If I knew God like I know my mother, I would eagerly, passionately consider that proof. Heck, just knowing him as an acquaintance would do.
When you were very young did your relationship with your mother depend on you "knowing her?" Or did you (At first) simply depend on her?
Knowing all about someone takes time and devotion, and most of the time, to start out, it takes a measure of faith to seek out this relationship.
With a Mother and child, these things can be taken for granted in most cases, but never the less even with our own mothers we do have to continue to develop and maintain a relationship with them like anyone else... Why should our relationship with God be any different?
I'm curious, do you think someone praying to Brahma, or Allah, or Zoroaster, is also praying to God?
The need to identify, a god to pray to, is evidence of the need we all have to find the true God.
God's written or spoken name here is not important, if it were, all of the English speaking believers would be in trouble. "Jesus and God" are not grammatically correct either from a Greek or Hebrew perspective. What is important is who we Identify with the names we refer to. Scripture tells us God/Jesus has many names.. The verse in Hebrews 4 that you liked, is an example of another name of Jesus. "The Word" can be seem being used in John 1:1 forward as well.
Now don't confuse this principle with every name we ascribe to a god as being God. Clearly by what is believed about these other gods, they do not describe the God of Israel.
Does God really answer all these questions? Are the answers internally coherent? Are they externally evidenced? I'm not sure. All I know is, speaking personally, the QUESTIONS THEMSELVES inspire awe in me. Whenever I stop to ponder the possibilities I feel excited and somehow more alive. I call them holy, but in a secular way.
The answers to these questions and others we share are freely given to all who seek them. Internally we experience a contentment with the answers we are given and sense of joyful peace to know what we are apart of, and why.
Any external evidence we may find maybe something you have witnessed or heard of a bunch of times, but the difference is once you have obtained a relationship with God and maintain it.. The "simple answers or simple evidence" that you once disregarded, now takes on a new meaning. It's kinda like finding out the actual lyrics to your favorite song, that you've been singing incorrectly for so many years.. Everything just clicks.
Jesus tells us in Mt.11:
25At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 27"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
These "things" that were hidden from the wise and learned include the answers to your questions:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Where did I come from?
What happens afterwards?
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Thank you, this is new and interesting. I'd like to know more: what is scriptural truth and how do we expose ourselves to it? Also, what do you mean about the condition of our hearts? (To me, the heart is something that pumps blood.)
"Scriptural Truth" is an overly stated way of saying "the truths found in the bible" In this case it speaks of the the amount of the "gospel" of Jesus you heard and your ability to comprehend what you have have been told.
Your "heart" in this context speaks of your spiritual heart, or the core of your inner dialog. Some refer to it as your conscience.
If the condition of you heart is hard, it can be said that, you in your inner dialog, have already decided, despite what is shared with you, Not to acknowledge Jesus.
There are several conditions the "heart" may find it self in. Jesus speak of them in Luke 8:
4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."
When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 9His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
" 'though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.'[a] 11"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
It is these conditions, along with your ability to understand what you have been taught about the Gospel, and what you do, or how you respond, that you will be judged on.. Jesus tells us in another parable that not all of us are given the same "talents" (Or spiritual currency), but what we have been given, we must use faithfully! To sum it all up again, even if you weren't born a christian, and live in a place where Christianity is scarce then you will be judged according to what exactly you have been exposed to, the condition of your heart, and what you can comprehend.
I'm not used to the idea that every person on Earth falls into bucket A or B. It just doesn't compute with me.
Actually we all fall into the same bucket.. If bucket B is the bucket of sinful people then we are in need of Jesus's sacrifice.. Because we are told that "We" all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We have been told that "Sin" (any act outside the expressed will of God.) is punishable by Death.
To understand this, you have to ask yourself is there a sin or evil that can be committed, that in our estimation is worthy of Death.. Now before you answer take into account the Hitlers, Osamas, Manson's and Kim Jong Li's of this world... This desire to see the "wicked" punished is a trait we share with God. It's just our "righteousness meter" as been polluted by the sins we enjoy or that are common place to us..
