Let's talk about god
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Yes, try and read the Bible everyday. I don't claim to understand everything in it and at times seems God is harsh in the Old Testament but I have to trust He knew what He was doing to tell the Israelites to totally kill men, women, children and even livestock at times. As far as the abusive parts what people did as opposed to what God would want them to do can be at odds quiet a bit of the time even today....we do our thing, but God would rather us do His thing....If the world followed the teachings of Jesus especially in Matthew 5,6,7 this world would be a much better place to live in.
A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases. For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and creative, they place greater importance on this "evidence" supporting their already existing belief.
This individual might even seek out "proof" that further backs up this belief, while discounting examples that do not support this idea.
Confirmation biases impact how people gather information, but they also influence how people interpret and recall information. For example, people who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information that supports their beliefs, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas and remember things in a way that also reinforces these attitudes.
read more here
http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/fl/What-Is-a-Confirmation-Bias.htm
i think it is important to consider such a bias when assessing the belief in prayer for example, i think you are showing signs of it...
This individual might even seek out "proof" that further backs up this belief, while discounting examples that do not support this idea.
Confirmation biases impact how people gather information, but they also influence how people interpret and recall information. For example, people who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information that supports their beliefs, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas and remember things in a way that also reinforces these attitudes.
read more here
http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/fl/What-Is-a-Confirmation-Bias.htm
i think it is important to consider such a bias when assessing the belief in prayer for example, i think you are showing signs of it...
I am going to get to try out Faith right now in that my husband came home and doesn't intend on going back to his job so that means no income coming in....Faith is trusting that God will take care of us in the between time. Faith is that my husband will get up in the morning and look for a new job and if he doesn't then I will and I trust that God will provide one for one of us. Is it scary yes I won't lie just like preaching a sermon I didn't want to preach or sing a solo that I'd rather have a partner to sing and stand with... sometimes we have to stand alone with God knowing that He will do what He promised which is to take care of us and never leave us and for us to cast all our burdens on Him knowing He will take care of our needs.
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B
This, then this;
I notice that most quote chapter and verse. I appreciate that you have read most if not all the 'spiritual' writings to be found. I can not prove God one way or another, it is not my job (if we have jobs), all I can do is tell you why I know there is.
All my life I have been a bit overboard with things, taken them to their limits what ever it is, but only what pleased me. School work never interested me, Work did after school, money never has but my family has. I understand from looking back over my life that I always made room for God somewhere within what most would call a hedonistic life style.
After the death of my first wife and being a single parent to a young girl of 9, I was conscious that my life was doing her no good at all. I had no idea what was going on in my head or life but I knew that "if" God existed, my life did not have anything to do with Him. My daughter would be better off with my family far away from me and where we were living. So I decided to make my cousin her ward and remove myself from the process, die.
"If" God existed and all I had read and learned about Him were true then why could I not see Him, feel Him, Talk to Him? Surely if He was the loving Father I had been taught about, as a child, He would want to talk and share with me as I did with my daughter, and NOT JUST WITH THE WRITTEN WORD! That was not enough.
If it was all a lie and God was a way the rich and powerful controlled the masses, then I did not want any part of it. If there was only blackness and non existence then my daughter would be better off without me and I did not want to go on any more.
I stood by the road side and watched for the right vehicle to walk under. I didn't want to end up in hospital, I didn't want to end up any where so I waited. Then I saw it, a huge arctic lorry, all I had to do was throw myself out. I heard a voice within me, it wasn't in my head it was in my heart, it said. "If you do this you will have to answer for what you will do to your daughter".
It stopped me. I could not understand why, I went home and became a heap. I did not want to live and I did not understand why the voice stopped me. But the voice also put in place within me a hunger for more which over rode all my senses and reason. Someone gave me a tract and out of desperation I read the prayer asking Jesus to live in me, I spent 4 days crying out in 'pain of spirit' is the only way I can describe it, then Jesus turned up.
God stood before me. As real as the wall next to me as real as the day and night as real as I was. Praise Him He was there. With computers we down load stuff, and that is the only way I can describe what happened, God downloaded into me Himself, and loads of knowledge and understanding, but most of all His Spirit, Himself.
He (His Spirit) leads me, convicts me when I am about to step out in me and not Him, He tells me when others are as well. God has talked to me verbally twice, so I could hear it with my ears, and numerous times within my heart, and all the time by His Spirit. His holy Spirit is a deposit of the Kingdom age to come and leads me where ever I go. I am still human and fail and make mistakes and fluff up, but my Daddy, my Father, my God, my Jesus is always with me and I love Him more than anything, more than My life, more than my new wife I thank Him for every day, more that My two boys He has given me.
