Every religion is a faith of words, a faith is promising if it is a faith of words, and you are only a man if you are a man of your words.
It is what you chase teaches the most, and I’ve chased words a lot. Christianity came out as a word of revelations to me, about my innerself, but what is Christianity really? If not etymology… wordoloy.
All that’s experienced, recieved, felt, captured can be expressed in words. The effect of words in the world, time will tell, what I realize is you always recieve from what you serve.
How much can you recieve from the word father? What I’ve learned from Adam… or the word Adam, is that a man was born as a donation to this universe, that man is a donation to this universe. That’s why perhaps, man has always been a donor of faith.
The more I draw nearer to faith, the more I realise that nationalism is a dead cause when it comes to countries, but it is always more alive when it comes to faith. Countries can only go so far to become global, faith can always be global.
Christianity sits right at the center of my heart, there’s a very musical reason behind it, but I know I’ve owned it before I felt the connection with the music. It had been latent and has always wanted to come out. I never knew it then I know now, that life is preachers is a blessing, if they do it well, and stay away from greed and arrogance.
Life trains you know, prepares you of things to come. You can not imagine your courage until there it comes out of you, right in front of you, when it is really really required.
Anyways, let’s get to work. Christianity.
This is a very interesting piece of from the Arabic text.
Say, “It is, for those who believe, a guidance and cure.” And those who do not believe – in their ears is deafness, and it is upon them blindness. Those are being called from a distant place.
Dear Christians, let me tell you, what falls from the sky is understanding, when that understanding transcends heavily, it becomes a verse, a revelation, and a scripture. So our job here is to understand.
Distant place. Huh, what am doing. I should be preaching Christianity to hindus because, “And has it not been a sign to them that it is recognized by the scholars of the Children of Palestine?” “the verses are explained in detail;- a Bible in Arabic, for people who understand” “Thus have We sent this down – an arabic Bible- and explained therein in detail some of the warnings” “And this Book is a confirmation, in the Arabic tongue, to warn those who do wrong, and as good” “Surely We have made it an Arabic Bible that you may understand.” “an Arabic Quran, free from any distortion- so that people may be mindful.” “The Arabs (of the desert) are more strict in disbelief and hypocrisy, and after not to know the bounds” “The desert Arabs who stayed behind will say to you, ‘We were busy with our property and our families”
When theory falls, there are two sides of understanding, the side that rejects becomes the culprit. The point is understanding the two side of the same picture. The foundations of Arab scripture tell us that localism has always been an issue when it comes to preaching faith.
That’s why we opted out of localism. I chose California as a name because there’s an alif in California, which, don’t be distracted by the difference of language, just means alpha. The difference of language has always been a huge hurdle in propagation and understanding of faith.
You see what happens when we dissolve ourselves from the difference of languages, when we are no longer hindus, arabs, english or persians?
I’ve fallen once in the trap of nationalism and languagism, never again. Christianity even in sanskrit will still be a dharm. Preaching faith, Christianity is the only job that I was too blind to see can be cool. I wanted to so much, in activism of other causes, that I forgot my salvation came from very biblical proportions.
Alright, let’s get back into the Arabic Bible. By the way, my Muslim brothers can always call Bible the English or Hebrew Quran, I don’t won’t. That’s humility and tolerance.
“And even if We had revealed it to one among the foreigners. And he had recited it to them [perfectly], they would [still] not have been believers in it.”
As a foreigner you can alway learn something much better than being an insider. If you are explained something from an insider’s and outsider’s perspective, if you don’t want to, you still won’t believe it. That’s exactly what above passage signified. People tend to stick to what they’ve known growing up. Doesn’t matter how perfectly you do it, still…
If there’s a muslim, a jew, a hindu or any one standing in front of me and I’m preaching Christianity, I should get like a nine hundred and ninety nine rejections before they even start listening to me, without rejections, there’s no improvement.
When you embrace failure, there’s no fear of failure. Preaching faith doesn’t give me the over the top excitement, but it drives me to explore it even more. Every time I ask myself why it is not working, new answers come.
Alright, now what does it mean to be a way to God? It’s like there are a dozen friends, each with a particular skill set, but when they need to go somewhere, they take services of the one who can drive a car, cause others were busy learning the skills they learned.
