Now I know that this may have nothing to do with the assignment; however, I do believe that it does. I think that this is a little conclusion that I did not know was going to happen. The other night, I was doing a little research forthis blog. I was looking to see if I could find anything controversial that could be used as an argument for Easter, like there is for Christmas. However, because of the importance of Easter to Christianity, there was nothing to be found.
As I was typing into Google to look for Easter information, a topic popped up on what the Bible says about the world ending in 2012. I thought this might be neat to check out. Now the Bible does not specifically say anything about the world ending in 2012 or at any time for that matter; as Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." In the words of Jesus, nobody will know when the world ends for sure other than God.
I have read many Bible passages in my day before, but this time was different. As I read other Bible passages, a warmth came all over my body. Other people might exclaim that, " Hey, maybe it was the fact that you had your laptop on your lap. Maybe that caused your body to be warm." However, my laptop was only on my lap, not my entire body. Also, as I read on, I felt an undescribable peace and comfort.
I do not attend church every Sunday, I do not attend Bible Study, and I am not the leader of a Faith Formation Class, all I was doing was reading simple, but powerful, Bible passages. A conclusion I can draw from this happening in my life is that God was trying to tell me something through these passages. Yes the Bible is the Word of the Lord, so in a way He was speaking to me in a different way as well. It was almost as if this blog project itself has given me a closer relationship with God.
Being that I had never fully experienced this before, I decided I should do some research on what may have happened in a scientific perspective. After looking around on the internet, I found a term known as temporal lobe epilepsy. Temporal lobe epilepsy is a form of epilepsy, this condition "causes fitting but it is also associated with religious hallucinations." (Scientific Explanations to Visions of God and Ghosts) Dr. Michael Persinger, performs experiments on temporal lobe epilepsy, has found that if an artificial magnetic field is focused on the temporal lobe, the subject does not "feel alone."
Even though there is scientifical explanation for the feeling of "not being alone," I still believe that God was trying to speak to me. I did not have any religious hallucinations, I just felt at peace and warm. God works in many wonderous ways, ways that science cannot prove.
Works Cited
O'Hearn, Timothy. "What Does the Bible Say About the End of the World?" Minutes with Messiah. 2005. Timothy James O'Hearn, Web. 8 Feb 2010.
"Scientific Explanations to Visions of God and Ghosts." High T3ch. 20 Sep. MistaPrimeMinista, Web. 5 Mar 2010
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Being in a public library, I did my very best to suppress hysterical laughter. I can easily imagine the horrified looks on the faces of “religious” peoples, aghast that Jordan just said, “a warmth came over my body.” Every Christian is okay with talking about the idea of a relationship with God, but some seem to be terrified to think that someone could actually HAVE that relationship. One would be hard-pressed to find an American who hasn’t, at some point in his or her life, experienced the “warm-and-fuzzy” feeling of falling in love with someone. We aren’t talking about a hypothetical relationship with God. We are talking about a REAL relationship. Doesn’t this relationship deserve a dedicated and bold following of believers, instead of the halfhearted and timid group that so many belong to? Christians need to wake up!
ReplyDeleteI can say that, at least in my mind, I have fallen in love and am in love with a special someone at this moment. However, the "warmth" of falling in love with her versus the "warmth" that came over me were completely different.
ReplyDeleteThe feeling of falling in love with someone is different for every person and should be otherwise there would be no special significant feeling if everyone had the same feeling. Yes I was warm and happy when I fell in love with my girlfriend. However, this warmth brought something much more. It was a different kind of warmth that cannot, and will not, be mimicked at any other point during my life. I was warm, at peace, and comfortable. I did not smile, but I was happy. Thoughts came into my head like you would see in cartoons where the lightbulb suddenly turns on. It was truly amazing.
I find your experience to be eye-opening even for me. I really enjoyed reading about your experience about "the warmth that came over my body." It really proved to me that it could be some kind of spiritual experience you were experiencing. These are the kinds of evens that truly make a non-believer a believer.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I have been noticing that I tend to have bad luck at times and sometimes think to myself it is something that I am doing wrong that are causing these events. After all this blogging and hearing about Jordan’s experience, and how fixed Shane is in his Christian belief, my eyes have really been opened to think that maybe I can't do everything myself and do need to have a more "personal" relationship with God. I have also realized that living my faith does not only mean doing things to show my belief by myself, I need to be comfortable enough to shout out the window of the tenth floor of a building and say that "I believe, and I am not scared to prove it." In reality, this means me not being selfish and sleeping in a Sundays because I have had a long week. Everyone has had a long week and they are making it to 8 o'clock mass. This will truly change the way I look at life because I think that this could be something that could change my luck around.
Paula, I really enjoyed reading how you will try to change your "luck" around. If you have had a long weekend, there might be a possibility of your church having a later mass or maybe a mass on Saturday night? I think this blog project has been one of the best things that could have happened to us, Paula and me, because of our growing in our faith with the help of Shane and our own posts and/or happenings.
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