ReuleauxMan

Deuteronomy 8:2 (CSB) Remember that the LORD your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 1 John 5:2–4 (CSB) 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. Psalm 10:17 (CSB) LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble; you will strengthen their hearts. You will listen carefully, Romans 10:10–13 (CSB) 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Proverbs 4:20–23 (CSB) 20 My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. 21 Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body. 23 Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. Matthew 5:8 (CSB) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

I do believe in NDE's generally, and I've had a short one of my own when my mom had a placenta previa. She was bleeding almost to death and I was starved of oxygen, before an emergency C-section had to be performed and I had to be resuscitated. The near-death experience went as follows. I was a point of consciousness surrounded by pure white, panning across the space and looking at my baby body laughing without abandon at something I couldn't see. Then I knew that I was that baby, and then the white light overtook everything and I was gone, to be followed by my life here. The takeaway I have from the experience is the white light was God enveloping both me and the baby, binding soul and the baby's flesh together. The baby was taking great interest in and thoroughly enjoying something besides me altogether, and I was to be that person enjoying that besides me. Unfortunately, the childhood bullying and emotional neglect I was subjected to made me focus almost exclusively on myself, and I had lost that joy I came here with, but God restoreth me ?.

The more scholarly research and exposition there is, the more complex things seem to get. I hope we get closer to the truth as time passes (considering the Truth itself walked the earth as Jesus two thousand years ago). The Bible is one of the great works of literature, and as such its content can be unpacked many many different ways with volumes of commentary and analysis multiples longer than the Bible itself (a key example alone being just Matthew Henry's commentary of the whole Bible). I am a bit of an idealist about just reading a translation of the Bible and getting the truth out of one's own heart and understanding, no denomination or paradigm to color or guide one's beliefs, but there are layers of complexity and metaphor of the Bible lost to us in our modern culture and translation without deep study or learning the original languages. Given that, though, we can still just by knowing of Jesus as Lord and as God's son and as God Almighty Himself, part of the Holy Trinity, we can purify ourselves as the temple we are individually to be with the help of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

I just think of the good ol' WWJD (what would Jesus do). Off the top of my head I think of the verse that says to be as wise as serpents but harmless as doves. So much of what we do deals with the condition of our heart at the time, and anger and it's many forms comes to mind first as something that can derail anyone; we need to guard our hearts against it and be not provoked to display it when we feel it.