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If you don't get metaphors, you should not put too much into this bible stuff. You simply don't understand what happened, involving who or why. Most people are too simple to get metaphorical language. It's all metaphors - not to mention, 2000 years of modifying what was said - metaphorically.
The righteous are filled with the love of God and the prophets proclaim His glory.
Love of God and not for neighbor? An absolute OXY-MORON..
NO ONE can LOVE god if they can not love their NEIGHBOR..It is IMPOSSIBLE to love that which has not been seen when we CANNOT love THOSE we see everyday.
Love of God and not for neighbor? An absolute OXY-MORON..
NO ONE can LOVE god if they can not love their NEIGHBOR..It is IMPOSSIBLE to love that which has not been seen when we CANNOT love THOSE we see everyday.
The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might. Do this and you will love your neighbor as yourself.
"The words of the upright save them but the speech of the wicked is a deadly ambush."
"Man does not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God."
"Once in a while"? That is the foundational message of Christianity.
Is it possible that you don't realize that this sounds like an abusive husband keeping his wife "humble" so that she will appreciate his "love" for her?
Perhaps Christianity doesn't want its members to feel vile and hopeless (although being reminded in every church service that one is a miserable sinner deserving of punishment now and for eternity belies that, don't you think? Like you said, gotta remind people "once in a while" how undeserving they are of anything good so that they will be grateful for whatever crumbs they receive), but it sure does want the "world" to believe it is vile and hopeless so that Christianity can provide the supposed remedy. It's a slick marketing scheme.
Ok I'm back after a busy weekend full of not forum checking ;p You raise some important questions so I'll respond in favor eventhough Christmas week gives more of an agree to disagree schedule
Seeing this and your other post, I'm not sure we are so much on a different page as to what lessons God wants us to learn, but disagree over the methods God may have used to make us learn them. First of all, as being on the more progressive side of Christianity or in general, I think we need to be careful about boxing God into roles of any kind like the fundamantalists often do (zthatzmanz28 even has a catch phrase about that ). I like to use the abusive husband analogy as well for certain things on this forum as well, but the fact is that our relationship with him is not just limited to or as simple as wife and husband or even a father child relationship. I think that portion of our relationship with him works best to dispell the idea that he could torture anyone for eternity but that is not the whole picture. He sees us as these things, but don't forget he has the ability to see us in different ways. He has the ability to see us from the perspective of a Judge, a clay maker, an employer, a drill sergeant, a scientist, a universal architect, and more than we can imagine.
As far as our 'married to God' relationship is concerned, I think it would be more along the lines of a husband choosing to marry a wife that has a rough past and continues to go astray (rather than an abusive relationship) and makes the ultimate sacrifice for her to show her his love. Perhaps if anything, we're the abusive party in the relationship. God gave us a conscience so he wouldn't have to constantly remind us of our nature but perhaps he knew from the beginning that wasn't quite enough and had to show us what 'no greater love' is.
Then there's that 'undeserving' and 'vile and hopeless' aspect you mentioned. The 'feeling undeserving' aspect of it might be somewhat true but as you know I do not believe we are intended to feel vile and hopeless. In my opinion, we have a right to be at least somewhat frustrated with the extremely difficult situation he put us in, but we are also lucky to have been created in the first place...heck, I'm lucky I'm not a slug or a mosquito We didn't deserve life from the beginning because we didn't create ourselves and that just an aspect of being a created being..but we also didn't ask to be so imperfect or put in this situation from beginning so that part would almost balance out if most of us didn't still love our lives ;p
God doesn't want us to dwell on our imperfections, but his love and value for us and this I think modern Christianity often doesn't understand as well as it should. I think the penal substitution model sacrifice God made is what may very well proves how valuable we truly are to him and he wants us to know that and we have great hope. If he didn't set it up this way and we just killed Jesus out of our ignorance and stupidity without him intending to demonstate "no greater love", than we may very well have even more reason to consider ourselves vile creatures and perhaps even less valued. Perhaps the big thing with this to consider is God may have done it not necessarily to show 'how good he is and how bad we are,' but rather just how valuable we are to him and how much he loves us. The implications of Jesus' words on 'no Greater love' simply cannot be ignored and its one thing for God to 'say' that he is all love and the most loving being in the universe, but its another thing to prove it he just might have found an extreme but effective way of doing that. As always, that last part is up for debate
Accept Christ and escape the judgment that is to come.
THAT is the good news where God is concerned.
If you choose to accept salvation in the name of Jesus - fine and dandy.
If you choose to reject salvation in the name of Jesus - fine and dandy.
No skin off anybody's nose except yours.
The joke, however, is that it's on you. You cannot blame God or anybody else for your failure.
But you can try, fool's errand though it may be.
and that's me, hollering from the choir loft...
Bluecheese isn't exactly the most open minded anti-christian here...But prove whatever concept of hell you believe in morally and logically makes sense, then convince her that heaven is more than just an eternity of worshiping or how that might actually appeal to someone like her, then give her more than just what sound like narrow-minded archaic sounding religious dogma threat comments and you might just make her think twice about rolling her eyes at you...like this Your approach should really be tailored to the person and what appears to be going on in their heart in my opinion...not just hollering: "God's gonna get you!" in various ways...but thats just me...hollering my moderately progressive Christian stuff on this forum.
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). I like to use the abusive husband analogy as well for certain things on this forum as well, but the fact is that our relationship with him is not just limited to or as simple as wife and husband or even a father child relationship. I think that portion of our relationship with him works best to dispell the idea that he could torture anyone for eternity but that is not the whole picture. He sees us as these things, but don't forget he has the ability to see us in different ways. He has the ability to see us from the perspective of a Judge, a clay maker, an employer, a drill sergeant, a scientist, a universal architect, and more than we can imagine. 
Your approach should really be tailored to the person and what appears to be going on in their heart in my opinion...not just hollering: "God's gonna get you!" in various ways...but thats just me...hollering my moderately progressive Christian stuff on this forum.
