I am not general, my road was not expected or wanted by me, it just happened. I have always been kind of naive and trusting to people. Never was very awere of evil in people and selfish desires. I have just had faith in people, trusted them, and let go, and been burned a bunch of times. So, I go into things with love, which does not require full knowledge. Not in life this time with people, but religion, same approach.
Okay. Regardless, God says that however trusting and charitable you are to others, you don't get anywhere close to the kind of righteous perfection He demands of us all. This is why we need Christ, who is perfect in righteousness and through our faith in him clothes us in his righteousness and so makes us acceptable to God. We can't get to God any other way.
1 Timothy 2:5
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
It isn't required by God that you know everything about the Christian faith before entering into a relationship with Him, but there are some things you DO have to know. Those things are what is known as the Gospel, or the Good News of Salvation. If you don't know the Gospel, you can't enter into God's kingdom.
Some people just do trust first. After that I learned about the person. The same goes for God.
God isn't like any other person. We can't just approach Him any old way we like. He tells us how things will go, not the other way 'round. He's God; we aren't. This makes a big difference to dealing with Him.
You said I must start with God. I say honestly that it started with letting go of anger for me. I told you I was a buddhist before that, and then I found a reverend who incorporates some buddhist element like the silent prayer, which is meditation, and very conservative afroamerican ministry. Not standard way for a white european to go that route. And that I disagreed on almost everything the reverend stood for, and that he made very basic arguments, that made my opinions on political issues sink in quicksand. And after that, it was clear for me, that as a leftist, I could not be in favour of issues, that was built on lies, even if the outcome was good in my humanitarian views. If you were never far left, this may not be so relatable to you. I did not have a conservative bone in my body 15 years ago.
Okay. None of this is what I would call "starting with God." What you've described here is just a shift in some of your political beliefs, not a motion toward God.
Jesus was a good man. He died for our sins, he points to God. I have seen all the movies and documentaries I have found on Jesus. Well versed in it. And his teachings have been spelled out to me at sunday school, school, and training for confirmation.
Jesus wasn't just a "good man." He was God in the flesh, as the Bible teaches and his resurrection revealed. He could only die for our sins because he was divine. If you were as "well-versed" in Chrisian teaching on Jesus, as you say, this would already be clear to you.
Just because I was an atheist, does not mean I had an opinion on how the universe came about.
At the very least, as an atheist, you'd have ruled God out as a First Cause. That leaves you with only natural, physical causes that take you back, according to modern, mainstream science, to the Big Bang. But what produced the Big Bang? Maybe as the sort of atheist you were, you avoided wondering about this, but many atheists I know just resort to saying, "It came out of nothing for no reason." How this line of thinking is preferable to the Judeo-Christian one I don't know.
I was an atheist, I did not believe it. No christians had convinced me. It was just stories for me. Does it matter, if the one who convert people are respected by others or not? And you agree that we are not in sync on what love is. It is about becoming dispassionate for me.
Becoming dispassionate isn't what it's about for Jesus. And for Christians what "it's about" for him is what "it's about" for them.
And doing what is right, instead of being carried away with emotions and desires. Living your faith. My life is a Taxi I drive and in the backseat sits God and directs me, if you need an analogy.
No, I don't need an analogy. But I would suggest to you that God does not give the steering wheel to anyone. He drives us around, not the reverse. We go where He takes us. This is what it means to walk with God and not just some other human person. God calls the shots; we obey.
And understand that some people have gone through depression, had bouts with addiction, so if you battle that, you often battle anger, depression is lack of love of yourself, so you must fix yourself first.
Well, God says He fixes us; we don't - really, can't - properly fix ourselves. God says to us to come to Him for healing, forgiveness, restoration and fulfillment. Inasmuch as He made us, He knows best how to heal us.
Good advice from many, some atheists, some from other religions.
Only God, friend, knows the best way to advise you. He made you, after all. He's got all the answers.
I do not understand how you can take that so lightly and assume you can sin freely.
??? I don't take sin lightly and assume one can "sin freely." Where did you get that from? Nothing could be farther from the truth. God calls us to be holy people, righteous, sanctified people. I submit to Him every day, many times a day, so that He will make me so.
Perhaps I should fear, but I do not have fear.
One only needs fear in coming to God, not in walking with Him. We approach Him first as a wrathful Judge who can destroy both body and soul in hell, but when we have trusted in Christ and been adopted by God into His family, we are related to God as His children and need never fear God as Judge again.
God says different, friend. It is pride that is the Great Sin of humanity. It is evident in almost everything you've written. Not a glaring, overt, ugly sort of pride, but the pride of self-reliance, of knowing better than God, of seeking wisdom according to your thinking rather than to find it in God's word, of believing you can earn your way into God's good graces. This is all pride, at bottom, if you've the courage to see it. Until you do, it will be impossible to really know and enjoy God.
James 4:6-7
6 ... “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God...
