God wants us to love Him because He loves us first. By loving God, love is activated in us in a deeper measure. It becomes a tangible flowing stream bubbling up within us more and more as we learn to live from His love. When we choose not to love Him, we do not hurt Him, we hurt ourselves. A person cannot truly experience love if they don’t love in return. Being the recipient of love is nothing compared to entering mutual love. However, it is easier to love in return when we are loved first by another. God has eternally loved us and has given Himself for us.
Everything God asks of man is good for man. For instance, giving, in reality, does something in the giver more so than in the recipient. When God asks us to give up anything it is so that He can give us something better. When we give up our will for His, we gain something much greater. When we give up our time, money, food etc. for another, it is the same as giving unto Him. It does something in us that is worth far more than what we give up.
All that He asks of a person is for his or her good. Many think I must love God because He dictates that I do so for His pleasure. The truth is our pleasure is His pleasure. He knows the only way for our fulfillment is Him for He created us to be fulfilled by relationship with Him. He gave us the earth, the animals, the plants and authority over it all. Yet in His love He gave us the freedom to relinquish it all to do our will instead of His will. Yes, He knew what we would choose and could have withheld the freedom, but if He had created us without freedom we would never experience life the way we can experience it with freedom.
Even though we blew it, He knew there was victory coming that would redeem all that was lost and restore creation to an even greater beauty than before. He knew His Son would provide the way to redeem mankind and free man from the debt of his transgressions. Even though we bear the responsibility of sin, He who is without sin, pays our debt for us. We can continue to live in a fallen reality and be in bondage to that world, or we can choose to enter into the greatest relationship of all time. We can experience tangibly the love of God. We can enter a supernatural reality that gives meaning, purpose, and value to nature and ourselves like nothing else can.
I’m not talking about a fantasy land. I am talking about something better than anyone can dream up in a fairy tale story. People write fantasy stories because deep down they know there is a greater reality than the visible world and they desire to know that reality. I am talking about something so real it’s undeniable. I’m not writing about religion. I’m writing about a real relationship with the living God. I do not seek to impose any rules, any laws, or any religion on anybody. I’m inviting you to ask God to show Himself to you and to show you in an undeniable way His reality. I often hear, the burden of proof is upon the Christian. In reality, the burden of proof is on God Himself. Do you really want to know if He loves you? Ask Him to reveal His love to you. You risk nothing, but gain everything.
23 comments:
"God wants us to love Him because He loves us first."
How do you know that?
"Everything God asks of man is good for man."
How do you know that? How was it good for the Amelikites when god told Saul to slaughter them?
"All that He asks of a person is for his or her good."
How do you know that? Was it good for Abraham to be asked to sacrifice his son?
"He knows the only way for our fulfillment is Him for He created us to be fulfilled by relationship with Him."
I am quite fulfilled without god, thank you very much.
"Yes, He knew what we would choose and could have withheld the freedom, but if He had created us without freedom we would never experience life the way we can experience it with freedom."
Actually, I've already demonstrated that free will is a myth with your god. I can't understand why you persist in spreading falsehoods.
"Even though we blew it, He knew there was victory coming that would redeem all that was lost and restore creation to an even greater beauty than before."
Why wait so long? The longer he waits, the more souls that go to hell.
"Even though we bear the responsibility of sin, He who is without sin, pays our debt for us."
So, it's not sinful to threaten other people with a weapon?
"I often hear, the burden of proof is upon the Christian. In reality, the burden of proof is on God Himself."
OK, and where is that proof?
"Do you really want to know if He loves you? Ask Him to reveal His love to you. You risk nothing, but gain everything."
Apparently he doesn't wish to talk to everyone, as demonstrated by the many people who have deconverted from Xianity.
"I’m inviting you to ask God to show Himself to you and to show you in an undeniable way"
I asked God this last night. Sometimes God seems so far away when you need Him the most! Have a good week.
Mandy Psalms 139 says that there is no where we can go where His presence is not. We might not always feel His manifested presence, but He is always there with us. Keep seeking and you will find. I know it.