God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit is my all, always. And because I know He also loves His creation so much that He let His son become a sacrifice for the sin that bought death into this world, I know if you ask Him for His word in your heart He will give it. You must ask in truth. Hold nothing back. Your own conscience will guide you to a place where you can lay yourself bare and vulnerable to Him, because only in 'that' place will He make Himself known.
God bless.
I notice that most quote chapter and verse. I appreciate that you have read most if not all the 'spiritual' writings to be found. I can not prove God one way or another, it is not my job (if we have jobs), all I can do is tell you why I know there is.
All my life I have been a bit overboard with things, taken them to their limits what ever it is, but only what pleased me. School work never interested me, Work did after school, money never has but my family has. I understand from looking back over my life that I always made room for God somewhere within what most would call a hedonistic life style.
After the death of my first wife and being a single parent to a young girl of 9, I was conscious that my life was doing her no good at all. I had no idea what was going on in my head or life but I knew that "if" God existed, my life did not have anything to do with Him. My daughter would be better off with my family far away from me and where we were living. So I decided to make my cousin her ward and remove myself from the process, die.
"If" God existed and all I had read and learned about Him were true then why could I not see Him, feel Him, Talk to Him? Surely if He was the loving Father I had been taught about, as a child, He would want to talk and share with me as I did with my daughter, and NOT JUST WITH THE WRITTEN WORD! That was not enough.
If it was all a lie and God was a way the rich and powerful controlled the masses, then I did not want any part of it. If there was only blackness and non existence then my daughter would be better off without me and I did not want to go on any more.
I stood by the road side and watched for the right vehicle to walk under. I didn't want to end up in hospital, I didn't want to end up any where so I waited. Then I saw it, a huge arctic lorry, all I had to do was throw myself out. I heard a voice within me, it wasn't in my head it was in my heart, it said. "If you do this you will have to answer for what you will do to your daughter".
It stopped me. I could not understand why, I went home and became a heap. I did not want to live and I did not understand why the voice stopped me. But the voice also put in place within me a hunger for more which over rode all my senses and reason. Someone gave me a tract and out of desperation I read the prayer asking Jesus to live in me, I spent 4 days crying out in 'pain of spirit' is the only way I can describe it, then Jesus turned up.
God stood before me. As real as the wall next to me as real as the day and night as real as I was. Praise Him He was there. With computers we down load stuff, and that is the only way I can describe what happened, God downloaded into me Himself, and loads of knowledge and understanding, but most of all His Spirit, Himself.
He (His Spirit) leads me, convicts me when I am about to step out in me and not Him, He tells me when others are as well. God has talked to me verbally twice, so I could hear it with my ears, and numerous times within my heart, and all the time by His Spirit. His holy Spirit is a deposit of the Kingdom age to come and leads me where ever I go. I am still human and fail and make mistakes and fluff up, but my Daddy, my Father, my God, my Jesus is always with me and I love Him more than anything, more than My life, more than my new wife I thank Him for every day, more that My two boys He has given me.
God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit is my all, always. And because I know He also loves His creation so much that He let His son become a sacrifice for the sin that bought death into this world, I know if you ask Him for His word in your heart He will give it. You must ask in truth. Hold nothing back. Your own conscience will guide you to a place where you can lay yourself bare and vulnerable to Him, because only in 'that' place will He make Himself known.
God bless.
well bikerchaz, that was well written, you are very convincing...
my only problem is that I actually had a muslim guy tell me more or less the same thing... only he wasn't talking about Jesus, he was talking about Allah. and that gets me confused. Which one of you is correct? He grew up in pakistan and when he experienced what sounds eerily similar to what you experienced (although in different circumstances), he assumed it was Allah who touched him. you assumed it was Jesus, and i'm wondering how much could that tract have influenced you to think of Jesus and not Allah. In any case, one of you has to be mistaken.
I posted that just an hour ago but i guess you might have missed it:
Some people have delusions, it is a proven fact of psychology, some disturbed people believe weird and impossible thing contrary to reason, like they are Napoleon, or aliens abducted them or fairies lives in their gardens or what not, and their faith in their delusion is sometimes very strong. You are emphasazing the power of faith to introduce you to God, in effect saying that faith is necessary to know God, but it seems to me it is very important in that case to differenciate faith from a delusion, especially since all around the world religious people of different faiths make faith claims contrary to each other, indicating clearly that at least some of them are in error, they can't all be true at the same time. Why is faith in the existence of Allah or Ganesha more or less valid than faith in the existence of Jesus? From where I stand I can not make the difference.
