The God is Real Thread

I'm very happy for you OpinionateB, this has really made my night.

I believe that God has to reach many Muslims the way you have been reached. I don't know if you were born Muslim or converted later in life, but for many who were born in to the Muslim religion, a Muslim state and culture, it is almost impossible to really get to know the truth about Jesus. Apart from the legal restrictions against preaching Christianity and laws against converting, there is the years of hard core indoctrination against Christianity to overcome.

Luk 19:38 "God bless the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory to God!"
Luk 19:39 Then some of the Pharisees in the crowd spoke to Jesus. "Teacher," they said, "command your disciples to be quiet!"
Luk 19:40 Jesus answered, "I tell you that if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will start shouting."

I grew up in a cult that believed that their interpretation of the Bible was right and everyone else was wrong - and they do have major doctrinal differences with other Christians. They referred to themselves as "true Christians", they called their group "the truth" and everything else was "the world". Everyone else were goats and worldly and they were going to eternal destruction, etc. etc. Eventually I started to see through their organization and I gave myself permission to doubt their claims and search for God. One night I called out to God "I have had enough of all this man made stuff and I want You". Well, I felt that God was there right in the room with me listening to me, and telling me that He loved me and He wanted me too. I was so brainwashed in to believing that this group was right and everyone else was wrong, that you could only get to God through their organization, that everything every other Christian said about God and love had to be wrong, that it had to be that way. No one could ever have taught me from the scriptures that I was wrong and they were right because for every scripture they had, I had one too, every logical step, I had a response. It had to be a personal visit from God. That was the night that everything changed. I no longer hated people who were not of the same belief as me, I really started to love people, listen to them, respect them. All the indoctrination and teaching started to sound more and more foreign to me. Within six months I was out of the cult.

Bless you sister in Christ. I know these will be some of the happiest and exciting days of your life as you begin to realize that God is bigger and better than you ever thought possible. When hard days come, as they will, hang in there, hold on to God and what you know He told you. We all have to grow up and though being stretched can be a bit uncomfortable, it is rewarding.

a reply to: windword

Ahead of time but not before we are born. By that I mean what you constantly think about and give strong emotion to. So if you are in an unhappy marriage and think every day how miserable you are and constantly think about how bad it is that is what you will get more of. If you think about bills all the time that is what you will get.
The power of love is very strong. If you think about being happy and give thanks and are satisfied with what you have you will get more of that. I don't believe we're here to learn and if we were we could pretty much stop once we finish kindergarten where we learn to share and how to behave and treat people.
So I think we are on completely different wavelengths with what kind of power created the universe. That's okay because it will turn out to be what ever it is in the end.

Don't go putting words in my mouth. I said if you're hearing voices. Nothing else about your experience. a reply to: OpinionatedB

What about free will. Your story takes that right out of the equation. a reply to: jmdewey60

originally posted by: Kargun
a reply to: OpinionatedB

Jesus is Lord.

People that love him, love all people.

That is sooooo not true.

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

What about free will. Your story takes that right out of the equation.

Whose free will are you talking about?
The guy who was robbing me, you want him to be able to make the decision to rob me more that the one time?

No, this is a very true statement. Someone in love with Jesus, is simply, madly in love with ALL His creation, especially the highlight of his creation, human beings.

I hear ya though, I know what you're saying. Practice what you preach, don't be a hypocrite.

Ghandi was known to be fascinated with Christian scripture. He was said to have read it daily. He is attributed with an amazing quote. He was asked why he had never converted to Christianity.

"I would gladly have become Christian...had I ever actually met a Christian"

Ouch, that hurt me inside to read. But, point taken, I've never forgotten that.


a reply to: AutumnWitch657

There is no God, because there cannot be a God.

Suppose God exists.

Can he make something greater than he is?

If the answer is no, then he is no God.

If the answer is yes, then again he is no god.

Can God create something?

If God is everywhere, then he cannot, there is no free space, and therefore he is no God.

If God is not everywhere, then there is free space to create something, but then he is not God.

Does God know the future?

If he does not, then he is no God.

If he does, then he cannot create anything, because if he could, then he would not know the outcome, and therefore he would not be God.

If the above seems like gobledycook, think twice, because it is not. It is actually math on sets: the intersection of an infinite set A with another set B cannot be defined or distinguished from A. Thus an infinite being cannot exist.

originally posted by: intrptr

Something about the kingdom being within? Everyone has been given a soul, a direct conduit, an antenna to heaven as it were.

Not all souls are good souls, and not all "soul conduits" are connected to heaven.

Why, I'm even convinced that one or two that I've ran across had no soul at all!

originally posted by: windword

Exactly! It's contradictory to believe that "Christ" is outside, knock, knock, knocking, and that you must "Let him in". "The Kingdom of God is within!" You can't find it in a man. It's not in a book or in anything that is not already embedded within.

