The God Thread - Page 8

THAT IS the point that i was trying to make, well I wouldn't aurge that point because in that we agree. I stopped going myself to a large extent although I did go last Sunday. I had been having some dialogue with a couple of their people and I told them I would come and hear & see. They are good people whose lives seem to reflect their believes. It was an interesting experence as some of their practices are somewhat different from most, unique but a good experence. I may continue to study with them although I may not join their church, iwould like to understand their teaching better.

AKAL: VERY GOOD

I'm sorry I took so long to read it, I've been very busy. I hope you are able to read the answer to your very honest post.

You are Job. If you get the chance you should read the story, it will make you feel better.

Job told god to stuff it. Job was a very righteous man it is said, and god allowed all kinds of terrible things to happen to him. But in the end, Job was an even more righteous man and received even greater blessings.

I will pray for you - and thanks for sharing - you did good

okcitykid said:

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Job told god to stuff it.

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Job didn't tell God to stuff it! You need to read that story again, or at least have someone explain it to you.

Job became angry with God

If you want to beliee in God, just ask God to reveal himself to you. He done it for me oer and over and over again. it may not be "i saw this great light....!" sort of thing, but a lot of people have expirenced that. you really have to mean it though.
if Christians died, and we found out there was no God, we STILL have nothing to worry about. but if an athiest died, then they SURE better HOPE they were right!
have you noticed that Christianity causes a big uproar against the critcs and media? cuz they don't want you to know the Truth.
There is no better reglion than Christianinty. what other religion has a god that loves YOU SO MUCH, that he sent his ONLY son, into the world, just to die for you? he will forgive you of ANYTHING you have ever done. we did abousluty NOTHING for the gift. all we have to do is except jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. (and our life's Driver!) we did abouslty NOTHING!!!! and, een though he walked on earth 2000 yrs ago, he is STILL saving lives! but if you read Revelations, it's some pretty freaky stuff. may want to Start with the book of Matthew, first. i'm reading revelations right now, and i SURE don't want to be here when that happens!

first of all, EVERY SINGLE person on this planet has bad times. when bad things occur, i call them "tests" its sort of like, "how are you going to handle this?" it's not God that makes bad things happen. it's Satan. He wants to destroy you. he wants you to fall. ifyou think you think your pretty strong, ask God to test you. the Book of Job was the most toughest test anyones ever had to take. but its a success stroy. it also says in Job that he was "blessed twice as much as he was before, after the test was over" he went through all of that, without curseing God!!! even when his OWN WIFE, told himto "curse God and Die!" but he refused. yes, he did get angry. Job was a example (a very good one at that!) no matter how bad it gets, just hang in there. things always get better. your freind and girlfreind died for a reason. i may not know what that is, but looking back, you'll see.
i saw a very good qoute at my freinds' house hanging up. it said, "God gae us building blocks, so we could make stepping stones out of them." it means, your troubles may make you stronger. you could look back in life and say, "i overcame this" you may help someone that is going through the same thing. have you eer seen "Tuesdays with Morrie"? rreally good movie. its a true story too. i met a couple people who knew they were dying, and it was unbelieveable how much stregth they have and they're not afraid of dying. they all give God credit. it gives them a lot to think about. how much god has blessed them, home, freinds, parents, food, stuff like that. just ask God to give you strength.

You should have been here a long time ago when we were trying to explain if there was a God, why does he let bad things happen.

I don't like to blame things on Saten. We get ourselves in trouble when we do that. It is too easy to say that the devil made me do it when in fact if we take responsibility for our own actions we could walk straighter and trip less. If there is a devil or saten, God created the devil or saten. We know God made no mistake. Therefore there must be purpose in this. I believe that the story Job helps us understand that.

But it sounds like you got it figured out.

If you want an interesting take on god and satan, read Anne Rices 'Memnoch the Devil'. its a bit wordy but so worth it. I promise you will never look at religion the same way again.

ya but - Ann Rice writes fiction. But others have told me the same.

