I watched a great podcast yesterday. Lex Fridman interviewed Bishop Barron. It’s nice to hear about physics from a religious perspective. I really got a lot out of it. Bishop Barron says “God is the substitent act of ‘to be’ itself.” That makes perfect sense to me. God says, “I am who I am.” He is God. He doesn’t need to prove himself.
“God IS the reason there is a more contingent being at all!”
“God is not an entity; people think of God as a big being,” Bishop Barron continues to say. God is beyond being. However, I do believe he is a “being” in heaven. I believe his size spans the earth and is probably even much bigger than that. Colton Burpo, in the book, “Heaven Is For Real” says that God looks like a much bigger version of the angel, Gabrielle. I believe that Colton said he wears a yellow/golden sash. If I remember correctly.
For me, I am a believer in God and always have been. I have believed in Jesus for as long as I can remember, from a very young age, I didn’t need “proof or evidence.” I didn’t need to see him or experience him with my five senses. I feel God. I feel him there with me every day.
And he speaks to me in the silence and in nature, in love through others, in friendships, and much more. God speaks to me when I’m listening to the Bible, for example, after I’ve just put it down or listened by audio, I get the clearest messages ever.
God’s very nature is to be, again. He is holding us together. Gravity is what keeps your feet to the ground. God made gravity, which keeps our feet to the ground and also keeps planets in their orbits! The universe(s), planets, galaxies, and billions upon billions and billions of stars are all held together by God.
Real faith is believing even when it’s dark, even when you can’t see, and even when you’re taught not to believe. It’s like an author to a book. The author may not seem to be in the book, but he is the writer. HE IS THE AUTHOR AND THE FINISHER. HE IS GOD.
Furthermore, God becomes one of us. God becomes a human (Jesus). Jesus makes humanity radiant and beautiful. He is the redeemer of all reality, Bishop Barron continues. “Jesus came to pay a debt that he didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay,” is another way to put it. The Bible tells us: “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32).
The greatest physicts in the world talk about free will (some of them think it is non existent) and that everything is in a cosmic or what I like to call a “divine” order. But we have choices. The world renowned pastor and NY Times bestselling author, Greg Boyd, says that God sees every choice we can make, every route we can go. Even when we make the wrong ones he is there to pick us up.
God foresaw that we would all need him. God knew we would all fall short. God is love; God is light. God is omnipresent, and he can be everywhere at once. God is all knowing and all kind.♥️
Here is the podcast link to Bishop Barron’s interview with the popular host, Lex Fridman.
And here is the other podcast I mentioned, with Todd and Colton Burpo, from the NY Times bestselling book (and movie): Heaven Is For Real.
About Zina
Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s recently been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast! She’s also been on ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT
It’s true. He is the reason for my existence and the reason why I move. ‘Without God I am nothing’ does not mean I don’t recognize my individuality it just means that I acknowledge the fact that he has made me! The greatest philosophers debate about where consciousness comes from and verify that our thoughts come from ‘somewhere!’ Although it seems like we choose our thoughts and actions that is not necessarily the case. What I mean is, we have a cortex (the outer surface of the brain) that is constantly trying to appease our body (limbic system). It sends messages to our body through neurons all day. It takes outside information from the environment and processes it. Our behaviors, actions, and thoughts seem to be our own, but if you think about it experiences ‘just appear,’ according to Sam Harris, an American philosopher and neuroscientist. You see everything is in cosmic✨ order. The greatest physicists in the world, such as Brian Greene, have even debated about whether or not we really have free will. Brian says there is an order of things. We are ‘actors’ in this universe🪐 in alignment with that divine order. However, to say we don’t have choices would not be fair. Science has also discovered that an electron or ‘particle’ can appear in different parts of a wave🌊 while doing the ‘double split experiment.’ This has taught us that the fact that the electron can come up in different parts of the wave means we also have ‘different routes’ we can take! in physics, we are technically a ’particle.’ God has a plan for everything though. Even for when we mess up. Whether we are moving here through complete divine order or a combination of our choices and intuition, God is in the drivers seat no matter what. Frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way! 🔮⚛️✝️💖✨🪐🙏
This is true. The greatest physicists have debated whether or not free will exists. I believe it does to some extent. But maybe not as much as we think it does. Everything is in cosmic order. I believe we are moving here through our imagination, but God ordains certain things to happen and certain people to be sent. Through our choices, we bring our destiny to fruition. That is why I do believe we have free will because there are choices we can make and different routes we can take. However, we can’t control everything. We can’t control when there is a hurricane, for example. We can’t control the way certain things turn out. However, we can be coworkers with God to make the best out of life and to make the right decisions. He gives us that ability, even if our choices are predetermined, it feels like they aren’t. We just have to trust that God is always in the driver’s seat and even when we fail or suffer loss, he has a plan. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor. 4:17).✨💫🙏
Zina Hermez 