A Travel Log Into Eternity

 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8, RSVCE) This intro quote comes from Saint Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians. Back in his days, there was no social security system that supported you when you had to go through economic hardships. As a relatively new religious phenomenon, Christian sects had a hard time being accepted by their pagan neighbors. Without being accepted into society, they could not expect any help from their fellow citizens. This means that it was more important than ever to be a community where every member could rely on each other in times of need. But, of course, this...

 When I talk to someone I have just met and we get to the topic of religion, the conversations usually go somewhat like this:     THEM: What is your religion?     ME: I'm a Christian?     THEM: Cool. What kind? At this point, throughout my journey through Christianity, I had to give answers like "I am a Lutheran," or "I am a Mormon (now known as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)". While it technically should have been sufficient to say that I am Christian, it is not. But why is that so? The problem lies in the nature of man and the vagueness of scripture. Let's focus on the latter first. Jesus said a lot of things, but not all of them were written down. And even the ones that were are not discussing a lot of 21st-century problems. So over time, certain discussions about vague passages and their interpretation have occurred. From time to time, these little disagreements got bigger and lead to the split of Christian groups into ...

 In pop culture, being ghosted means that somebody you try to communicate with is not responding to you. They are basically keeping you on "read," as others would call it. This can be pretty hard for some people because they either relied on an answer or feel isolated and ignored. Imagine your future path hangs on one response that you are waiting for. This would make you lose your patience, and it would probably give you a couple of sleepless nights. Now, imagine it would not just impact your future path here on earth, but all of eternity. This would be hell, yes literally hell, because we would be separated from God and his word. Luckily, there is a "response": The Holy Spirit. <<When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of t...