I will probebly never read it. My wife doesn't like Ann Rice. She's nuts about Ann McCaffrey. But I haven't gotten around to reading any of her books either. But maybe you can tell me how Ann Rice's book about God and Saten has made you see things different.

i went to a seminar today and heard Father Thomas Keating speak. he posed a very good explanation (for me) as to why "evil" exsists. the way i understood it was basically that evil, true evil, is something we pretty much never see, but instead we see "suffering" and as a result of this "suffering" we as people learn to "heal" ... and it is only through great "suffering" that we can feel great "healing" ...which in turn helps us grow as a person.

he also told a story about a man who spent his life breeding butterflys in an attempt to create the most beautiful butterfly the world had ever seen. finally, after years of breeding he had perfected the genes and a cocoon was preparing to open and create the most beautiful butteryfly on the planet. everyone gathered around and watched as the butterly slowly squirmed and struggled its way out of the cocoon. just as it was almost completely out, a piece of the wing got caught on the cocoon. it struggled for a while and got tired and then struggled some more and got tired again. this went on for a while while everyone around cheered it on, but the butterly just could not budge. finally the scientist decided to help the butterly. he got an exacto knife and carefully cut the tiny last piece of wing that was caught on the cocoon. the butterfly was now free, but was unable to fly. this is because the cocoon is designed to force the butterly to struggle in order to allow blood to begin flowing all throughout the wings before it is finally ready to make one last great effort and take off flying.

what do you all think?

I agree. Bad things that happen in this world make us a better person.

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In fact, I'm sure if I was alive to think so, I would feel cheated if there was no God I set my beliefs to.

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Look at it this way, if you believe and there is no God, you have lost nothing. If you do not believe, and there is a God, you have lost alot.

Lest we forget the purpose of our existence. To give Love to God Who Created us, for the sole purpose to love us.
But love, as we all know, cannot be one sided. We tell those who claim they love us, show me, words are too easy.

Free will was given to the universe.
God has the capabilities to take our free will away, and make us BE as He chooses. Would this make everyone happy?
Would we ever then return the love He has if held captive?
Does anyone love someone who MAKES and forces them to love them? It never works....and God is infinitely wise, and He knows the rebelion in our hearts.

Look at evil in this way. It is part of the free will of the whole universe. It exists thru the evil one (Who is absent from love which is God's presense) anyway, who's mission is to denounce all the Good that is God.

But, with the presense of evil, we still have a free will to embrace God and His good, or not. In the concepts of free will, it would be useless to own (Freedom of choice), IF we did not have the bad with the good to make our final choices. So, evil altho wrong, is left intact as part of our freedom.

Choosing Good over Evil is proof positive that number one, we love God and number two that God exists.

There would be no religion or bible, if He didnt love us.
No religion would exist, leaving man to carry on in any manner they choose. And often times without the measure of what is good, we would know no better, and would have self destructed long ago. Thank goodness for religion, because those who truly follow faith, are the ones who try to love others.
We would not intrinsictly love each other if we were not reminded or told to do so.

The Bible is evidence of His love. He gives us the basis of His laws, and His history with man, and awaits our 'PROOF' of our love for Him. Follow His word, and trust and believe, or do NOT follow.

Your choice, your life, your eternity.

"Look at it this way, if you believe and there is no God, you have lost nothing. If you do not believe, and there is a God, you have lost alot."
I really dislike all these beliefs through choice. I find it completely absurd to believe out of choice.
It doesn't exist. Either one believes because the evidence/personal experiences convinces one that there is a God, or one does not believe because the lack of evidence/personal experiences convinces him otherwise.

(all this besides the fact that you are 'betting' on a religion, there is no reason Islam, Hinduism, Bhuddism or Confucianism is less correct then Christianity)

Of the choices you gave aside from Christianity, I would bet on Islam. They give credence to a Higher being. A god. A single God.

Buddhism, hinduism, and confucianism all are man made.
Consider Buddha was a man. A man who extolled wisdom. But still not a higher being. Nor do those who follow this believe he was. He had philosophical views. He himself, though believed in a Higher Being. That has evolved away however.
Hinduism, has a god, but it is a medusa type god. It is closest we have today to 'idol worship' in any religion.
They idolise a statue of a medusa, and worship cows that they believe are ancestors.
It begs illogical. But that's my opinion.
Confusious is another philosopher.