tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29030400852672897642012-02-16T16:45:56.764-08:00Im just using this blog to process my own thoughts and feelings about anything regarding the human relationship to God. I don't really know what its going to turn into or if anyone will actualy read it, but if it helps at least one person its worth it.Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855147728539496339noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2903040085267289764.post-31154234406863678492011-12-11T14:24:00.001-08:002011-12-11T15:03:14.219-08:00For as long as I can remember my faith has been based solely on emotion, experience, and what I was told by others. This seemed like a perfectly fine way to go about my faith since I am only in High School and I figured that I can wait until Im older and on my own to figure things out for myself. Than one day I came across Luke 10:27 <i>"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."</i> Growing up in the church I have seen this verse many times before, but it registered differently and more profoundly with me than it ever had before. The line of "with all of your mind" hit me this time. What does it mean to love the Lord with all of your mind? In some ways I didn't believe it was true, I didn't need to become a theologian to be a "good Christian". I forced this feeling to go away and just went on my way. A few weeks later, I was talking about my faith to with some friends, and my views on not having an intellectual side to my faith was changed forever. I was saying what I believed when my friend stopped me mid-sentence and said this statement, "Why do you believe that? and What does it mean?" I was stopped dead in my tacks, I had no answer to him. What was I going to say, that I just thought it was true? Or that I think I heard it somewhere? Thats when I realized that having an intellectual faith is necessary because it is biblical, and because how are you supposed to believe in something if you don't know why you believe it? Any reason to the contrary would be laziness and ignorance.This experience sent me on a journey to intellectualize (I'm not really sure if thats a word)my faith. Once I got started, I have never been able to stop. I have become fascinated with studying scriptures and learning what I believe, why I believe what I believe,and making my faith my own, not just saying its mine since its something my family believes. So what? I guess I would just encourage anyone who has not yet made their faith their own to think and pray if that is the next step that you need to take in deepening your relationship with the sovereign creator of the universe.<br />God Bless and Merry Christmas!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2903040085267289764-3115423440686367849?l=j-odie.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jeremyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855147728539496339noreply@blogger.com0