Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
I just came upon this thread and I confess that I have thus far only read the first 3 pages of replies - I apologize in advance if my post is redundant.
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:7-9
John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (emphasis added)
John 16:33 fairly well refutes the prosperity gospel and any others that are similar. Jesus states, quite plainly and unmistakebly, that we WILL have trouble.
I don't know why suffering is allowed for everyone. I am not God, and I see only a part of the picture - through a glass darkly, as it were. I don't think it is possible for finite man to fully grasp the nature of an infinite God.
I know that in my own life, the sexual abuse that I went through as a child (and the aftermath lived out in my lifestyle as an adult) have given me a deeper compassion for others and a deeper understanding of the nature of forgiveness.
I never went through a period of hating God, or blaming God. I just didn't believe He existed, period. I was saved in 2007 - where do I now think God was when I was child and after? I envision Jesus, seeing all, and weeping for me but also knowing that it would be used later in my life to reach others who were damaged and hurting.
I know this provides no answers for why there are starving children, mass murders, abused men, women and children, and the like.
I, personally, have to believe (based upon how my own suffering has been used for His glory) that in some way or another all suffering will be used to glorify God. I also think that Christians should be providing aid, comfort and ease in those situations - which, when done from the right motives, glorifies the Lord, does it not?
Yes. And this is the point where Christian theology is horribly frustrating - we refuse to believe that we can address this systemically because of the presence of sin and a Heaven not present. In this way, we are slightly insane.But certainly, things like hunger, poverty, neglect or abuse of children, yes, these things the human species brings upon itself collectively, and God or no God, the human species should act in concert to eliminate them.
Not half as self-serving as the way you and RND have completely trashed this thread and made it impossible to continue discussing the OP and the subjects it raises for us. Why don't you two please pick up your private judgments against everyone else here, which no one but yourselves seem to be interested in or accord any worth or value to, and just simply go home? We would like P/M/FA to be open to anyone, but that does not mean anyone coming in may trash the threads or the subforum MEMBERS here any way they please.
You have overstayed your welcome, the both of you. Bickering and arguing over this fact and constant whinges of "but YOU ... YOU ... YOU did ..." only prove Moriah's point here.
Please show yourselves to the door.
...this is the point where Christian theology is horribly frustrating - we refuse to believe that we can address this systemically because of the presence of sin and a Heaven not present. In this way, we are slightly insane.
Thank you for the welcome, RND and Avonia.Welcome to the thread. I think you have made some excellent points, thank you for your honesty and perspective. I especially appreciate your heartfelt thought as to what you imagined Jesus doing when you were being tormented. I imagine He was also at the same time weeping for your tormentors as well; seeing that He was able to ask the Father to forgive the very people that were murdering Him.
And Avonia - I am no longer wounded. Some of the risky behaviors took care of themselves through sheer aging, I think, and not wanting to be controlled by my childhood once I understood where the behaviors stemmed from. The rest, including forgiveness, have been put behind me only through my relationship with Christ. It's been a wonderful experience, and one that I hope everyone will someday have. We all have been wounded, in one fashion or another.
Thank you for the welcome, RND and Avonia.
RND, I agree that he was also weeping for the person who abused me. Just as I, through the Spirit working in me, was able to forgive him as well.
Not all of us. Just Republicans and orthodox capitalists.Yes. And this is the point where Christian theology is horribly frustrating - we refuse to believe that we can address this systemically because of the presence of sin and a Heaven not present. In this way, we are slightly insane.
While you are occupying an "Indeterminate quantum superposition" I am occupying the "interstitial space." Howdy.
Well it did see some worthwhile contributions early on from you engaging in the subject. So if it bes truly mistaken then you have its apologies. And it will admit to contributing to derails as well. Life bes too short to bicker on & on.... How about we all just get back on topic now?Boy what a great exaggeration. The only point you have proved is that you are greatly mistaken about me.
This is often called "The Wounded Healer."
Thanks for joining the conversation!
would we be considering the atheist proposition here, (d) there bes no God?the unspoken c) which some may not be prepared for, God expects that humans act to resolve human problems....
