"Repentance is the activity of
reviewing one's actions and feeling
contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better. In Judaism and Christianity it is often defined as an action, turning away from self-serving activities and turning to God, to walk in His ways." The following article is useful:
Repentance - Wikipedia
You know what's really crazy? I have a gnostic bible, satanic bible, koran, morman bible, Buddhist and Hindu texts, a necronomicon,
You have to destroy these books. You cannot repent or be blessed while holding on to evil possessions.
I still have my original bible homewrapped in black duct tape because I was afraid of what would happen to me if I was caught reading it. In the US. In public school. I still have that bible in its black duct tape cover... Worn to pieces... I hide it from my wife. She's against stuff like that. She insisted getting married outside of the church.
Living with someone who is anti-Christian is a big challenge for you, especially when she doesn't allow you to read the Bible. Why is she so hostile against Christianity?
> How does one define God? And if you can't, how can you be sure you're right? <
How do you define God? Everyone has a definition for God. Even atheists they have a definition for the god they reject.
> I wouldn't consider Buddhism a religion. Thus one can be Christian and Buddhist at the same time. <
My understanding is that Oriental people consider Buddhism a religion by adding to it local animistic beliefs in Theravada and Vajrayana or by adding more sophisticated cosmology in Mahayana. Westerners believe only in Buddhist philosophy and think they can be Christians at the same time. I respect Buddhism as a pre-Christian religion: a philosophy devised to explain human existence until eternal Truth became embodied in the person of Jesus.
The Buddha lowered the status of Hindu gods in favor of an unknown ultimate reality that he could not describe. We Christians know that the ultimate reality is the God described in the Bible.
The Buddha believed that suffering is the ultimate evil. That attachment to the world is the root of evil. And that people did not have a permanent identity. Christianity believes that God creates and loves the world and that we also need to love and care for the world, even if we suffer in this endeavor. Our self / identity is to be nourished and made holy in the manner of God so that it could have eternal life. We do not deny our "ego" but reform it by renouncing selfishness with the power of the Spirit of God.
> The gospel of Thomas is my favorite gospel, but it's discounted. Why? Because it was found in 1945. <
I like the Gospel of Thomas, myself. In fact a large portion is taken verbatim from Matthew's Gospel. The Bible, being truthful, does not mean that all writing outside the Bible is a lie. But, of course, everything that contradicts the Bible is a lie.
> The bible hasn't clarified. The bible discombobulates. Which bible should I read? Those who seek shall find. Well, I'm seeking. <
It's great that you're seeking. You should read a modern English translation with good footnotes that explain the text. But again, where would you read the Bible when you can't read at home?
Mat 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
