What pleases God (gnostic, celebrating, America, New York)
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I quoted you many scriptures by both. What did it accomplish? You just twisted what I said. Paul plainly was referring to the OT commandments. You ignore anything that doesn't support your basically anti-Jewish agenda, but you'll never succeed in Christianizing it enough to remove the roots or the fruit, no matter how deep you dig, or how much manure you keep dumping on it, the tree will still blossom in the desert. Peace
No, you quoted Scripture and commandments that in no fashion negated what either Paul or Jesus said. Paul indeed stated that love fulfilled ANY OTHER COMMANDMENTS (besides the Ten).
You either believe he was wrong or you just don't believe the Bible is perfect.
And you haven't provided any verses that negate John's words in 1st John 4:7-8.
Quote:
Dear friends, let us love one another,h for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Have you Scripture stating that not everyone who loves (agape) has NOT been born of God? Or that people can know God without love?
I'm just illustrating how either your view of Scripture being perfect or your beliefs about being a loveless child of God is wrong. It's an either/or situation and the only support you get is from those who desire a Punishing Deity so that they can justify that others besides themselves will go to hell.
Your god is a Santa Clause god passing out "gifts" when a person is nice and handing over a lump of coal when, in his opinion, they are naughty.
No wonder younger folks are disgusted by such a fairy tale deity.
Quote:
Our highest moral values are ultimately an echo of the God we believe in (or once believed in).[ 16] We can trace our ethics to our understanding of God’s essential nature. Namely, if your highest value is freedom (as self-will), the God you know (and may have received or rejected) is one whose nature is pure freedom or pure will. If your highest value is love, the God you know (and are most likely to love), is probably the God who is pure love or pure good. This crucial distinction impacts our worship, our theology, our faith-practice—indeed, our every decision—
Bradley Jersak, A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel, Chapter 4
Your moral values as illustrated in the OT, turn Jesus into a bloodthirsty tyrant. Those founded in love, see the OT reinterpreted into the forgiving, loving, rescuing Christ who would pardon seventy times seven.
The difference for the sinful modern world is that your god looks very much like a vengeful, often arbitrary human being that seems to predominate around us. It isn't the Good News that Jesus brought to earth. It isn't appealing, particularly to rationally minded atheists and agnostics. It appears hateful to them. The message of the OT is overwhelmingly one of fear and this is illustrated by the fear-mongering of fundamentalists about God's judgment falling on America with hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. The divisions in the U.S., political, religious, social, racial, aren't the results of God's judgment, but rather the fear-mongering of fundamentalists and their political allies. We've lost many freedoms, given the government the right to torture and/or punish without trial all in obeisance to the fear that runs rampant in your ranks---not because of servitude to Jesus.
Paul’s enemies never accused him of preaching a willful and exclusionary God. Their concern was always about his message being too gracious, too inclusive and too willing to save anyone. Thank you, Jesus.
Wrong on both counts. Anything that is revealed wisdom is part of the Christ being formed in you, and that comes from the letter being revealed, which is why He was the Torah made flesh (celestial, the natural flesh profits nothing).
Since the Christ is being raised up in you by being formed, refusal to hear Moses and the Prophets, means you're not going to hear the one raised from the dead (the Spirit in the letter), the dead also being those that have subjected themselves to the ministration of death that the letter is intended to, ie. kill the flesh.
What that means is the opposite of, and we know if we die with Him (via the letter) then we shall also live with Him. Every time you submit yourself and die to it, revelation comes that resurrects the life hidden in it, which then becomes HOW Christ is formed in you, ie. He is "raised from the dead", in you. The servant is not greater than the Master, and He submitted Himself, so you too will have to submit yourself.
Which is why He said those that teach men to keep the law and the feasts would be greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. They are concerned about the babes not starving to death on milk, or worse yet, being stillborn still in the womb of the morning. Peace
Like i said you will never understand what Jesus Christ taught while you believe the bible and Jesus Christ are the same thing. You have heard it said an eye for an eye, but i say unto you ............ shall we call fire down from heaven like ir said Elijah did in the bible?, Jesus replied you do not know what Spirit you are of.... One and the same thing for sure.