Another one btw.well met, Flibber
I would be prepared to follow that up. In fact, I did recently have that conversation with myself while chanting in an unknown tongue, slaughtering a goat at midnight, and standing on one leg. Of course.would we be considering the atheist proposition here, (d) there bes no God?
not an atheist, just wondering how far we will be extending the theodicial parameters here.
given that Moriah has firsthand direct awareness of the "opposition" we could also consider some of His arguments here, IF you like (and if CF would permit that as purely an intellectual exercise without counting it a case of "promotion")
Thank you, also, for the welcome. Hey, did you notice I'm a Republican?
Um ... you makesy fun of daimonizomai or something? *hurt look*I would be prepared to follow that up. In fact, I did recently have that conversation with myself while chanting in an unknown tongue, slaughtering a goat at midnight, and standing on one leg. Of course.
OK but that has to do with the atheist proposition yeah? Not what else Moriah bes talksy about... but yes it has already gone to that place, where it discovered what you speaks about what it puts in bold above...How, I asked myself, would I serve humanity if there were no God? I found that the truth or falsehood of the premise (the "if" statement) has no effect whatsoever on the abilities I have. It's completely unrelated.
So what should stop me from serving humanity as if there were no One else to act? Even if the premise on the table is not true, why should I not push ahead fully engaged? Certain fictions can have value if they challenge us to function at intented and actual potential.
What mind game?As stated in another thread, though, the only reason to even consider such a mind game is the assumption that God is Other and apart. I don't hold that assumption as the sum of reality.
Does this mean you embrace ossification?Thank you for the welcome, RND and Avonia.
RND, I agree that he was also weeping for the person who abused me. Just as I, through the Spirit working in me, was able to forgive him as well.
And Avonia - I am no longer wounded. Some of the risky behaviors took care of themselves through sheer aging, I think, and not wanting to be controlled by my childhood once I understood where the behaviors stemmed from. The rest, including forgiveness, have been put behind me only through my relationship with Christ. It's been a wonderful experience, and one that I hope everyone will someday have. We all have been wounded, in one fashion or another.
I think this is the second time today we have miscommunicated. No ill will. No target for thee. No malintention. Apologies.Um ... you makesy fun of daimonizomai or something? *hurt look*
The mind game of pretending that the All that Is is not... this is the mind game of which I spoke. It is a pretense and a fiction. Like wearing nightshades at noonday.What mind game?
it does not understand. other and apart? it does not understand. explain please. Habitation does not comprehend "apart". Symbiote does not comprehend "other".
And from post #92 (had to insert by hand)
Originally Posted by StormyOneOriginally Posted by mva1985
Jurors cringed, cried and some desperately looked away as they were shown a series of deeply disturbing and graphic videos taken by a convicted child killer as he tortured, sexually abused and nearly killed a 9-year-old boy.or do you think that phrase will help this girl?
Joseph Edward Duncan III, acting as his own attorney, had argued against playing the videos, saying it would turn jurors "into my victims" as they decide whether he should be executed.
Duncan kidnapped the boy, Dylan Groene, and his sister, Shasta, in May 2005 after murdering their older brother, their mother and her fiance in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, area. The two young children were taken deep into the Lolo National Forest, where they endured weeks of horrendous abuse at Duncan's hands.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/21/duncan...ref=mpstoryview
First he saw the girl's eyes: dark and wide, unfocused, unblinking. She wasn't looking at him so much as through him.Sorry MVA, to me those kinds of answers seem inadequate....
She lay on a torn, moldy mattress on the floor. She was curled on her side, long legs tucked into her emaciated chest. Her ribs and collarbone jutted out; one skinny arm was slung over her face; her black hair was matted, crawling with lice. Insect bites, rashes and sores pocked her skin. Though she looked old enough to be in school, she was naked except for a swollen diaper.
"The pile of dirty diapers in that room must have been 4 feet high," the detective said. "The glass in the window had been broken, and that child was just lying there, surrounded by her own excrement and bugs."
When he bent to lift her, she yelped like a lamb. "It felt like I was picking up a baby," Holste said. "I put her over my shoulder, and that diaper started leaking down my leg."
The girl didn't struggle. Holste asked, What's your name, honey? The girl didn't seem to hear.
He searched for clothes to dress her, but found only balled-up laundry, flecked with feces. He looked for a toy, a doll, a stuffed animal. "But the only ones I found were covered in maggots and roaches."
http://www.tampabay.com/features/hum...icle750838.ece
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?