"On the first day, man created God" (moved from Christian Advice)

I used to think that religion was created by man just to control him like laws to tame human nature but then I hit bottom in my life and decided to give Jesus a shot. Actually it is more like God was trying to get my attention and well its hard to explain just what it is exactly that has turned me into a true believer. Its the culmination of a lot of little things. Coincidences, prayers answered in strange ways, things like that. The biggest thing was when I received a healing from a chronic condition involving the nerves in my neck and arms. It happened one night while I was praying to Jesus to please heal it. I'd been praying for it for about 3 months and that night I felt a warm sensation in my neck and shoulder area and my condition had disappeared about 90% that very night. It still bothers me a tiny bit but it is mostly gone. That was almost 5 years ago and it has not come back. I had that condition for nearly 20 years.

What I tell people who don't believe or are on the fence about it is this: Ask God to give you a sign that He is real. I am faithful that He will respond and you will know when He does.

White Lion said:

I've been raised without a religion, but I've always wondered how, and why everyone else was so devoted to their religion.

I just cannot grasp the concept of God, I believe there is no possible way for God to exist.

I see the Bible as a written code of morals, and just an attempt to reduce one's fear of life and death.

Tell me how, and why you think I am, or am not correct.

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Yes, you are correct - there is no possible way for God to exist. And, Yes, the Bible is really a moral code for the ignorant.

Oh, Why are you correct? - Because that is what you believe.

YOu want to know if God exists. The only way by which you will know God is if someone prays for you.

So hang on - here goes ....

Dear Lord, you have heard the cry of your people throughout the ages and have not been slow to respond. I now pray that White Lion will come to know you as God - that she will recognise the love that flows from the eternal Light - that your Grace is sufficient for all who look to you and that her uncertainties are but illusions - that today the meter has started running and that in time White Lion will come to know you - that in time she will laugh and shout, 'Behold my God'.

Through Jesus who has conquered death and awaits beyond it borders for all those who turn to him. Though Him, in Him and By Him who gives peace to all those who dare to seek. Amen

Others will pick up on this prayer White Lion and the circle of love will expand beyond your comprehension. In time you will recognise God. In time. It has started.

I've been a Christian all of my life. When I was around twelve or thirteen years old, my interest in the Bible and God increased. I grew the reputation of being very insightful, though extremely quiet.

However, as I began to mature, I was starting to see some hypocracies around me. I grew to be skeptical, but I was still very afraid to let go of my religion. I read some books that were supposed to prove God's existence through science, but those didn't help. Instead, I saw that there was a lot of deception in the field of Christian science. In my opinion, those kinds of books could only be satisfying to someone who's already sure beyond a doubt that they could never possibly be wrong. And I didn't want to be one of those brainwashed people.

I was afraid that maybe my religion was wrong. Why else can't we answer the simple questions that challenge my Christian beliefs? I grew very depressed and scared. I thought that I would rather die than abandon God. I didn't want to risk Hell, and I didn't want to believe that I would just disappear when I die. So it was either hold on to the hope of a purposeful life, or give that up for a pointless life while I wait to die. "Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die," was not an attractive philosophy for me.

However, earlier this year, God has done some miraculous things for me. A group visited our church for our high-school-and-up retreat, claiming to know how to teach ordinary Christians to use spiritual gifts like the gift of healing in only one weekend. Like always, I was very skeptical. I thought that God didn't do those things in modern times. And if He did, it must have been only for certain special people God selects. But, I had a good experience last year in the retreat that was lifechanging, so I figured I'd go just to hang out with the others.

During this retreat, we had a few group activities that I won't go into detail about. Those were good. I saw some supernatural things happening within other people, but I still hadn't seen any fireproof evidence.

On the first night we were there, we all selected someone to be our prayer partners. On that same night, we wrote some responses to some questions on a card, including the question, "Who is one person you need to pray for over the weekend?" We kept these cards to ourselves. I personally put mine in my Bible, which I put in my suitcase, but I had no idea what was going to happen next.

