Would you still Love God?

[Ezekiel8]

It's a pretty interesting question.

I would say that yea, I probably still would. I mean it is really hard to say that I would or would not because that would change a lot of the circumstances of my life that led to this point. Which in a way is what really makes this quite an interesting question. I will say yes though because even if we take away all of the miracles, all of the power, and all of the promises in the Bible, I would still have to say yes just simply based on how the God of the Bible is easier to relate to than the other religions and their gods, beings, or beliefs in nature and astral matters.

 

[Angela53510]

First, God saves those he elects. The question of salvation is not in our hands. Yes, we are to believe, confess Jesus as Lord, but that is after God has given us his gift of faith, though grace.

So, that part of the argument is moot. Certainly, God saves! If God has gvien you the gift of faith, you ARE saved. No self degradation, humiliating yourself, trying to prove your love for God. Sound like Catholic asceticism. No one who has the desire God put in their heart to be saved, goes away unsaved!

Second, while God certainly heals, it is never on command. Really, the whole OP is arrogant. It assumes everyone is healed, but “what if” someone for some reason wasn’t?

Well, divine healing is not in the atonement. So, no one can pretend they are left out and have to show an extraordinary effort to love God in spite of not being healed. For many of us, that is our reality. We are not healed. Despite all the prayers. But, we are so MUCH CLOSER to God, than in all the days we were healthy.

I was healthy the first 17 years I served Jesus. I barely grew in character. Then, God allowed me to become chronically ill. After a few years in a spiritual wilderness, God called me back, and my faith is stronger, and he has given me an amazing ministry ministering to other people who are hurting and broken.

In fact, we are all hurting and broken. This shallow Word Faith doctrine you have come back to push, denies living in this world. It denies the fact that God is on the throne no matter what happens in our lives. It drives people away from God, who are hurting and broken. Which, as I said, is everyone.

We are not perfect in this life time. But we have a perfect God. And one day, we shall see him as he is, face to face, and we shall be like him! Until then, we are growing in character and closer to God.

It doesn’t get much better than that! Praise God!

 

[preacher4truth]

Loving God is nothing more than loving your neighbor and helping those in need.

That's a truncated assertion and is only, at best, a half-truth if even truth at all.

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

We see above the first calling is to love God, so there are two sides to this, not one as you seem to assert. That love for God comes at genuine conversion, yet we still struggle and see that we do not love God perfectly at all times.

We have many that say they love God, but they don't keep his commandments, they don't believe his word, they disagree with his doctrine, they disagree with his sovereignty, they loathe that he will send (some) sinners to hell, and especially today they loathe that practicing homosexuals cannot enter heaven and are not part of God's kingdom. For some reason the latter has become the acid test of politically correct ideology attempting to disguise itself as biblical Christianity. Somehow it has come to this, that we must all embrace homosexuality and believe those who practice it are going to heaven, to be real loving and true Christians.

But the first question is this; does the person really love God? If so the person will love his Word, what he has revealed, his attributes, his Gospel of repent and believe, his character, nature, decrees, truth, doctrine &c. Many claim they do, but they hate others who stand upon God's Word, hate his doctrine, attempt to explain it away, hold to a truncated gospel, deny godliness, a fulfilling of 2 Timothy 3.

Notice the word "and" above.

First, the person must love God. Must. Only then can they truly love their neighbor, but the sad fact is many proclaiming to love God hate his word, hate that he holds wrath and withholds mercy on whom he wills. Yes, we are to love all people but not to the extent we disregard God's Word or truth in the process and love things which God has revealed he hates.

 

[wanderer6059]

First, God saves those he elects. The question of salvation is not in our hands. Yes, we are to believe, confess Jesus as Lord, but that is after God has given us his gift of faith, though grace.

So, that part of the argument is moot. Certainly, God saves! If God has gvien you the gift of faith, you ARE saved. No self degradation, humiliating yourself, trying to prove your love for God. Sound like Catholic asceticism. No one who has the desire God put in their heart to be saved, goes away unsaved!

Second, while God certainly heals, it is never on command. Really, the whole OP is arrogant. It assumes everyone is healed, but “what if” someone for some reason wasn’t?

Well, divine healing is not in the atonement. So, no one can pretend they are left out and have to show an extraordinary effort to love God in spite of not being healed. For many of us, that is our reality. We are not healed. Despite all the prayers. But, we are so MUCH CLOSER to God, than in all the days we were healthy.

I was healthy the first 17 years I served Jesus. I barely grew in character. Then, God allowed me to become chronically ill. After a few years in a spiritual wilderness, God called me back, and my faith is stronger, and he has given me an amazing ministry ministering to other people who are hurting and broken.

In fact, we are all hurting and broken. This shallow Word Faith doctrine you have come back to push, denies living in this world. It denies the fact that God is on the throne no matter what happens in our lives. It drives people away from God, who are hurting and broken. Which, as I said, is everyone.

We are not perfect in this life time. But we have a perfect God. And one day, we shall see him as he is, face to face, and we shall be like him! Until then, we are growing in character and closer to God.

It doesn’t get much better than that! Praise God!

sister Angela whats up!

missed the point tho, im just asking if you would walk the same walk Christ did out of love for Him? you drop the healing part if you want and just focus on prayer and salvation. would you still love Him if He Didn't do that?

and to go farther would you suffer like Christ did for someone

 

[Depleted]

so you can stop for a minute to think if you would take on yourself what the Lord endured for you? thats taking God seriously sister, what you are doing is being simple and shallow minded, open your eyes a bit and get another look at the way He works, its beautiful.