Anonymous, why do you come here? What are you looking for?
karla said: People write fantasy stories because deep down they know there is a greater reality than the visible world and they desire to know that reality.
Humans are great story tellers and great dreamers. They're two of our defining characteristics. Narrative format helps to structure an existence that can seem (and probably is) deeply chaotic. Stories help tell us who we are which is why Myth is such a powerful medium in human culture. However, none of this means there is any underlying reality beneath the fantasy. The story is the end in itself.
How could we dream of something that hadn't something like it somewhere?
karla said: How could we dream of something that hadn't something like it somewhere?
Easily.
I've been reading SF & Fantasy - amongst other genres - for 35 years now. We have a great capacity to simply 'make things up'. We create new worlds in works of fiction that have never existed and will never exist. The power of the human imagination is quite something to behold.
That we do it, does not explain how we are able to do it.
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karla said: That we do it, does not explain how we are able to do it.
Because we have the ability to. Like with self-awareness and other of the defining human characteristics it probably has something to do with the complexity of the brain. Or is it yet another attribute that you're going to give to the power of God? As I've said before: Saying "God did it" doesn't really explain anything. It's also rather disparaging to humanity. We are capable of actually *doing* stuff on our own you know!
Having an imagination was probably a very important part of sucessful hunting in pre-history. To envisage where the hunt would take place and what might happen would have been a *serious* advantage over humans that couldn't do that. It's not a great leap from imagining things that might happen on tomorrows hunt to imaginging the lives of the Gods.... Hence the birth of fantasy storytelling....
"Anonymous, why do you come here? What are you looking for?"
Can't answer my questions? Of course you can't. And, when your untruths are pointed out, you question my motives. Nice.
"How could we dream of something that hadn't something like it somewhere?"
By this logic, aliens exist.
"By this logic, aliens exist."
I'm reminded of the South Park Imagination Land episodes. ;-)
We can imagine aliens weather they exist or not because there is life on earth. So there is something like it somewhere, is there not?
How about spirituality? How could people come up with that if there wasn't anything to it?
"How about spirituality? How could people come up with that if there wasn't anything to it?"
Anthropomorphism.
That and the fact that people feel "spiritual" doing all sorts of things. Since leaving Christianity behind I still feel all the wonder I felt as a Christian. I still have those moments that I would have attributed to God before.
karla said: How about spirituality? How could people come up with that if there wasn't anything to it?
Easily. Why is it that most gods are human form? Because they're considered to be like us - only better. As Swift said - if horses had gods they'd be in horse form. Most supernatural creatures are variations of either humans or animals - just with extra attributes. None of it is actually very surprising.
Karla,
Face it, it's just a bad argument. You might want to consider dropping it...if you were intellectually honest you would at least. It would help you start to salvage your integrity if you did at least.
If there is one Creator it makes sense at the similarities. Also we are made in God's image, not vice versa.
The gods of the Greeks were finite and had the same faults of humanity. They were not a standard of good.
Karla, nothing you have said since asking your question about the origins of spirituality has countered any of our answers. The Old Testament god is portrayed just as human like as any other mythological pantheon.
As I said any humanity of God is because we are made in His image, not because we have developed Him in ours. I know stating that isn't a proof. Any more than you guys stating the opposite is proof of anything.
I see you don't have the intellectual honesty to admit that your argument is bad, you simply moved on to another argument and hoped that we wouldn't notice? You should be ashamed.
karla said: I know stating that isn't a proof. Any more than you guys stating the opposite is proof of anything.
Then riddle me this: How is it that most representations of gods from around the world have usually been in human form? Are you saying that the people of all those cultures created gods in their own image and that your god is the *singular* exception to that rule?
Correct cyberkitten. Though Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and the Christian off shoots like Mormonism and such all posit a God who is not human. I think it is mostly the Greek gods and the eastern gods that were humanisitic in nature. Any similarities between the Judeo-Christian God and humanity is because we can resemble Him due to the way He created us and not that He resembles us.
As I have said this is a theological assertion and not intended to be a proof of God's existence. It's more a comparative religions discussion.
It's confirmation bias.
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