I don't mean to speak on anyone's behalf, let alone on such important matters as one's faith. I actually believe our relationship with God is the single most important and most intimate aspect of all our lives. In any case, what I wanted to presume was related to what Paris means by "I'm not a Christian, but I believe in Jesus". It is a mere deduction i make from her location - the United Arab Emirates. It is my understanding that in Islam both Mary and Jesus appear many times and He is seen as one of the prophets preceding Mohammed, which was the last one. Therefore, in the Muslim world there is a lot of love and admiration for Jesus and his teachings, but He is not considered the Son of God, as we Christians profess. Paris, please accept my humble apologies if I assumed wrong.
Now to answer the main question of the thread - I MOS DEF AM a believer. I will not go into the details of my path, but I am currently on my way to conversion to Catholicism. I was baptized in a different denomination, but for the last 11 years I have been discovering the Catholic Church, its saints and doctrines and I found myself feeling at home. I also had the chance to live in two countries that have as main confession Catholicism, which is not the case in my homeland, where I've returned.
I am still learning and struggling and this road may take another 11 years, or maybe even more. I have yet to find the courage to enter the confessional, therefore I cannot say that I am a true Catholic, but I do what I can for now - which is to pray, fast, read and attend church as much as I can and try to fulfill the Word and do good, but sooo many times I fail in that attempt. I can only rely on the Lord's mercy and pray that I will not leave this earth before I've made a complete confession and I've had holy communion and I've made my peace with the Savior.
It is actually in the doctrine of Divine Mercy preached by Saint Faustina that I have found my main reason for conversion and also in the figure of Pope John Paul II, whom I believe is also a saint. Poland sure gave some great people to the Church and to the world in the 20th century
Although of Catholic origin, the doctrine of Divine Mercy can be easily accepted, in my view at least, by any Christian denomination. Its core precepts are: Mercy is the greatest of God's attributes; trust in Jesus with all your heart and soul, as a child; try and accomplish at least an act of mercy (be it in prayer, word, deed or thought) each day.
Saint Faustina had a vision of Jesus which depicts two rays: one red (for the blood) and one white (for the water) which gushed forth from Christ's heart when Longinus pierced it. We are to take refuge, comfort and solace in the Mercy they represent.
http://www.geocities.com/heartland/hills/8351/index.html
I see some of your were discussing Michael's faith and fate. For someone of Michael's fame and recognition throughout the world and the immense diversity in his audience, including in religious beliefs or lack thereof it is understandable he would not be perceived of a certain belief. We are all aware of his beginning as a JW or all of the rumors about his conversion to Islam, but it is my humble estimation from watching his speeches, reading the lyrics to his songs and most of all his actions -
the man not only had faith, but walked the walk. Unlike so many of us who pretend to be Christians, but we are by name alone, our actions being often in contradiction with what we preach, he truly tried to fulfill God's will, with his shortcomings, of course - he was only human.
When it comes to Michael, we all have the tendency to project our own feelings and beliefs onto him, because he was and is such an important part in the lives of millions of people, but I must say that I was truly proud of the overall Christian sense of the memorial - from the amazing Crouch choir, to Mariah's invocation of the Lord to pastor Lucious Smith' closing prayer when he recognized that even the king of pop must kneel before the King of Kings. When was the last time a global audience of over a billion people was exposed to that message?
I know the Lord is good and I trust in Him. I know he keeps Michael safe. I must confess though, selfishly from a very subjective point of view that I wish Michael had the chance to share with the world some more of the beautiful spiritual music that he was capable of writing/interpreting - man in the mirror, keep the faith, will you be there (the ending of which I've always considered a prayer and acted upon by kneeling) and even speechless, which can have multiple meanings, including it being a love song to God. As always with art, we interpret it through our own lens made up of our beliefs, perceptions, values and priorities, even if the artist meant something else. But the again, that's the beauty of art, isn't it?
Let's be honest here - Christian music is a niche market, imagine the world's biggest entertainer doing an album with such music, imagine the impact...The peril in that might have been the alienation of fans of other faiths / atheists / agnostics, which is something Michael wanted to avoid, his main desire being to bring people together, but I guess we will never know...
One last thing before I leave you all (I sure wrote a lotttt lol) - those of you who can, please pray for me - I have a very important exam coming up tomorrow. I know it's quite 'convenient' that I post for the first time and I already make a request for prayer, but I only discovered the thread yesterday. THANK YOU.
