There are many sites that corroborate this; http://www.carm.org/manuscript-evidence is one of them. You might find it interesting that there are 5600 copies of the New Testament in Greek and only 2 of Plato’s writings; however, no one seems to doubt that Plato’s words are genuinely his. Or do you?
If you’ve read the Bible, you would know that those who died before Jesus came were living under the first covenant with God and were judged according to their faithfulness and their belief in the coming Messiah. Yes, millions and millions of people won’t be in Heaven, but they chose not to believe in the one true God.
Actually, prior to a perfect sacrifice, believers after the first death did descend to Hades(Greek) or Sheol(Hebrew), but not to the Torments. Believers are known to have gone to a place called “Abraham’s Bosom”, also referred to as Paradise.
Unbelievers, then and now descend to a place called the Torments. There are many a recorded report of this location, which is associated in our understanding with a place where the worm doesn’t die and inhabitants seek their tongues to be moistened to satisfy their thirst, which is not satisfied.
All of Creation manifests His good work and none are without excuse for that predicament. There is a solution though, provided by Him, for all humankind.
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