Somebody mangled up a quote a few pages back. Going forward, make SURE you have previewed any posts quoting another to make certain that the quoted post appears correct.
I would say that if a Christian (or any religious person) cannot or will not explain in clear, fairly simple and straightforward terms what the point of their religion is, they shouldn't be surprised that people don't have much interest in investing countless hours learning their symbolic language.
Bingo.
I would add that there is also a problem when they cannot express a thought in their own but rather speak only by reciting memorized verses.
I will stick by my quote that it is possible to be possessed by the bible. That it can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and that i have heard more what i would call in line with the Spirit from those of other faiths than i have from bibleans spouting out nonsense being passed of as being the word of God. Much of Jesus' teaching was about birds, flowers, trees, rivers, mountains, seeds, do you not think it possible to see and hear God in these things?.
God can be seen in those things more than anywhere else!
Occasionally also in humans, but it's harder to find.
I would add that there is also a problem when they cannot express a thought in their own but rather speak only by reciting memorized verses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pleroo
It's taken me a long time to get over that, myself. And I still speak Christianese too often for comfort.
I too surprise myself at how easily and quickly I am able to regurgitate christianese.
Though I must admit, now that it has a completely different meaning than it did in the 1980s, I have a greater understanding and appreciation for TRUTH.
Your hollering has nothing to do with the topic, or my comment.
Your comment:
An omni-everything god doesn't require pleasing. Only a needy, insecure one does.
Citing your own written opinion here, let's explore what it means to be 'omni-everything'.
Why would "an omni-everything god" NOT have a personality? Why would He not be pleased with some things and pleased with others? IF GOD is indeed everywhere, then He should also inhabit emotion and personality - likes and dislikes. If God didn't live in these things, then He wouldn't be omni-everything would He? According to your own use of the term 'omni-everything' we may deduce that God has a personality and that certain things please Him.
Unfortunately you have cited your own opinion without any external validation or corroboration at all. My opinion, if offered without external reference may be as pointless as your own. Therefore, since we are exploring what pleases God it would be efficacious to refer to God's Word. After all, going to the source - God - is much to be preferred over the warring opinions expressed in a flame war.
"without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." - Hebrews 11:6
If you want to know what a person thinks about a subject, the best and most accurate way to glean that information is to ask the person in question. The next best thing is to read words that person has spoken to those who've taken care to write them down. The Bible is such a source. It is a record of God's Word to us. It is a document that speaks of that which pleases or angers God.
If faith is pleasing to God, then what is faith?
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." - Hebrews 11:1
In our secular world, the concept of faith has devolved into an internalized form of self encouragement. One is said to have faith in one's own ability to accomplish a task. It's also an internalized form of trust in our machinery, the people we know or political entities such as emergency first responders or the government. In all these examples, faith is something that originates in our own mind. Faith that pleases God originates elsewhere. It comes from God.
"faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." - Romans 10:17
In other words, faith that pleases God comes from God/Christ. It comes from an external source to us when we hear about it or read about it. Therefore, faith that pleases God is given to us by God. We have only to act upon it just as we would act upon trust in machinery. Even more, since technology has a way of letting us down trust or faith that comes from God will never let us down.
The first step to understanding what pleases God is to understand faith that comes from God. It is not something of our own making and has special additional properties our own internal attitudes cannot provide. God has promised to return the favor when we act upon faith He has given to us. Faith that pleases God must be acted upon by us, otherwise it is a dead thing. This is what's meant when people talk about living in Christ. It's action based upon what we know of the Master of the Universe from His Word the Bible.
The omni-everything god has revealed to us what pleases Him. It is faith, trust in Him, that He has given to us. It's not a religious attitude we have invented ourselves. Religion is an expression, a celebration, of the faith God has given to us. Faith, like God, is a real tangible thing, but it will not come to you unless you ask for it. Jesus will give faith in plenty to those who ask. Nothing comes to those who refuse to ask.
Can you win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket?
The same is true for faith that pleases God. Ask and you shall receive. Continue to be a skeptic and you'll get exactly what you want - nothing.
and that's me, hollering from the choir loft...
Last edited by Choir Loft; 11-07-2017 at 09:11 AM..
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God can be seen in those things more than anywhere else!
And I still speak Christianese too often for comfort.
