"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." (Deuteronomy 33:27 NIV)
"Let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them ever sing for joy..." (Psalm 5:22 ESV)
"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge..." (Psalm 18:2 ESV).
"As for God , His way is perfect...He shields all who take refuge in You..." (Psalm 18:30 NIV)
"In You LORD, I have taken refuge...deliver me in your righteousness...be my rock of refuge." (Psalm 31:1-2 NIV).
These verses give an aura of a place to nestle peacefully; to have rest, comfort, protection; and in the safety of that nook, no striving. No striving to attain anything. In God we can trust and have recourse in times of difficulty and duress. In Him we have a place just to 'be' and to still one's heart and mind; a place of relationship with God who is infinitely bigger than any human being.
Psalm 67:2 NIV declares,
"My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge,"
God, who is ever the faithful One; the One who keeps His promises, is the One on Whom we can rely. He is worthy of our trust. He never fails (Zeph 3:5). He is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He sent His One and Only Son, Jesus, to suffer and make atonement for the sins of all mankind. Yes, of all mankind, even of those who don't believe there is such a thing as sin or a sinner.
God is ever gracious. He sent Jesus. Jesus died on the cross; was buried, rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven having completed His work to God's great satisfaction. We can see this as marked out in the following verses: Psalm 22:24-25; Luke 3:21-22; Acts 1:11; Revelation 5:6-12, (esp v. 9).
Jesus was, and still is, the only perfect one. The only one who never ever sinned. The only one, as in Buddhist terms, who never had any "evil habits" nor, "bad deeds", nor had any actions "merely termed as unskillful or unwholesome" (Page 238 of What Buddhists Believe).
Jesus is the only one to have ever lived who did not need to train and discipline His mind to eradicate lustful thoughts and yearnings. He never ever had to suffer for His own sin (or unskillful, unwholesome actions). He did not have to strive for any enlightenment.
He is, therefore, the one and only one worthy to be a Refuge for the rest of mankind.
Please see this clearly, I am not trying to criticize anyone's belief. I wish to just point out some points to ponder. This is a comparison and I hope to show those differences.
Buddhists "take refuge in Buddha", yet Buddha himself had to be "enlightened". His formula, or lifestyle teachings are for a good life which makes for a good living person. This way does not hinge on Gautama Buddha as he did not come to 'save' anyone nor is he a god as he himself purportedly proclaimed. Each person hinges on themselves to make or break their own enlightenment.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ hinges on Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus, we can come to God, our Refuge.
"In Him we live and move and have our being...for we are indeed His offspring" (Acts 17:28 ESV).In Him, we have a life to live, to live in the right way according to God's will and ways as seen in the Bible, God's Word. These we accept and follow out of love and gratitude to God for earning our salvation for us, to live an obedient life of good. Take comfort in this sure promise...
"The Lord redeems the life of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned." (Psalms 32:22 ESV)
In his book, What Buddhists Believe, Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda says that...
"...when Buddhists seek refuge it means they accept the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha as the means through which they can eradicate all causes of their fear and other mental disturbances..." (Page 233).
He goes on the say that...
"Buddhists...know that the only protection they can have is through complete understanding of their own natures and eradicating their base instincts" (Page 233).Human beings can rely on themselves or other human beings only to a limited extent. The mind, as Dr. Sri Dhammananda said, has "base instincts".
God's Word tells us,
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure..." (NIV) or as another version reads, "desperately wicked" (KJV Jeremiah 17:9).True enough, we do need an understanding of our own nature and its base instincts; we need to know that very well. We need to know that the mind and heart are very closely related and incurable! We need to know that we need a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26) and that we cannot get it of our own accord. We are informed of God's promise to give us a new heart or 'inner man' in 2 Corinthians 4:16. The website gotquestions explains this as a,
"change of heart...requires supernatural transformation" which "Jesus called being "born again" (John 3:3).We need to be born again into God's family through the "External and Supernatural Source" named Jesus Christ.