If you looked back, a few hundred years ago, it wouldn't even turn heads to see a middle aged man marry a 14 or 15 year old girl.. Recently though it has become distasteful, or wrong. and even more recently it's slowly becoming more and more acceptable to view underage girls as sexual objects again.. (Look at the movies, magazines, and media..) Brittney, and the Olsen twins (When they were underage) quickly come to mind. Our sense of right and wrong is a measure of the society we are apart of, while God's standards are the same as they were yesterday, as they are today, and will be tomorrow.
In order for a righteous God to be able to punish pure evil, he must punish all sin in the same manor. But, The problem is with free will intact, just by the definition of "free will" we will not always choose what God would
Will for us to choose. So that Automatically places us in a position of sin, and all sin, will be punished with "True Evil." Enter the Proxy or Person/Deity/
Jesus that would except the responsibility for what we owe God (Our Death.) for the sin we have committed.. It is through the Blood of Jesus and his willingness to take your sin, and offer himself as payment for your misdeeds outside the will of the Father. That makes him your
sin proxy (for the lack of a better term.)
When you say "love/faith," what exactly does it mean? What kind of love/faith would be needed to accept the proxy?
"Faith" is the vehicle that will deliver you to Jesus, and the "Love" is the fuel that powers any real Faith. The problem I see with todays "faith" is that you can go through the motions of religion with all the "faith" you can muster, and never know Jesus or God. But when you combine an earnest Faith, and True Love for God then, no matter what Jesus Christ centered "religion" your in, you will eventually find God.
How to except this gift: (As stolen from,
http://www.billygraham.org/SH_HowtobecomeaChristian.asp)
We Are Sinful
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." —Romans 3:23 (NIV)
You may have heard someone say, "I'm only human—nobody's perfect." This Bible verse says the same thing: We are all sinners. We all do things that we know are wrong. And that's why we feel estranged from God—because God is holy and good, and we are not.
Sin Has a Penalty
"For the wages of sin is death." —Romans 6:23 (NIV)
Just as criminals must pay the penalty for their crimes, sinners must pay the penalty for their sins. If you continue to sin, you will pay the penalty of spiritual death: You will not only die physically; you will also be separated from our holy God for all eternity. The Bible teaches that those who choose to remain separated from God will spend eternity in a place called hell.
Christ Has Paid Our Penalty!
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." —Romans 5:8 (NIV)
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, has paid the penalty for all your sins. You may think you have to lead a good life and do good deeds before God will love you. But the Bible says that Christ loved you enough to die for you, even when you were rebelling against Him.
Salvation Is a Free Gift
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." —Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
The word grace means "undeserved favor." It means God is offering you something you could never provide for yourself: forgiveness of sins and eternal life, God's gift to you is free. You do not have to work for a gift. All you have to do is joyfully receive it, Believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ died for you!
Christ Is at Your Heart's Door
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." —Revelation 3:20 (NIV)
Jesus Christ wants to have a personal relationship with you. Picture, if you will, Jesus Christ standing at the door of your heart (the door of your emotions, intellect and will). Invite Him in; He is waiting for you to receive Him into your heart and life.
You Must Receive Him
"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." —John 1:12 (NIV)
When you receive Christ into your heart you become a child of God, and have the privilege of talking to Him in prayer at any time about anything. The Christian life is a personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ. And best of all, it is a relationship that will last for all eternity
This is the "faith" part. "Love" comes as you walk and learn to "walk" with the Lord through the rest of your life. Kinda like how your relationship with your mother develops from a dependency based relationship, into actual Love and appreciation for her.
So humility is like love/faith? I'm confused.
Humility in Mt.18 is how Jesus is more accurately describing my simple Idea of the relationship between a child his/her mother.
The humility a child posses is a pure, innocent. a child is not afraid to profess what they believe, a child doesn't care if he/she looks stupid for asking questions, they are not afraid to openly love or show affection. they don't go through the motions of love. there is a genuine quality that can be found in little children, that we as adults loose.
All of these attributes can be credited to children, this is the Idea of what your love and faith should look like.
