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MY BROTHER,
ABBA'S FOOL,
Actually, the imposing of will begins with the sinner. Sin is defined as that which is harmful, primarily to others and not-so-primarily but still of some concern to God, harmful to ourselves. God's rules of holiness are to emphasize the importance of respect for others and ourselves, and it is through sin that one's will becomes imposed. As long as we are behaving in a holy/respectful way to others/God/ourselves, there is no need for God to be offended, but as we know that's pretty tough to maintain without fault.
Loving Him is the result of accepting Him. You can resist Him and insist on disobeying Him, but you won't get the last word. You don't have to be such a clever person to realize that God loves good and hates evil.
Well I think it is a matter of perspective. If you feel like His expectations aren't reasonable then obviously you'll argue with them. For me I don't have any problem with what God expects of me, I'm most willing to change according to the way He shows me I need to because it is all for good reason. I think the hardest thing for a non-believer is to purely accept that God's reasons are perfect.
Regardless of what? Perfection? That's what the whole story of the Bible tells us, unless we are perfect we are doomed to death because that is the ultimate justice for the wrong we have contributed to the world. As you ought well know, the only person who was ever perfect is Christ, so He never deserved to die and this is why God raised Him after He was murdered by those who envied Him.
Well I'm not saying it isn't, but what I do say about it is that if you don't understand and accept God's definition of "good" then you'll not be able to quite impress Him enough by simply living up to your own definition of good. In order to be righteous in God's eyes, you must learn what He expects of you, and only then you may feel content that your best efforts to please Him will suffice.
That's exactly right, and that is why those who are more predisposed to evil will be much less inclined to behave Christ-like due to their nature. I would say that you've got a much easier path to salvation than someone who has committed murder, since you're more or less a reflection of the respectful person God admires. Do be wary of pride though, if you esteem yourself too highly you may not be able to see how highly you ought esteem God. So if you think you're a good enough person with a genuine motive to please God, but not yet Christian, you've obviously got some grudge against what God has told you in the Bible and that is what you ought to address instead of arguing about His methods of justice. It's clear that everyone who has established a healthy relationship with God is quite comfortable with His methods of justice - so who is it that has the greater problem, God or the one who doesn't agree with Him?
I tend to agree with this statement, a belief based upon an expectation of getting something from God is only superfluous. The only truly valuable relationship is one of pure love and respect, acknowledging God for the creator and supreme king He is, and committing yourself without restraint to all that is good and pleasing to Him.
Well that contradicts what you said earlier: "That would not be genuine love for God, or respect for others, that's just looking out for myself.", And I agree with that statement. If you're motivated by the prospect of heaven or hell then your reason for loving God will not be genuine. I think love has to come first, at least that was my own experience. I just loved life so much I wanted to know how to thank the Lord, and if that means I spend all of eternity bowing to Him that's exactly what will please me the most.
The reason you need to impress God is because failure to do so is called "sin", which is the effect of harming His beloved creation. If you're really concerned with wanting to do good by everyone then you will certainly want to get familiar with what God originally had in mind when He created life.
Well quite obviously it's believable, there's plenty of us who attest to that. What you need to do if you want to believe it is discover your reason for doing so. Until you have a reason to believe it, you'll be swayed by your reasons not to believe it, in this case "it doesn't make sense". So if you want to make sense of it, you have to ask God to open your heart to it. This begins by acknowledging that there is a magnificent creator of life, and desiring to respect Him for it.
That's a good place to have your mind at because He hasn't told us what the future holds for the purpose of incentive, but to tell us the truthful answer to one of the greatest questions we have.
Well if you take the story in context, originally there was no sin, so the gift of everlasting life truly was a free gift. Only since the world has become sinful has death become an issue, and so has the matter of justice.
That is certainly admirable, and you could even find yourself privy to God's grace on the day of judgment. Do be aware though that according to Christianity, the flesh is at war with the spirit and is constantly teaching us how to sin. So although you might think that a particular sin is a trivial matter (take homosexuality for example), the fact that you're ignoring the spirit in favor of the flesh predisposes you to sin, and the flesh will argue all sorts of reasons why you shouldn't heed the conscience and instead give into the pleasure of sinful desires while knowing full-well that God doesn't approve. No amount of good can offset the bad. Good is good, and bad is bad. They aren't mutually exclusive.
Yep, well belief/disbelief both begin with a decision and are increased gradually.
He does do this with us you know, it is called "The Holy Spirit", who we receive when we accept Jesus into our lives and become born-again. Laying death to the old life of disbelief and rebellion against God, and to be born of the spirit of God, then you do have a personal connection with Jesus Christ, and He will explain everything you desire to know (as long as it is noble, don't suggest such a mockery as asking for lotto numbers).