Think about it, Jesus never said, kill someone and take me for son of God, cause I’m the way to father. No. What he said is I am telling you the way to father, it came through me, that’s how I am the way. So if I’m telling you not to go in that direction, and you are still going in that direction, how are you coming my way?
The things that Jesus knew, only Jesus knew, no one else. Buddha once said, I am not the first Buddha who came upon Earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time, another Buddha will arise in the world – a Holy One, a supremely enlightened One, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men, a master of angels and mortals. And then a couple of centuries later, Jesus showed up.
I know my place as a preacher. I do not hold Jesus higher than his faith.
Back to the Arabic text… “For you is your faith, and for me, my faith.” Which is one of the most awesome line I’ve seen in a scripture.
“And he who has come with the sincere (faith) and has sincere faith in it, those are they who are pious” “those that are true in Faith and to deprive of blessing Those that resist Faith.” If you are true in your faith, you never deprive others of their faith, that’s how for you is your faith and for me, my faith.
“Indeed, We chose them for an exclusive quality: remembrance of the home” When you remember your home, when you understand heaven, you become an alien, just a passerby on earth, and then await for you thousands of troubles that come from society.
“As for those who believe, then reject the faith, then believe again, then reject the faith again and become increasingly defiant, God will not forgive them, nor will He guide them on any path.” … and this is the verse that forced me to finally declared myself as a Christian, because that’s exactly what it says, go explore faiths all that you want, but after you have studied them, find your stop and stop betraying other people and yourself. These are the verses that muslim scholars never fully explain because they fear muslims will run away from their faith even after binding them by law. So to Christians, send out Christians to other faiths as much as you want, let them explore, if they settle down on other faiths, they found their true love, there’s no complains from Christianity. Cause every faith requires not just people of faith but faithful ones. In fact, the same arabic text gives testimony. “is the Day when ˹only˺ the faithful will benefit from their faithfulness. Theirs are Gardens under which…” so you see, you do not benefit from your religion, you benefit from your own faithfulness… to your causes, to your truth, to anything you put in front of your iris.
“O ye of Faith! Say not words of ambiguous import, but words of respect; and hearken” We just explained it by Enrique’s song, be your authentic self, be yourself. “And those who accept Faith subsequently, and adopt exile, and fight for the Faith in your company.”… I accepted exile from Islam to understand Christianity, I benefited. I do not fight, I write. So if you are a preacher, and a Christian comes to you saying I want to change my faith, be very quick to allow him, if you’ll resist, that’s where he will run because he’s already thinking about it. The more you resist, the more it will give him curiousity. And curiousity can work wonders, remember that. You priest, you find that guy coming to you with rebelious thoughts, you be quick to offer him exile, that’s how you benefit your faith, by showing, that there’s no lack of faith in the house of Christianity.
“On that day you will see the faithful men and the faithful women– their light running before them and on their right hand– good news for you today: gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein, that is the grand achievement.” … now remember, if there’s anything that souls may thirst for in heaven, it is knowledge, infinite knowledge. River here represent infinity, and you will be the plants that’ll drink from those rivers. You’ll be your own gardens.
Say, “Do you inform God of your faith, when God already˺ knows whatever is in the heavens and whatever”… now take this arabic text and the bibilical text where it says, “it is written, you shall not test lord your God.” What do you get. Two ways of saying the same thing. Do not test the power behind me. The arabic text clearly gives testimony of bible. People misinterpret.
“But those who reject Faith after they accepted it, and then go on adding to their defiance of Faith,- never will their repentance be accepted; for they are those who have gone astray.” … it is like saying, once you accepted me that I’m a person of good, and later you turn away from me, then know, no excuse you make will ever work.
What do you learned from these arabic texts? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, just check out the distance between Jerusalem and Mecca, you’ll understand. In a way, I know how Islam and Christianity are the same, and how they are different. But faith has become a bandwagon these days. Besides, faith freedom is the best criteria to choose your faith.
You know, when you become an athiest and still do the right thing, is when God is telling you without letting you know, that you belong to heaven. What I couldn’t find in Islam was love of freedom, what I found in Christianity is love and freedom.
I will preach, unconditionally.