Where Is God?

Author: Salixes

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#151
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@drafterman
The time for that is over. From now on, parables are what you get.


But posts 9 and 10 are plain speak. 


You can say you are  inviting God into your life, but if you do not have actions to show that you aren't really being sincere.

What can we say? Believe Jesus. Follow Him. 

#152
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@Mopac
Sincerity is a state of mind. It is the mens rea, not the actus rea.

Human beings generally require actions to support the state of mind because we lack the capacity to peer into someone's state of mind to validate it directly. God is not bound by that limitation, so supporting actions are unnecessary.

#153
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@drafterman
I'm just wondering, why does God have to shoulder the burden of pursuing you? If God existed, wouldn't you, as His creation, be obligated to seek and know Him?
#154
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@drafterman
"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."

#155
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@OntologicalSpider
I'm just wondering, why does God have to shoulder the burden of pursuing you? If God existed, wouldn't you, as His creation, be obligated to seek and know Him?
This thread is about inviting God into one's hearts and mind. Once the invitation is sent, the burden is naturally on the recipient to make an effort to respond.


#156
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@Mopac
You said you were done with the conversation and I accept that.

I am not interested in your parables since you are unwilling to stand by them. As far as I am concerned, you ended the conversation, so let it be over. Unless you wish to re-continue our previous conversation, please do not respond to me.

#157
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@drafterman

"God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

#158
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@drafterman
I would argue the opposite. We submit to God as a response to what He did and does for us. We don't say hey God if you're out there give me a jingle sometime. That's hardly the right way to approach the Creator and sustainer of all.


Think about the implications of this for a moment. If God exists, He is the sole reason for your existence. You are completely dependant every day on Him sustaining your life, giving breath and letting you live to see each minute.

So in light of that alone, if God did exist, would in not be our responsibility to seek Him
#159
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@drafterman (blocked me for no good reason)


What our conversation served to do was demonstrate the point I made in my original response to you.


You ask God into your heart? 

Well, this is how you do it. 

There is no magical incantation that will replace a heart truly open to receiving God.



#160
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The spiritually lazy always want things handed to them without putting forth any real work.

Faith without works is dead. Functionally no faith at all. 


#161
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Imagine the mockery someone would receive if they said they wanted knowledge, but refused to follow the scientific method to get knowledge until they could be convinced of the results.


That is what drafterman is doing. He is spiritually lazy, and blames God for it. 

It's pride, that's what it is.

#162
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@OntologicalSpider
I would argue the opposite.
So when you invite someone into your house you don't wait for them to come in, you physically pull them inside?

We submit to God as a response to what He did and does for us.
I'm not personally aware of anything God has done for me.

We don't say hey God if you're out there give me a jingle sometime. That's hardly the right way to approach the Creator and sustainer of all.
Why not?

Think about the implications of this for a moment. If God exists, He is the sole reason for your existence. You are completely dependant every day on Him sustaining your life, giving breath and letting you live to see each minute.

So in light of that alone, if God did exist, would in not be our responsibility to seek Him
I remain to be convinced that between God - who's is omnipotent, omniscience, omnipresent, and the one that wants believers - and me, who is a drastically limited being with an entire life of my own - that it is somehow my responsibility to sift through all the muck and mire of thousands of years of human myths and superstition to figure out which is right and wrong without any sort of discernible feedback.

If God wants me to believe he could settle the issue in an instant.
#163
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@drafterman
If we're talking about what God actually does in response to a genuine believer, Jesus already told us:


Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

So no, we don't actually have to pull a guest into our house, He will come and make His abode with us. That's contingent on us actually seeking/ believing on Him.

I'm not personally aware of anything God has done for me.


Oh that's just crazy talk. Aside from holding together every atom in your body and supplying you with life and consciousness for some three decades, He also died to redeem your soul. That's lot.

I find it ironic that you contend you're a limited being with a life of your own who shouldn't shoulder the responsibility of seeking his Creator. Think about this for a moment...

The Being who not only created the entire universe, and for all we know, multiverse, but sustains and upholds the entire realm of existence, sustaining our world, sustaining all the life within it, ordering the cosmos, judging countless souls... Basically the Manager of the universe, is obligated to pursue a minute life form unimaginably below Him?

The amazing thing is He does pursue us still. He even sends ontological spiders to try and reason with unbelievers and show them the error of their ways. ;)
#164
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@OntologicalSpider
If we're talking about what God actually does in response to a genuine believer, Jesus already told us:

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

So no, we don't actually have to pull a guest into our house, He will come and make His abode with us. That's contingent on us actually seeking/ believing on Him.
Yeah, exactly. I've done that. And yet...