So the big question is: what do you do to differenciate delusions from valid beliefs?
Being delusional is about refusing to revise your belief when you are shown to be in error, so an important question to start answering the previous one is how could your belief in Jesus be wrong? Have you ever considered what would make you change your mind about Jesus? (I'm not saying you should, just wondering what it would take).
my only problem is that I actually had a muslim guy tell me more or less the same thing... only he wasn't talking about Jesus, he was talking about Allah. and that gets me confused. Which one of you is correct? He grew up in pakistan and when he experienced what sounds eerily similar to what you experienced (although in different circumstances), he assumed it was Allah who touched him. you assumed it was Jesus, and i'm wondering how much could that tract have influenced you to think of Jesus and not Allah. In any case, one of you has to be mistaken.
I posted that just an hour ago but i guess you might have missed it:
Some people have delusions, it is a proven fact of psychology, some disturbed people believe weird and impossible thing contrary to reason, like they are Napoleon, or aliens abducted them or fairies lives in their gardens or what not, and their faith in their delusion is sometimes very strong. You are emphasazing the power of faith to introduce you to God, in effect saying that faith is necessary to know God, but it seems to me it is very important in that case to differenciate faith from a delusion, especially since all around the world religious people of different faiths make faith claims contrary to each other, indicating clearly that at least some of them are in error, they can't all be true at the same time. Why is faith in the existence of Allah or Ganesha more or less valid than faith in the existence of Jesus? From where I stand I can not make the difference.
So the big question is: what do you do to differenciate delusions from valid beliefs?
Being delusional is about refusing to revise your belief when you are shown to be in error, so an important question to start answering the previous one is how could your belief in Jesus be wrong? Have you ever considered what would make you change your mind about Jesus? (I'm not saying you should, just wondering what it would take).
For many are called but few are chosen. Not everyone will believe in God and that's just the simple fact of it. But everyone shall be called. Who know's he may be calling you now, and that may be why you're asking for a reason of the faith that is in the believers. I could talk to you for hours and tell you why I believe, but you must know him for yourself. The only way for you to ever know for yourself is to take that leap of faith. My suggestion would be try to talk to God for yourself and ask him all of your questions...What have you got to lose? No one has to know. If you seek him with your heart he will be found. Now he may not part the waters for you or thunder out your name, but if you sincerely try to find him, he will make himself known unto you.
B
To me this is simple, try it, do it. Be there and sample Him for yourself. The God I met, face to face has filled my life with love shown for others irrespective of actions or life styles. He loves not hates, He does not ask me to kill for Him HE asks me to die to myself for Him. If you go about gathering information, that in itself will not produce His life in you. Take to Him who you are, what you are and ask Him for His vision in you then you can decide for yourself, Jesus or Allah or something else? It is time to make a choice "while it is called today", tomorrow might not be there. 1ofthem is spot on. Stop pussyfooting around and try it. Find out for yourself.
Faith is synonomous with trust.
In our case it is in something we don't see yet it has historic tangibilities and evidence e.g. Eye witness accounts of Jesus and His resurrection, fulfilled prophecies, changed lives, design in creation etc. A book I would recommend is ...Faith Founded on Fact by John Warwick Montgomery.
In our case it is in something we don't see yet it has historic tangibilities and evidence e.g. Eye witness accounts of Jesus and His resurrection, fulfilled prophecies, changed lives, design in creation etc. A book I would recommend is ...Faith Founded on Fact by John Warwick Montgomery.
I am going to get to try out Faith right now in that my husband came home and doesn't intend on going back to his job so that means no income coming in....Faith is trusting that God will take care of us in the between time. Faith is that my husband will get up in the morning and look for a new job and if he doesn't then I will and I trust that God will provide one for one of us. Is it scary yes I won't lie just like preaching a sermon I didn't want to preach or sing a solo that I'd rather have a partner to sing and stand with... sometimes we have to stand alone with God knowing that He will do what He promised which is to take care of us and never leave us and for us to cast all our burdens on Him knowing He will take care of our needs.
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Who knows maybe God is using this example to help show you that He cares for us humans and wants the best for us. Then again husband may go to work and tell them he is quitting either way I know and trust that God is going to take care of us and this my friend is called faith.... believing in things you can't see or sometimes even understand that the outcome is certainly God's will for you.
I normally would have been in bed asleep but I was freaked out that he had left the job and did not intend to call them or go back they called him and he decided to give it another try... Had he not done that last night I would not have been awake to answer your thread.... What are our odds on that one unless God wanted me to be here and try to show you His love for you and your questions?