Through reading What Buddhists Believe, I've come to realize that Buddhists do not believe in God, sin or in getting help from external sources for the eradication of ones own unskillful, unwholesome, bad deeds. Yet according to the earlier quotation, they do seek refuge in their striving for Nirvana, in Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. These are external human sources or resources. These human sources are also seeking Nirvana, or have been the ones to have "ascertained the Noble Truths" whereby to live.
Don't get me wrong; much of this Middle Path is good: Don't kill, steal or commit adultery. Incidentally, these are part of the Ten Commandments God gave the children of Israel in the Old Testament times (Exodus 20:1-17). However, to live by man made ways to try to achieve perfection of mind and in turn attain Nirvana is nigh on to impossible with a "desperately wicked and incurable heart". It is not Self who can intervene.
God proved this to mankind in His dealings for about 2000 years that we read about in the Old Testament of the Bible. First there was the first man, Adam, then the pre-Flood multitudes' wickedness that was so great that...
"...the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart..." (Genesis 6:5-8).After The Flood, God dealt, eventually, with the children of Israel. These were the ones who had many rules and regulations to follow, the Ten Commandments among them. If you look back in the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve had had only one rule to follow. They all "blew it".
So is there any hope for us?
The Psalmist of Psalm 46:1 NIV discloses that,
"God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in trouble."We need to have faith that God is and that He loves us and cares about our mind and heart. He wants us to trust Him; to come to Him through Jesus our sure refuge.
Let us make our refuge in God through Jesus Christ and...
"Put no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3 NIV).And as Psalm 118:8 (NIV) testifies:
"It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust humans (nor put confidence in man KJV)."I add...nor even to trust oneself for salvation. Psalm 146:3 goes on to say,
"Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save" (NIV) or "in whom there is no help" (KJV).Jesus is fully man and fully God. God proved Himself some more to mankind as His Son Jesus walked the Earth and then gave the ultimate sacrifice of His life for mankind. I emphasize again that we need God for our salvation through Jesus Christ Who gives us forgiveness of sins, eternal life, ceasing of suffering, eradication of base instincts with a new heart, the Holy Spirit Who can help our minds to think on noble, just and good things so that our actions will be good when we submit our own will to God our Father's. The eradication of suffering happens when Jesus brings us, His followers, home to be with Him in Heaven forever.
This is that supernatural, eternal and external Source in Whom we can put our confidence. Our salvation through Jesus Christ gives us His Holy Spirit Who aids us in the sanctification process of relinquishing the bad thoughts and deeds and becoming more and more like Christ. The new heart will help us to do what is right in God's eyes. God is our standard and not our own self.
Take refuge in Jesus therefore. Pay homage to God, through the name of Jesus, for what He has done for us and for Who He is. Do so, NOT from a motivation of a reward or to avoid punishment from the consequences of our bad choices but to know that our help and safety and refuge is in Jesus.
God is the God of all comfort. He will wipe all tears of pain and suffering away. Second Corinthians 1:3-5 assert that,
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles..."Do not lay all your cares and burdens down at an ordinary man's feet but at the feet of Jesus. Sri Dhammananda quotes Francis Story who is a "western Buddhist scholar" (Page 234). Story calls all this striving towards Nirvana a...
"...Heavy burden of my cares and aspirations, the weary load of incessant birth and death" (Page 234).Story was laying all these cares down at the feet of an image of Gautama Buddha whom he was making his refuge.
Yet Buddha is the one who said, according to this book What Buddhist Believe, that each must help themselves work towards ones' own salvation for oneself and no external sources were needed. Do it yourself.
Jesus said, "Come."
"Come unto Me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28 ESV).Bring your burdens to Jesus and submit to Him. HE is the one and only reliable refuge.
Look at what Francis of Assisi is alledged to have said,
"Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart, give me, Lord, a correct faith, a certain hope, a perfect charity, sense and knowledge, so that I may carry out Your holy and true commands."I pray that one and all will be able to say, "Amen" to that as they rest in Jesus, Their Refuge.
~ERC June 2018~
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