Not all of the bricks made in a brickyard go into building a castle.

The "Kingdom of God" is not within every person born - it's only within the ones it is to be established within.

because only some of the brick are sent to the builders of the castle.

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: WarminIndy

Oh but that is how we know it is real, we met a realness that so real, it could be nothing else.

That's how you know it is real for you, and others who have such experiences of other faiths. OB's experience isn't unique to Xtianity.

The ultimate reality, there is something greater than us and that it loves us more than we can comprehend. But when you meet that, you know.

A statement that could be made by a Muslim, a wiccan, a Hindu, and so on.

In your case, and OB's case, you both understood it to be a Xtian experience. For others, it isn't. I say good for all of you who have had such a spiritual experience. You're all right at a personal level.

That's something I've told OB several times over time - The God interacts with It's creations in a way best suited for that creation to comprehend, and often that depends on the background of the experiencer. Same God, different clothes - it just depends on what the individual is most likely to relate to.

originally posted by: intrptr

Everyone has the power to become sons of God.

Everyone_has_it.

ETA: Excuse me, sons and daughters…

I beg to differ. NO ONE has the power to become sons (or daughters) of God. God makes sons and daughters of whom It will, but that power is most emphatically NOT resident within the individual. The created cannot twist the arm of the creator to force it to bend to the will of the created. It works the other way 'round - anything else is forgetting just which one is the God.

a reply to: nenothtu

Thank's for sharing, in this post as well all the others below, "The Gospel According to Nenothtu", a New, New Covenant!

a reply to: nenothtu

Not all souls are good souls,

We are not "good or evil", good or evil operates through us. We go along or don't. Thats the freedom of choice.

and not all "soul conduits" are connected to heaven.

Your soul resides in the spirit realm, no connections necessary. It is already there.

Why, I'm even convinced that one or two that I've ran across had no soul at all!

If they live there is a soul. Maybe no empathy or conscience, but here is a soul in there. If not, then the body dies.

a reply to: nenothtu

The "Kingdom of God" is not within every person born - it's only within the ones it is to be established within.

No, thats where you look for it. Not without, but within. You aren't the kingdom and its not within you, but it can be reached through the soul.

Like picking up the phone.

a reply to: nenothtu

God makes sons and daughters of whom It will, but that power is most emphatically NOT resident within the individual.

Yes it is. Simply, prayer. But not like you are taught in church.

The created cannot twist the arm of the creator to force it to bend to the will of the created.

I agree. Its not about will its about waiting, listening, learning. When you go to school do you talk over the teacher or listen and learn? When you pray properly school is in session. Most people don't have that kind of patience. It is a practice.

Be still and know.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: nenothtu

Thank's for sharing, in this post as well all the others below, "The Gospel According to Nenothtu", a New, New Covenant!

You're welcome.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: nenothtu

We are not "good or evil", good or evil operates through us. We go along or don't. Thats the freedom of choice.

That's a very interesting perspective. A very modern "everyone gets a trophy" perspective, but a very interesting one.

Tell me, does God hate anyone? In either case, why?

and not all "soul conduits" are connected to heaven.

Your soul resides in the spirit realm, no connections necessary. It is already there.

Why, I'm even convinced that one or two that I've ran across had no soul at all!

If they live there is a soul. Maybe no empathy or conscience, but here is a soul in there. If not, then the body dies.

Both of these cannot be true, just by simple logic. One may be, or neither may be, but both cannot be.

Either your soul may be "in the spirit realm", or "in there", or neither, but it can't be in two places at once.

You may note that I didn't mention a "spirit realm" at all - I responded to your original statement, about a "conduit to heaven" - but I never mentioned a "spirit realm".

a reply to: nenothtu

Since you bring up predestination, it must then be discussed. Shall we?

We have the ability to choose. God gives us our free will. God offers a gift freely to all, what HE asks is that we, the creation, meet HIM half way. HE wants those who in turn want HIM. HE chooses those who are willing to give up this world in order to be with HIM.

HE knows all things - beginning to end. HE knows what we will choose. We cannot surprise HIM with our choice. Therefore, the one's who chose to meet HIM half way and give up this world for HIM have already done so - in HIS perspective.

These are called HIS elect. Why are they HIS elect? Because they will choose for HIM. So HE chooses them, because they loved not their own life.

Just because HE has foreknowledge of our actions does not mean that we did not choose.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: nenothtu

The "Kingdom of God" is not within every person born - it's only within the ones it is to be established within.

No, thats where you look for it. Not without, but within. You aren't the kingdom and its not within you, but it can be reached through the soul.

Like picking up the phone.

Must be something like that "conduit to heaven" in your cosmology. Your conduit is apparently a telephone.

I missed the part where I said anyone WAS the Kingdom, but it is definitely within some people. Just as definitely, it is not within ALL people.