LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? — Psalm 15:1
One time, I was sitting in an office with several members of my team, and we were reviewing resumes. Quite a few people had applied for a job with our company, and we were tasked with finding the best candidate. At that time, the job market was a lot more difficult than it is today. People were aggressive in their search for jobs as jobs were scarce.
On one side, we set out the job description. While we knew what the job entailed, we were not able to recite from memory the qualifications of the job. They were required to be a licensed healthcare worker in this position. That required specific training, including a college degree. Another qualification listed was a specific length of experience. We were able to take the many resumes and compare them to the qualifications.
As we dug through the pile of papers, we found that no one was qualified for the role we were hiring for based on the qualifications. The requirements of the job as listed were extremely high. No one held the required training, education, and experience.
In this Psalm, David asks a question that should cause us all to reflect and encourage us. at the end of this verse, he asks, who shall dwell in thy holy hill? The question is essentially who is qualified to dwell with God in His holy place? If we look over the qualifications, we will all quickly see that none of us are qualified!
Nothing of ourselves qualifies us for Heaven. Thankfully, the story does not end there. While we may not be qualified of ourselves, we are qualified through the blood of Jesus Christ! God is not looking for money, training, licensure, or anything else. He is simply looking for the blood of Jesus.
Don’t get discouraged when you look at yourself and see sin, fault, and failure. Those are all things of this world. God is looking at your heart. He’s looking to see if the blood of Jesus has been applied. If it has, He says you are worthy and more than qualified!
Jared Dyson
Another Well Ministries
I reject your assertion that we need to be saved. It's a story that gets repeated over and over. Can you see how disempowering that story is?
And calling it my choice doesn't really explain it, does it? Why did God create this situation where I have to guess which religion is the right one otherwise I get tortured forever? It sounds like something out of the violence-porn movies like Saw.
You skipped right over the free will part. God created us and gave us free will. That is where the sin manifested. God didn’t create our sin we did by using the free will he have us wrongly. He created us to have a relationship with Him. Not to be mindless robots incapable of love. Have you ever tried to know God? He is knowable by His attributes which He tells us in His word. Understanding who He is, is a big part of understanding why things are the way they are and what He has done for us. Once you understand the length He has gone to fix the trouble we made for ourselves you can understand how empowering it actually is. God’s word is the only truth. It is infallible and holds up to any intellectually honest scrutiny. Sadly there are those who want to have their own truth. Sorry, but there is only one truth. You have your ideas but there have many much deeper in doubt than you. Many famous atheists that have much stronger logic and arguments than you end up finding the need for God both in their logic and some even in their hearts. You would think someone who has such a problem with eternal torture would at least investigate the only path to avoid it instead of just deny it and push it away to feel better. 2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
"You're free to do whatever you want. But if you do the things I don't like, you'll be tortured forever. But don't blame me, I just setup the entire system."
That sound like freedom to you? Sounds like desperate fear tactics to me.
I'm curious, if the bible were proven true to you would you change your thoughts?
To whom would it be proven? If I am the subject then by definition I would be convinced by proof. But I suspect my standard of proof is different than yours. I don't think any history book can be proven to be true, only corroborated with evidence. History is a Mystery.
Furthermore, each statement stands alone. If I tell you one truth and two lies, will you believe the lies? I hope not.
And why would the creator of the universe use an old book to talk to you? Seems like he should be able to speak to you thru any medium, no? Dreams, poetry, visions, music, love, pain...