Stuff that's happened to me since I was born again. (And, I mean "since," because I lived 16 years before I was born again.)
-- Mother died, so I became my 5 yo brother's godmother at 16.
-- Addicted to drugs.
-- Raped by five guys.
-- Lived on my own making $10 a week for a whole summer. (Kept getting cleaning jobs, but I was so good, they kept not needing me as often as originally intended. lol)
-- Hubby broke his back two years into our marriage.
-- Went from a dime in our pocket back up to middle-class again.
-- Became disabled at 44.
-- Hubby became disabled 2-3 years later.
-- Received a foreclosure for our house the same week hubby was diagnosed with Hepatitis C 2B AND we ran out of all of our savings and retirement money. (End of middle-class forever.)
-- Cancer on hubby's kidney.
-- Dad was diagnosed with dementia.
-- http://christianchat.com/prayer-requests/126891-need-prayer-now.html

Now tell me, who is being shallow? I get what the Lord has done for me, but in a real life way, not a fantasy way.

 

[wanderer6059]

Stuff that's happened to me since I was born again. (And, I mean "since," because I lived 16 years before I was born again.)
-- Mother died, so I became my 5 yo brother's godmother at 16.
-- Addicted to drugs.
-- Raped by five guys.
-- Lived on my own making $10 a week for a whole summer. (Kept getting cleaning jobs, but I was so good, they kept not needing me as often as originally intended. lol)
-- Hubby broke his back two years into our marriage.
-- Went from a dime in our pocket back up to middle-class again.
-- Became disabled at 44.
-- Hubby became disabled 2-3 years later.
-- Received a foreclosure for our house the same week hubby was diagnosed with Hepatitis C 2B AND we ran out of all of our savings and retirement money. (End of middle-class forever.)
-- Cancer on hubby's kidney.
-- Dad was diagnosed with dementia.
-- http://christianchat.com/prayer-requests/126891-need-prayer-now.html

Now tell me, who is being shallow? I get what the Lord has done for me, but in a real life way, not a fantasy way.

you have gone through so much sister, and i am sorry if any of my words offended you.

my question is not fantasy though, its more real than you are seeing it. i am sorry for any miss communication.

but i see it like this what am i willing to suffer for the work of Christ, we see all the Apostles face suffering and death for Him?

i have gone through much to, but Christ, my love for Him moves me to break what is real.

i forgave and love the man who beat me and still is crual to me, because that is what Christ would do.

its just a question, would you love people like Christ loves you?

 

[Depleted]

i am asking believes to think about how much He loves us, and also if they are committed to loving the lost the same.

lot of people missing the point on this lol

If you found Bin Laden unconscious on the side of a footpath on the bottom of a city in the mountains, would you wash his wounds, put him on your donkey to take him the rest of the way up that steep sharp path to the top of the mountain, call in and pay for the medical doctor needed to treat him, then give four months of your salary to house him in a good room, pay for his meals, and make sure he got all the help he could get as needed? And then would you promise to reimburse the innkeeper for anything extra that might not be covered?

That is the story of the Good Samaritan. THAT is just a little of what Lord would do for us. AND it is something not a single one of us would ever even conceive to do for someone else. Die on a cross? Don't get heaven? Yeesh! We wouldn't even wash Bin Ladin's wounds! That's the real difference between our love and Christ's love.

Again, what you're going for is fantasy.

 

[Depleted]

you have gone through so much sister, and i am sorry if any of my words offended you.

my question is not fantasy though, its more real than you are seeing it. i am sorry for any miss communication.

but i see it like this what am i willing to suffer for the work of Christ, we see all the Apostles face suffering and death for Him?

i have gone through much to, but Christ, my love for Him moves me to break what is real.

i forgave and love the man who beat me and still is crual to me, because that is what Christ would do.

its just a question, would you love people like Christ loves you?

Would you love to the degree the Good Samaritan loved? Simpler question. And yet, I wouldn't believe many who would say they would do that for another person. (I wouldn't. I couldn't.)

And just doing that is much less than what Jesus has done for his people.

You've set the bar to Alpha Centauri. Jesus set it to the moon. We cannot do without him. It's not for him, although I wish it was. It's always been with him!

 

[preacher4truth]

i am asking believes to think about how much He loves us, and also if they are committed to loving the lost the same.

Your OP didn't reflect that. Perhaps in your mind it did.

lot of people missing the point on this lol

But of course, your OP is unclear. Also, some advice is recommended: stop trying to school your elders on here who have been down the road a bit farther than you.

 

[Angela53510]

Wanderer, you are missing my point. I have also suffered. And not just physically, but in so many ways. What does that have to do with loving God or not? I love God more and more each day, even as more and more things go wrong. And that includes a car accident where I had the right of way, and an old guy broadsided me in the back fender, giving me a whole new set of whiplash injuries.

Why would that, or anything else stop me from loving God? God is our ONLY hope. I might have once needed lessons, but now, I know that God is the answer and he is always drawing me nearer, though good and bad. What did the old chorus says?

”He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by,
Oh that love between my Lord and I.”

I do hope God is calling you to look at your relationship with him in a whole new way, a deeper way. If this post is about loving God more, it could have been worded a bit differently. I love God because of who he is, not just what he has done, or has not done. I would recommend you read the book, “The Attributes of God” by Pink. If God did nothing for us, he would always be worthy of our praise, our honour and our love. Just because he is God!

I do pray that God will show you more and more about him, and that you will grow in love and passion for serving God. If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know.