The following morning, we lined up in the room facing our prayer partners so that we could practice speaking "words of knowledge." What happened was one person (the "giver") would pray over the other (the "receiver"), expecting for God give us something to say to the other person.

When I prayed over my partner, I saw a vision of his mother in a dark room, alone. I had only seen her a few times, and I had no reason to believe she was in any distress, but I asked my partner if there was anything wrong concerning his mother. He told me that his mother's name was the name he wrote down on his card. She had apparently been going through a lot of pain after her husband had left her. She even stopped showing up to church because she knew someone would ask her about her husband.

I had no idea until he told me. I thought I had seen her husband around, maybe before he left, and I wouldn't have noticed her missing from church because we always visited different services.

And as if that wasn't enough, I saw that nearly everyone else had also received a word of knowledge successfully. Some of the stories from those I trust, combined with my own experience, finally convinced me once and for all that God was real, and that He is still active today.

I hope that you will someday have this kind of experience, but sadly our modern generation has been neglecting their spiritual gifts, and it is very rare to find people who are still practicing their gifts effectively.

And I know that it is very hard to believe that God does these things, especially if you do not believe in God at all. But I'm not about to try to prove to you that I am telling the truth. You can choose to believe or not, but this is my story, and I'm sticking to it.

White Lion posted in message #1 of this thread:

"On the first day, man created God"

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Greetings.

Know that YHWH is God: it is he who has made us, and not we
ourselves (Psalms 100:3).

White Lion posted in message #1 of this thread:

I've been raised without a religion, but I've always wondered how,
and why everyone else was so devoted to their religion.

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Biblical Christians are so devoted to their religion because God has
chosen them from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4),
and because Jesus died for them (2 Corinthians 5:15), and because
the love of God has filled their hearts through his Holy Spirit given to
them (Romans 5:5).

White Lion posted in message #1 of this thread:

I just cannot grasp the concept of God, I believe there is no possible
way for God to exist.

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Everyone can know that God exists because he has given proof of
his existence to everyone who can see what he has created (Romans
1:19-20). There is no possible way for us to exist apart from God, for
in him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). All things
were made by him (John 1:3), and by him all things exist (Colossians
1:17).

White Lion posted in message #1 of this thread:

I see the Bible as a written code of morals, and just an attempt to
reduce one's fear of life and death.

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The Bible is indeed a written code of morals (2 Timothy 3:17) written
by holy men under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16,
2 Peter 1:21). The Bible does indeed reduce one's fear of life's
sufferings (Revelation 2:10, John 16:33) and one's fear of death
(Hebrews 2:15, 2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:21,23), so long as
one has become a believer in Jesus Christ (John 3:36) and his death
on the cross for our sins and his rising from the dead on the third day
(1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

White Lion posted in message #1 of this thread:

Tell me how, and why you think I am, or am not correct.

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It is the Bible which tells all of us where we are not correct
(Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16-4:2).

I just cannot grasp the concept of God, I believe there is no possible way for God to exist.

And now perhaps you understand why some people are God-believing. Some people have an intellectual base for their faith. There is strong evidence to support God's existence, and much stronger evidence to support Jesus being the risen Son of God, among other things.

I have an intellectual basis for believing in God and to date have not seen any convincing arguments from atheists and sceptics that have given me cause to change my mind.

Other Christians have experiences evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit that, while not the basis of their faith, reinforce it and are evidence of it.

Furthermore, it does not follow that just because we cannot understand or grasp the concept of God does not mean that He does not or cannot exist. If we could comprehend Him then He wouldn't be God, would He?

I see the Bible as a written code of morals, and just an attempt to reduce one's fear of life and death.

I don't think that it's fair or right to paint the whole theistic community from the opinions of a few.

If anything, becoming a Christian increases the amount of trials we face in life as our hearts become a battlefield as Satan and company come against us with extreme prejudice. God often allows trials to come our way as James notes that it is in these times that we grow.