The Nation That Forgot What It Was Built On - https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/the-nation-that-forgot-what-it-was
The War The West Refused To Understand - https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/the-war-the-west-refused-to-understand?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=8346944&post_id=192257987&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1b28ot&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The Thing That Used To Walk - https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/the-nachash-reconsidered?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=8346944&post_id=192348345&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1b28ot&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Why Your Unbelief Might Have Been An Act Of Integrity, And Why The Case Isn't Closed - https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/why-your-unbelief-might-have-been?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=8346944&post_id=200853721&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1b28ot&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Faith Is Not A Leap Into The Dark - https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/faith-is-not-a-leap-into-the-dark?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=8346944&post_id=201137891&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1b28ot&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Something Is Hunting You - https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/something-is-hunting-you?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=8346944&post_id=201193452&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1b28ot&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The Book That Asked To Be Tested - https://acrosenthal.substack.com/p/the-book-that-asked-to-be-tested?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=8346944&post_id=201333642&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1b28ot&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
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ACR (more to follow) - https://substack.com/@acrosenthal
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Confession Of Faith (in German: Bekennung)
This is not a "confession of sins", but a confession of faith. I will state it once, here, and never again - even if I find myself sharing this text with others over time as I see fit. It is not open to "discussion", it will stand on its own.
That said, its wording may be revised as I see fit, but it stands alone and peculiar to me alone - even if its exact expression may be shared by any number of others, it is alone my confession and I own it or stand by it.
I do not love God because I believe in Him, I believe in God because I love Him - in that order. I maintain that I was born into this world loving God, at any rate my memory goes back extremely early into my childhood - knowing this love. And knowing that I am loved and cherished by God.
As for Jesus Christ, I sensed the call, the pulling since childhood days, particularly around Easter. I had to resist this over many years, for cultural reasons not necessary to elaborate on - through my own process extending through age 18, I came to the gentle and devastatingly unshakeable conclusion that Jesus Christ is real, His life and resurrection and legacy are real, His word is real.
Whether through my private active seekings and phases, or through grace guided contacts with Swamis, Yogis, Sheikhs, Rabbis, Priests, Murshids, Teachers, works of authors/essayists/film makers - American or other - I arrived at confronting my resistance by picking up the Gospel, the New Testament, and reading it all the way through with conviction, once (and ever since). I should say, three individuals in my own private friendships, independent of one another, made their decisive contributions to my process, to each whom I will always owe a debt of gratitude, as to my own biological family - the latter in whose surroundings I absorbed and was inspired by the Old Testament, which gave me basis for the Gospels and Epistles. Those three are my beloved friends Dan L, Dick O, and Mark F - and I should add, my beloved wife Rana, with whom my relationship was blessed fromthe start by her then still living German-Lutheran Deacon.
This is not the stuff for "discussion" or "debate", its power and argument is for me to hold and to carry - its sharing through witness, and works of ordinary life. It is held intact through humility alone, the childlike trust and certainty that this is all real. You live with your doubts, you don't have to entertain them. Nor be necessarily moved to preach or proseletyze. But do be ready to be there at any given sudden moment where the movement within another calls to you to stand firm and give succor, give guidance - out of humility, out of service, out of love, a compassion greater than yourself or what you think you know.
It is my life breath, and my very life and life force hang on it - it is in the prana which circulates consciously throughout my body and extends of its own through every conscious (wittingly or unwittingly, but always willingly) interaction, however vastly imperfect my dealings and doings. It holds within it protectively, all those whom I cherish and hold dear, regardless of thier knowing or their own respective status of belief or of faith. The oil candle which stands with its flame 24/7 in our livingroom is both the ceaseless prayer and physical testimony of this faith extended out, from within.
It is non-negotiable. It is confirmed in every note I sing, of songs attesting to this or of music which takes me to that high level of depth. It is the love and acknowledgment toward my Source and my Destiny, one and the same.