I'm not personally aware of anything God has done for me.

Oh that's just crazy talk. Aside from holding together every atom in your body and supplying you with life and consciousness for some three decades, He also died to redeem your soul. That's lot.
I'm not aware that God is doing that.

I find it ironic that you contend you're a limited being with a life of your own who shouldn't shoulder the responsibility of seeking his Creator. Think about this for a moment...

The Being who not only created the entire universe, and for all we know, multiverse, but sustains and upholds the entire realm of existence, sustaining our world, sustaining all the life within it, ordering the cosmos, judging countless souls... Basically the Manager of the universe, is obligated to pursue a minute life form unimaginably below Him?
Yes.

The amazing thing is He does pursue us still. He even sends ontological spiders to try and reason with unbelievers and show them the error of their ways. ;)

<br><br>
And this is where you undermine this whole thing. This is literally the least efficient and least reliable way of doing it. So you're saying God is unwilling to actually contact me in a meaningful direct way under the reasoning that it is not his responsibility of doing so, but God does manipulate others to do it on his behalf?

You can't have it both ways.

If he wants me to believe, he can make that happen. It hasn't happened, ergo he either doesn't want me to believe or he doesn't exist.
#165
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God doesn't require anyone to believe in Him.

God loved us so much he gave us the ability to reject Him.

The unbelievers are confused by cultural trappings, they can never see the spirit behind the letter. They are confused because they are lazy.

Foolish unbelievers, are you so daft as to confuse created things with God? Superstitious fools, do you not recognize that The Truth is God?

What fool can look around at all of existence and deny existence itself?

The unbelievers only make pretense of asking God into their  hearts. They have no love for Truth, they only care about satisfying the lusts of the mind and flesh. Ever learning, never coming to the knowledge of The Truth.

Their way is cursed, God is not mocked. 

Believe that God exists and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Then when you ask, you shall receive. Then when you knock on the door, it will be opened. 


It is clear that Those who truly ask God into their heart have work to show for it.

God forbid that anyone who claims to have sought God with all their being and turned up empty be taken as anything other.than a liar or someone suffering delusion.


"God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth."


"The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous."



"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."


"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."

"whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."

"The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them."


"pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."


"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin."

#166
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@drafterman
It's amazing you answered "yes" to my quote... You can't even look at the sun with your naked eye and you expect the Creator of all Suns to give you a shout out...

You're yet to explain why God is obligated to speak to you directly, considering he's the Creator of the entire universe and everything within it, and you're a collection of  dust who came on the scene in the 80s, but interestingly enough, let me ask you this.

If the God of the Bible came down directly from heaven and said,

"Drafterman... I am real."

In all honesty, would you worship Him and become a Christian?
#167
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@OntologicalSpider
No he wouldn't, and that betrays his contention here.

Of what value is his belief in God to God? Why would God want him to believe He exists?

He says he did invite God into his life, but what was the invitation for? For dinner? To share a drink? To watch a movie? To answer a few questions?

If he would listen, I would suggest to Draft that he's doing it wrong.
#168
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@OntologicalSpider
It's amazing you answered "yes" to my quote... You can't even look at the sun with your naked eye and you expect the Creator of all Suns to give you a shout out...
Yes.

You're yet to explain why God is obligated to speak to you directly, considering he's the Creator of the entire universe and everything within it, and you're a collection of  dust who came on the scene in the 80s, but interestingly enough, let me ask you this.
Not obligated, perhaps, but he's the one that wants me to believe in him, yet doesn't do what is necessary to bring about that result. Seems odd.


If the God of the Bible came down directly from heaven and said,

"Drafterman... I am real."

In all honesty, would you worship Him and become a Christian?
Of course. Why wouldn't I? If any all powerful being made itself known to me and threatened me with eternal torment if I didn't worship it, I would worship it.
#169
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God doesn't threaten anyone with eternal torment. Those who reject The Truth because they prefer the pleasures of wickedness choose the hell for themselves by identifying with what defiles them. When the light of Truth reveals this false identity for what it is, it will be hell to the person who identified with falsehood.

Heaven is abiding in Truth.

Hell is abiding in falsehood.


Hell is the rejection of God, but because God has even filled the grave, those who reject Him are not simply annihilated, they are resurrected on the last day and judged according to their works by the light of Truth. Their shame at embracing filthiness will be their hell.

Those who abide in The Truth are made divine by the grace of God, and will sit as co heirs with Christ at the right hand of God in paradise.

This is no speculation, but a blessed assurance.


"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."