Awwwww! You ROCK! Well stated JB

I believe that most Christians are good people and they mean well, even though I don't agree with what they believe.

Many have a lot of love in their hearts and their faith alone will take them a long way. Many do a lot of good things for society and for other people.

But no one knows the scope of the pattern that is drawn.

No one does.

No one knows the truth. You are only fooling yourself if you think you do.

Keep your faith, but keep an open mind, lest one day you be shocked by how wrong you have been.

JB
You can't go wrong if you hold onto LOVE. God is LOVE. On that you can believe.

'God' equates to a physiological construct which necessitates a material existence to be shared with another in some way?

'God' is a need to be accepted, nurtured, and cherished?

I think that is one aspect of the attempt at the description in the Bible, minus the omni parts...



Hiya JB...

Jeannie...man DOES KNOW when he is born again.


But yes.. ....there are also things in a man's life, that only God Knows.
True.

But again......man DOES know when he is born again..and that was what I was referring to, in an earlier post.

So tell me, how does man know that he is "born again?"


JB

God's spirit bears witness with man's spirit, thus letting him KNOW.


Also....He is like new born babe....who wants to eat all the time...cause he
is hungry.
For God's Word.

He notices his life is changed....he doesn't desire to walk in his old ways anymore....he desires the things of God rather than the things of the world (as before)....he loves everyone..he hungers and thirsts for God....and can't get enough of God....and he wants to tell the whole world he is saved.....

Yep.
Something most definitely happens in the spirit of man ,when he is truly born again.

He KNOWS that he KNOWS that he KNOWS that he KNOWS

He Knows.......

I only know how I know. I can't speak for anyone else. It was an answered prayer for me. A demand for God to show himself to me and my promise that if He did I would believe. It is funny that the next day I hadn't given it another thought, in fact I had forgotten about it, but even though my life was at the bottom of the barrel I had an OVERWHELMING sense of peace in my life that had no reason for being. It was so intense that I realized that I had asked for a sign the night before. That was the point in time where an atheist became a Christian. I am sure it is different for everyone. Some people even miss that "still, small voice" when God lets them know He is real but for me it was like a billboard in front of my face. I would guess that some go through life on faith alone and never have what is called a radical conversion.

Proverbs 14:9

It's not good to make fun of guilt. Acknowledge it and seek reconciliation.

This is the part that kills it for me.

In order to be ‘saved’ you must first believe that there is something you need to be saved from.

You can’t fake fear.

Almost all stories and testimonials I’ve ever heard about people being ‘saved’ quite often contain horror stories. The people were at the end of their rope, or at the deepest pit of their life. Or they were alcoholics, or drug addicts, or in an abusive relationship, or addicted to pornography, or whatever, the list goes on and on.

If a person needs to be in a bad situation in order to be ‘saved’ then I suppose my time just hasn’t come yet. I’ll have to wait until I’m in a bad situation before I can be saved from it.

Other people claim that something was missing from their lives before they found God. If that’s the case then I must have found God a very long time ago when I was just a tot, because I have never felt that anything has been missing from my life other than possibly a human soulmate, but even that doesn’t leave me feeling incomplete. If anything it just seems like a waste since I had so much to offer in a relationship but no one to share it with.

In fact, based on all the things that religious doctrines proclaim I definitely must have God in my life already. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear not for I am not alone. This has always been true for me. I am with me always. I am never alone.

I’m so used to God being in my life that I feel like God is innately part of me and always has been. No need to bring religion into it. For me God is nature and she has always been with me and always will be. We are innately connected and there’s no need to be ‘saved’ from anything.

That’s been my life’s story for the past 58 years. If things change I’ll let you know. But thus far I don’t see any desperate situations on the immediate horizon. I don’t fear death and never have, so even the thread of death is not something that I would consider to be a nemesis. It’s natural to die, I expect that I will do that eventually., and I’m prepared for that event, and have been for quite some time.

So I really don’t see anything that I need to be ‘saved’ from. Maybe all people don’t need to be saved. Maybe that’s the myth or misunderstood part of the doctrines. After all, even Jesus himself said that he did not come for the righteous, but for the sinners, implying that there are righteous people who do not need to be saved. Maybe it’s a total misunderstanding that all men are sinners and that all need to be saved.

That would explain a LOT. Then maybe the religion would make a little more sense.

Good comment, Abra. I believe that when Jesus was saying he didn't come for the righteous he was talking about people who considered themselves righteous. He was being a little facetious there.

Christian Doctrine, believe it's Romans 6:26 says all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The Bible also says the wages of sin is death (spiritual death and eternal separation from God). But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, his Son.

So Jesus came for the "righteous" for sinners (like me), he came for everyone, you too, whether you believe it or not.

But to accept the Lord's gift, belief and acceptance are required. You determine you want to walk the Lord's way (repent), ask him into your heart, get baptized, go to church, read the Bible, pray, take communion, fellowship, the works, and you're on your way. It's not a real hard thing to do and I think it's the greatest thing in all the world. All guilt aside, the saving grace and power of Jesus Christ is the most amazing thing in the entire world. There's no reason whatsoever that God should have been nice enough to provide this for us, he did it out of love and an eternal plan to save the earth, I believe.

Kind of hard to explain, but worth a try anyway, I think.

At any rate, that's my two cent's worth.

TTY'all later.

GS

If Jesus spoke with sarcasm on occasion then it would be impossible to know when he was being serious and when he was being facetious thus rendering his teachings useless.



I've already said that I’m not interested in the gift. I read the fine print and I’m not interested in the terms. I choose death, and I’m happy with my choice.

Although in truth I don’t believe the myth anyway. I believe that I’ve always been eternal, even before I was born.

But it doesn’t matter, because like I say, even if the myth should happen to be true I still choose death because I don’t like what’s in the fine print that comes with the so-called ‘gift’. It’s not a ‘gift’ I’m interested in receiving. I reject the gift. It’s that simple.

If you think it’s attractive go for it. I hope you made the right choice and enjoy your eternal life.

You have a mind, right? You could read the Bible, right? Maybe if you read what Jesus said, you would find it easy to determine when Jesus was using sarcasm. What you seem to be lacking is the raw data. Get yourself a Bible and crack it open to Matthew 1. Don't stop reading until you hit the end. Then this whole "Jesus was a Pantheist" crap will stop and if nothing else you will at least *KNOW* what Jesus taught, even if you don't accept it.

I read the fine print abra...and you're in it. I see God and Godliness in oh so many.

God is many things to many people. But to me....it is all God.

Kat

Abra... you wrote and I quote....

<<<<<<<<....I've already said that I’m not interested in the gift. I read the fine print and I’m not interested in the terms. I choose death, and I’m happy with my choic.....>>>>>>

Ok Abra...

I will say no more.

The Good news can actually ONLY be RECEIVED by those who hunger and who thirst ......not by those who don't want it...or just want to argue.

A person has to be hungry first, in order to eat.

Auuunnndd if someone was hungry and or thirsty; Abra would gladly put it forth.

Kat

Thank you for finally understanding.

((( Kat )))



I hope everything is going well for you.