Date:   2/17/2008 4:15:03 PM ( 16 y ago)
Hits:   3,105
URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1113346

0 of 0 (0%) readers agree with this message.  Hide votes     What is this?

No, I am not frowning, much to the contrary. I appreciate your feedback, your opinions, your attitudes, and your tolerance of my opinions and attitudes. You certainly DO NOT make me sick.

I was saying that you WERE (past tense) BEHAVING (acting) in a predatory fashion by using Jesus (crucifixion) to justify war, but I now realize that this is not your true nature because you did NOT REACT UNJUSTLY by hating me for what I said, you tarried with me (continued the conversation) and respected that I have my own opinions and attitudes whether you agreed with me or not.

http://cf.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=blessed+...


God is no respecter of persons (personalities are phony), He only has regard for a person's true NATURE (so do I).

I am saying NOTHING against faith, it is one of the three attitudes that we should abide by in our lives ("faith, hope, and love..."), but it is not the greatest of them, LOVE is. Of course we should trust in The Lord (have faith in Him), but we should trust in The Lord to BE faithful and true (a loving God who will never leave us nor forsake us) and let HIS gracious gifts to us be sufficient for us. The reason we should trust Him should not be ONLY to get everlasting life out of Him, the reason we should trust Him is that we appreciate everything that He is, has done, and always will do for humanity. He has and always will be very gracious to us because of His love for us. We shouldn't regard Him simply as a 'goldmine' or a 'bank' that we can get things from whenever we WANT something (also sometimes we WANT the wrong things and have ambitions for things that are not good for us). I prefer He only gives me what I NEED in order to grow up properly (my preference may/may not always be so wise for my enjoyment of life, we SHOULD petition The Lord, whatever, my preference).

The common response you'll get from people when talking about the Book of Job is "I don't know if I'd ever have the FAITH to do what Job did", but it's not about faith.

The god of confusion has confused humanity's thoughts so much that the true message of God cannot be easily seen (that we should remember our 'origin'/creator, our true heritage, and that we should appreciate how gracious, faithful and true He is), but if we truly desire it (DEPTHS of God), He will ensure that we find it.

Of course He is trustworthy and we should trust Him (have faith IN)...because He will always do what is right for us (we may not understand His decisions and/or reproof at the time, but He is and will always do what is right for us), but what use would trust/faith be if a person doesn't love Him?

The book of Job is not about mere/simple FAITH, it is a LOVE STORY (don't misunderstand the word "story", it really did happen). God made sure that the Book of Job was included in scripture so that we could learn 'an example of true devotion' from it, everything in scripture was put there for us to learn something from).

A person can CHOOSE to believe in and trust in MANY different things (but not everything is the sensible choice). Job was successful in remaining true to God after enduring everything he suffered because of his LOVE for God. Faith can falter, but LOVE NEVER FAILS. The Book of Job was NOT a story ABOUT faith, it was a LOVE STORY (a story of true devotion). Of course Job's actions INCLUDED faith, but it was ABOUT LOVE.

Love is a mindful thing...and being a "mindful" thing, it necessarily DOES lead to "actions", but it is the KIND of actions that we should always be aware of and the MOTIVATION for those actions that matters. God tells us that we should fulfill the "Great Commission" and feed His sheep by spreading His GOSPEL (about the crucifixion and what Jesus did while He was on earth), NOT imposing the WHOLE BIBLE on people about sin condemnation, because this scares people away from hearing His GOSPEL about salvation. The traditional teachings of Christianity fail to make this distinction and people get the wrong idea about our loving God (so we must be careful about our actions).

I am not saying that evangelism is not a loving action or that it should not be performed (certainly not!, people NEED to know of Our Lord's GRACIOUSNESS, not BE CRUSHED with "condemnation"). Careless actions not only hurt OTHER people and cause damage to their lives and minds, but, out of our enthusiasm, we soon forget that we are supposed to be spreading the news about THE LORD'S GRACE, and NOT OURS. In our carelessness, we begin to think that with every action we perform, we are building up 'points' (winning MORE favor) with God than other people. This is not so, God already loves us as much as love can ever be. Working/trying to earn favor with God is not possible, neither is 'repayment' for what He has done possible (in fact, when we feel obligated to "repay", it COULD be thought of as belittling His graciousness/GIFT,...my own personal and philosophical understanding, PERSONAL relationship).

God is not needy, we can't give Him anything He doesn't already have, there really is nothing we can give Him (except our love). When we claim to work for and serve HIM, we develop a tendency to believe that we are actually GAINING "more" favor with Him and will 'someday' BECOME 'worthy' of HIS GRACE (His grace is His own and has nothing to do with our 'worthiness'). Our intention should only be to help OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEING. God explains that our service does no good FOR HIM. God has explained in scripture that our service is not benefitting HIM (He has no need to be 'benefitted')...

http://cf.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=For+God+...

(the "saints" are the brethren in Christ, it would be unreasonable to believe that "saints" would also include those who want nothing of God).

So, the love being shown is NOT DIRECTLY serving/'improving' God Himself, but we should show love to each other in God's name WITHOUT PARTIALITY.

So, love IS an "action" ALSO, but it first has to be a sincerely mindful thing.


Ideally (my philosophical understanding), true love cannot be given ONLY and truly in God's name (I give love from MY heart). Love doesn't make sense, it's not supposed to. Real true, genuine love is not a mathematical or chemical formula that can be figured out (it's not empirical or conform to any specific laws). Before I became a Christian, I wanted (simply HAD TO) SEVERELY to know God's name (His true identity) so I could pay homage and give thanks for "the people" and all creation. I searched and searched, discarding all the crazy ideas people had about Him all over the world. I eventually thought that maybe even God doesn't want me to know His name and He was making it an impossible goal because He just wants me to learn to love Him only without having any kind of "textbook" or tangible 'PROOF' to hold on to as a 'crutch' [and simply love Him from afar]. Since I believed that to be His will, I made the hard decision to attempt to live the rest of my life without knowing His name. But after three days, I DIRECTLY AND BLATANTLY disobeyed what I truly believed to be God's will at the time. I did not disobey because of FAITH, but because of love.

OBJECTIVE truth is non-negotiable (it cannot be DEBATED), that is an unavoidable problem on this forum because it was mistakenly designated as a DEBATE forum instead of a DISCUSSION forum. It is not such a big deal because, as you point out, people have different idiosyncratic ways and ideas about how to worship The Lord (which it should be, PERSONAL relationship, as long as it is in SPIRIT and TRUTH). It is a mistaken belief that all of the brethren's relationships/devotion should be the same, they should be PERSONAL (from each person's heart)...

http://cf.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=that+God...





 

<< Return to the standard message view

fetched in 0.03 sec, referred by http://www.curezone.org/forums/fmp.asp?i=1113346