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Marriage is not condemned ,but it is warned that it is a distraction that can conflict with one's devotion and obedience to God .
My wife challenged every decision, having no faith in the leading of the spirit, and was afraid of being lead of the Spirit (by her own words)
Yes marriage is a trade off and for my own reasons I too am burned out on it and find it a "distraction" and for that and other reasons would not pursue another relationship if my present one ends for whatever reason.
But I am, I hope, reasonably honest concerning what I am "distracted" from. Which is from being myself and living by my personal convictions. I don't need to decorate it with some sort of heavenly mandate, I can empirically justify each and every one of my convictions.
A perfect example is that I am a moderate Type 2 diabetic which means, in theory, that I should eschew sugar in all its forms. I have to balance this against the simple fact that a completely sugar-free diet is rather unpleasant and removes from my palette of coping mechanisms a number of comfort foods. Personally, I am perfectly fine with shortening my life by a decade because I drink coffee with sugar or have the occasional sour cream donut with it. Because personally I would rather enjoy 20 more years full of small things to look forward to than be miserable and feel deprived for 30 years. And no doubt I would adjust that calculus toward the end as body parts start falling off, retinas start detaching, etc., because a sterile diet might then become the lesser of two evils to me. But it should really be my needle to thread. But because I live with a woman who loves me and to an extent depends on me, and because I have an adult child who probably will never properly launch, I thread the needle rather differently than I would do for myself alone. This is not necessarily a Bad Thing but it IS a distraction and a complication and more often than I care to admit forces choices on me that I would not make for myself alone, which is to say, it reduces my net happiness and contentment and imposes austerity on me that is not worth it for me personally.
It seems more realistic to be honest with myself about such 'distractions' and my annoyance with them, than to claim that it prevents me from serving an invisible man in the sky with full devotion. The latter sounds like a nobler justification but it is really just an empty claim with no substantiation behind it.
Even your constant references to the holy spirit is simply projecting a deity on your own intuitions and desires. I know you don't see it that way, and that you will doubtless claim I can't possibly understand what you are talking about, despite the inconvenient fact that I spent three decades of my adult life making exactly and precisely the same claims, until I started seeing through my own delusions concerning them.
Yes...the crazy God in the sky, commanded them to make a offering to appeal for his mercy and appease his wrath (he's such a kind and caring God). This sacrifice of an innocent animal (that the sinner loved and was attached to) was an atonement for his sins. It was also an allegory to set the stage for the coming Christ...who would save all mankind from their sins (excuse me, all those who "believe). Christ would be the last sacrifice. Make sense Yet ? ? ?
My point is it seems silly to fault the devout for offering burnt sacrifices based on one verse saying burnt sacrifice is not what "God" desires, when so many other verses record that "God" commands it and lays out details as to how it is to be done.
Now, if you want to find fault with them on the grounds that "God" must be crazy and commands barbaric acts, that is an entirely different criticism.
ITS painfully obvious that anyone who follows AND really STUDIES the bible will come to the conclusion that CHRISTIANITY IS "ANTI-FAMILY."
The two biggest influence-rs of the New Testament were the Apostle Paul and Jesus of Nazareth. When you Look at the things they had to say about "the family, being single and being married, its difficult NOT to see their plan. I find it quite fascinating that EVERY SUNDAY the churches are PACKED WITH people...who don't listen, read or study the bible they carry under their arms----but like SHEEP, follow the crowd and are continually BRAINWASHED through REPETITIVE self-hypnosis nonsensical doctrine, void of logic or Reason. In essence, they ARE blinded to the intentions of CHRISTIANITY.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Mat 11,17
~Balkins
The price: ALL those who followed him would be required to SACRIFICE their lives to the cause of spreading their GOSPEL OF "THE GOOD NEWS."
WHAT GOOD NEWS YOU SAY? ...that i will leave for another thread.
Thoughts, comments ?
~B
lmao ... NOT.
painfully obvious that we make up anything we need to no matter what our belief system its about whatever makes us feel good and maintains the safety of a world view.
Nonsense. The God depicted in the Bible is prone to temper tantrums during which He commits mass murder. He doesn't object to rape or slavery. In short, He's just not very nice.
Yes...the crazy God in the sky, commanded them to make a offering to appeal for his mercy and appease his wrath (he's such a kind and caring God). This sacrifice of an innocent animal (that the sinner loved and was attached to) was an atonement for his sins. It was also an allegory to set the stage for the coming Christ...who would save all mankind from their sins (excuse me, all those who "believe). Christ would be the last sacrifice. Make sense Yet ? ? ?
From the KING James Bible (or any version that you care to read)....we see numerous times the anti-family values of Christ himself and the Apostle Paul. We're talking Hate your Mother, Father, Sister Brother....and WHY ? ? ? Because I (christ) am the most important thing you'll ever need or want and-----Because i told you too....that's Why!
God isn't "in the sky". You are actually talking about another culture that you obviously don't understand that existed during Biblical times. Do you have the passages from which you are drawing these "anti-family" values? Hate your brother, sister, etc. is not what I learned or ever heard quoted. What church did or do you attend?
Quote:
Originally Posted by kjw47
You just don't know God.
^^^Exactly and neither do they know the Bible. As much of a pain as they are, I do have sympathy for them. You wonder why they are always here, disputing the fact as to whether or not God exists. You can feel their desperation, living their lives the way they live them and hoping and wanting reassurance that there will be no judgment or afterlife. I cannot imagine the torment. God has been with me for as long as I can remember. Knowing God? Priceless.
Maybe this is just another "gay thread" as I noticed it was brought up that God was anti-family so it meant to kill gays or some other nonsense.
Again, imagine what it is like for those without God in their life with the constant torment realizing what faces them ahead, trying to desperately to have others give them reassurance that there is no God. Must be all consuming and really take away from the quality of their lives.
It is interesting too that some people do not realize that the Bible stories have been passed, in the beginning, orally and moved on to a written word that has been translated many times. The Bible has more of a code of behavior while many look for everything to be spelled out or they twist the meanings.
Anti-family. I guess when you are tormented about whether or not God exists that you spend a lot of waking hours coming up with crap like that.
Again, imagine what it is like for those without God in their life with the constant torment realizing what faces them ahead, trying to desperately to have others give them reassurance that there is no God. Must be all consuming and really take away from the quality of their lives.
It has been my observation consistently in life that the narratives that win out concerning what I think or feel or want or experience are seldom mine. They are generally narratives concocted, often out of thin air, by other people who think they know me or my motives or my innermost needs but for some strange reason never bother to ask me what those might be. It is surpassingly strange in that there couldn't possibly be a more direct source of information about what I actually think / feel / am motivated by.
But no. Seldom does anyone actually know about that, sometimes not even the people closest to me. They are too invested in their concocted narratives. In the case of Christians, persecution and holiness narratives in which I am the persecutor and/or transgressor.
Has it never occurred to you to actually ask me, or any others like me, what we actually believe and why? What actually motivates our postings in places like this? And would you be inclined to believe any answers that do not comport with your stereotypes and expectations?
My guess is that you've actually had such things explained to you, but you would rather impose your narrative that we are pathetic losers trying to ease some sort of horrible torment.
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