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Someone's enjoying those books and buying them! I've devoted years of my life writing books on architectural history and have never made much money (but I've had a lot of fun).
As of 2012, "23 Minutes in Hell" has sold more than 1,000,000 copies and Wiese seems to have created a substantial industry off that one book (CD's, work books, subsequent related titles).
Guess I picked the wrong topic to write about! LOL.
Apparently, there are many who enjoy reading fiction.
I was very moved by your letter to Bill and Annette. I read the response from Annette and I felt it was very lame. I am sure she did not mean to be so cold and vague.
I cannot make God real for you, no one can.But if you were to goto God and ask for his divine intervention to the renewal of your hard heart he will respond.He wants you to know that he really exists, but he will not force himself on you.
All you have to do is genuinely ask Jesus into your heart and save you from the sinful life we were all born into. Right now you cannot experience God personally because you do not have the Holy Spirit in you to help you spiritually see God the Father,God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Once you truly accept with all your heart, God will make himself known to you. He truly loves you and wants you to come to him as you are right now.
All the answers to your question will follow in the weeks and years to come. Get yourself to a bible teaching church and learn,experience his loving wonderfullness. He has been working on your heart strings and wants you to get to know him. The more you learn and spiritually walk with him, he will show you that he is in deed very very real. Not only that but you will be spared from eternal seperation from him when you eventually die. And you will die someday..but hopefully not soon...
I am going to pray that this letter gets to you soon..I will pray for peace in your situation and I encourage you to ask your mother to be a part of your going to God. It sounds like she knows what she is talking about. As long as she is making the point of Jesus being your Savior. Jesus did not only die for you He died as you, so you can have the ability to accept his free gift of salvation.
To accept Jesus into your heart all you have to do is ask!! I have a short but intimate prayer you can pray. Read it first..If you agree with the prayer...Pray it to Jesus..He will be listening.....
Dear God, I know that I am lost and a sinner. I am very sorry for all of my sins. I believe that Jesus died for me and all of my sins. I now turn away from all of my sins and ask you into my heart right now! to be my Lord and Savior and take me to Heaven when I die. In Jesus' Name, I pray Amen.
If you do this I suggest you go and tell someone you trust and tell that person what you just did...Like your Mother who truly loves you... I am already excited for you!!!
From that point on, get yourself into a bible based church and start your personal relationship with our Heavenly Father..
From:
a woman of faith-Wisconsin
Thank you for your kind words AWOF. I have done all that you ask me to do multiple times at earlier points in my life. Welcome to City-Data.
What exactly did you ask? Why God allows bad in this world? You know if God went *poof* and all the bad was gone, all humans would disappear. We know the end of the story. Satan's the loser.
I haven't read the book so I can't comment on it and truthfully I didn't read your whole letter but I read most of it and I can't figure out what they were supposed to comment about. You seem to know what you believe in, you've certainly been submersed in church.
Even to replies here you have a btdt attitude like no one can tell you anything. I don't mean that in a negative way. Just really wondering what you were searching for.
There's no such person as satan. He's a mythological character invented by bronze-age tribal clans to blame man's evil deeds on. He's been around since Adam and Eve famously uttered "The devil made me do it"
Hello, I was also very moved by your letter to Bill and Annette and I truly consider the response from Annette a complete failure to answer any of your questions. However, you ask so many questions at a time so it is really hard work to try to figure out answers to all of them. I will try to answer only one of them. And that is your question - why does God allow so many disasters and so much misfortune ? Even a good Christian seems to be bound to go through a lot of misery. What is human suffering there for? First of all I would like you to know I consider Bill Wiese and his book just a big hoax. I think Annette´s answer gives a very clear glimpse about Bill´s ultimate purpose. To me it is all a commercial trick to earn money !
I would say, if you really want to understand God perhaps you need a new approach to what God wants your life to be about. I think we all have problems understanding God´s way. Because mainly, we all want things our own way. We actually take our lifes for granted. When somebody we love dies, we get really mad at God. Yet, we know from the very start life is just a loan. We know we all get old and we die. This happens to all of us, without exception. So if life is just a loan, and sometimes more of a burden, that a guarantee for happiness, maybe we should really accept it that way. A human life is very short out of the perspective of eternity. Suffering will not be for ever. We can not force God to change his ways. But we can ultimately accept that he sometimes makes us suffer for a short time here on earth, because he thinks that we can learn from that, become more humble, correct our personalities, get closer to him. How can you know a Christian person who seems to be perfect, is that perfect after all ? You don t know that person as well as God does. God´s way might be to send some suffering to that person, so he or she will understand something he or she does not want to understand. But there might be a meaning to it. So here again faith will be essential. Faith in that God´s intention is to bring you forward and to bring you closer to him, in spite of your own difficulty to forgive him for whatever misery he does to you. Which is also quite understandable. Faith is a gift. I have Faith. And I tried to answer your question according to my own Faith. I hope it was of some help anyhow. And I just wish the best for you and I wish people and God will start answering your questions. All the best Flynn
Have you ever really thought about the Our Father prayer and what it was saying. If Gods kingdom will come when Gods will is done on earth as it is in heaven then where do you think hell is. Are you in hell already? Is heaven where you think it is. Why did Jesus speak in figures of speech?
God answers the questions of those who serve Him and do His will as Jesus did and the prophets of old.
"The friendship of the Lord is with those who revere Him and He makes His covenant known to them."
"The Lord guides the humble to justice and He teaches the meek His way."
Faith is a gift. I have Faith. And I tried to answer your question according to my own Faith. I hope it was of some help anyhow. And I just wish the best for you and I wish people and God will start answering your questions. All the best Flynn
Thank you Flynn and welcome to CD. You say "faith is a gift". What is to become of those whom this "gift" is not bestowed upon? Many on this very board believe that God knows who will be with Him in Heaven and those who will not long before they ever exit the womb (due to the "gift of faith" being granted or not to a particular individual). This concept is a little sadistic in my opinion, but that seems to be irrelevant to most fundamentalists. What is the future of those who have not been given the "gift of faith"?
I have prayed to be blessed with the "gift of faith" many times in the past. Unfortunately, my brain will not allow me to accept those things that are not bound in reality and reason. The Bible is loaded with many stories that defy reason and reality. To me, the ability to have faith relies on ones ability to suspend or forfeit their God-given sense of reason. It's not like a light switch that I can just flip on on off like millions of people do across this country when they go to church on Sunday's and suspend their God-given sense of reason so their brains can accept the impossible (as opposed to their M-F professional work lives that are completely immersed in reality).
I commend you for your faith, but not everybody is "blessed" the same way. It is a shame they will perish like so many fundamentalists on this board believe they will. God bless!
Last edited by ditchlights; 03-12-2015 at 08:35 PM..
"Show me you money," That is what she 'REALLY" said
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