Well why is it that when I read it, the first doesn't mention the right way to worship God, while the second does?
Well that is the matter of what you must decide for yourself. Sadly you are right about that, many "Christians" don't have the correct relationship with God because they haven't come to Christ for the right reason, instead they are motivated by self esteem, greasing up to their pastor and peers. In fact the majority of those Christians you see as being the intolerant ones aren't even listening to Jesus, they're listening to their pastor! Their pastor preaches against abortion and they bomb the clinics, their pastor preaches against homosexuality and they draw picket lines. I know what you're saying very well, Paul predicted the coming of false teachers, and even identified plenty of them while he was alive, and if you have concerns about the sort of behaviour you know to be wrong, then you ought not fear that you'll ever become that sort of person. Your conscience is already working.
Yes yes yes, totally the hardest thing is to overcome the argument of the flesh and listen to the spirit. I don't even know how to tell you how to do that, but I do know that if you're genuinely interested in knowing God then you'll never give up until you've truly found Him. I can tell you that God has done everything that is reasonably expected of Him to prove who He is, there's a whole universe of incredible design to prove that we can never possess the same knowledge He has, there's the Bible as a testimony of the history of His people which is incredibly accurate and reliable, there's the evidence of Jesus Christ who never put a foot wrong or said something false, and there's evidence in the lives of Christians all over the world that the Holy Spirit has the power to unite us with God. For all these reasons there are countless arguments against, so your decision is one of determining whether all this evidence that God has given us is really just to be discarded because you are expecting something of Him which He has decided not to give you.
Well it would seem that you have yet to contribute a certain matter of faith to the topic. Take a read of Hebrews 11 Hebrews 11 - Passage Lookup - New Living Translation - BibleGateway.com to learn about what faith is. In fact Hebrews is a very good read, I suggest if you haven't read it yet, sit down for half an hour and read the whole thing through.
Most certainly, there is no way that believing becomes real until God becomes real to us, and for that to happen we must be prepared to hear what He says to us. Admittedly some people require less of a reason than others, some people have had physical experiences with Him, others merely spiritual, and others yet have only taken the word of their fellow man for testimony. I also know that He never turns away a true seeker, but that is not as easy to do as it is to say, because accepting God means to cut loose some particular desires we have to not comply with His commands. I'm not sure exactly what the particular hurdles are that you can't get over, but I'm sure you do know. So (forgive me for saying so) you'll have to really be honest with yourself about that, and if you can accept the particular problem you have with the Bible, then you can progress to acknowledge that God wants something from you that you don't want to give Him.
Well that's obviously the way it is. When we ask what happens after life, do you expect Him to be honest or lie? I think He has very good reason for disclosing this information to us, it's not every person who can comprehend the reality of eternal life before it's been granted to them, but I have no doubts whatsoever that many people in their lifetime have come to understand the nature of God by hearing and accepting His methods of justice. And if this information has saved even one soul then would you dispute that God should never have spoken to us of it?
You merely have no idea what is in store. Consider the human with all his limbs, takes life for granted. Consider a human who loses his limb, is filled with remorse for a while at the severe loss. Consider the human who is ignorant to computers who one day discovers the thrills of such a toy. Consider the dog who finds a new thrill when given a bone. The point is that we can be content with anything God has given us if that is our attitude about it, but it is not until we discover the greatest gift which is the knowledge of God that we can ever comprehend how good it is. God is the one who gives us what we want, He is the giver. The problem we face is that we tend to want things that God doesn't want to give us, so we become takers. Also might I say, it's a dangerous proposition you make in that statement. When the creator of the universe and life has told us what the story about life is, what is expected of us, and what is promised, and you think you can make up your own rules and believe that death is the end of your life, that's you thumbing your nose at Him. Is that the antichrist speaking to you, that Christ lived died and rose for someone other than you?
What? Don't you think that good should be praised and evil should be punished? Care to explain?
Now that is a very good point to raise, one that I think you do already know the answer to, and it basically comes down to common-sense. Deciding what fits well with your conscience and at the expense of greed or whatever other fleshly motive there is to contest the conscience.
I can tell you I moved on at one point and after a long excursion came to plead with God to bring me back. Now after having the reality of life with God and without God as direct comparisons, I do firmly believe that there will be no such time where I might turn from God again. Of course, your life, your decisions.
Yes, well it has to be a mutual decision. When it happens will be at just the right moment when you both have exactly the same understanding of the nature of the arrangement.
Oh you've been fooled! Yet another feather in your cap
Yes, you can't rely too much on a human, in fact I would warn you as any good pastor would, against blatantly trusting what someone says until you can verify that it is consistent with the truth that God has revealed to us in the Bible.
