Does He Or Doesn't He? Is He Or Isn't He? That Is The Question

Discussion in 'Faith & Religion' started by Babs Hunt, Apr 23, 2017.

  1. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I can honestly say that since joining this Forum I have found myself rethinking everything I have ever believed about the one and only God of the Bible that I believe in. My faith in Him, while tested, has held steadfast and even increased. And yet I want to thank all of you for showing me that I shouldn't take anything for granted, especially the one who I believe created me and became my redeemer.

    Even before I opened a Bible and read about who He was...I knew Him in my heart. He whispered my name and spoke to me long before I knew His name or asked Him to become my God and my Redeemer. I took for granted that everyone heard Him just like I did. And when I read His Word and understood it, I believed everyone knew Him and His Truth just like I did. I was wrong.

    I was sure that everyone our age knew God our Father and Jesus our Savior...and believed His Truth they read in the Bible. It was so simple to me. And yet how many "religious" Forums had I been on wanting to talk about our heavenly Father and our Redeemer...and found nothing but people arguing over their beliefs instead of sharing them. Having debates about God's Truth and making it legalistic instead of simple Truth. I wanted to talk to others about our Creator and Redeemer, not question His existance or His Truth.

    Here I found that even at our age we all have different beliefs. Even if we believe in the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ our Savior we still don't agree on who He is or what His Truth really means. Coming here and learning this has made me search deeper and question even further why I believe what I believe. Yet it has never changed what I do believe.

    God is my Father and Creator, and Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I am thankful that I can find this Truth in the Bible but I am even more thankful that I can find this Truth in my heart.

    I don't take the God that spoke to me long before I really knew Him for granted anymore but I do pray that for those of us who do not really know Him, He will speak to their hearts too and let them know how real He is and how much He loves each of us. One day I know I will live eternal life with God and Jesus...and I hope to see and get to know all of you in person and not just on this Forum in that eternal life too.

    Thank you all for helping me realize that what I took for granted is to priceless to ever do that to.
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out what God expects of me. I don't always do it, and I don't dare believe that I have everything right, largely because if I do, then so many other good people have it wrong.

    I expect, but don't know for sure, that God will be make great allowances for error, and particularly for errors in understanding, given that the Twelve that He chose to personally tutor while He was here on earth so often didn't understand what He was trying to tell them.

    I also believe, but do not know for a fact, that God will be forgiving even of behavior that we knew to be wrong when we did it, largely because David, a man who was guilty of grave errors, was said to be a man after God's own heart.

    But I don't want to take anything for granted. We were, after all, told to study to show ourselves approved. That, and many other passages of Scripture, lead me to believe that it cannot be true that anything goes, as far as God is concerned. After all, the gate is wide and the path is broad that leads to destruction, and there will be many who enter through it, while the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to salvation.

    I don't believe that the Bible authors were speaking of denominations or creeds, but that the wide gate and the broad path refers to those who are looking for an easy way, one that demands nothing of them, and those who seek to create their own god, one who will approve of whatever it is that they might want to do.

    I think that the small gate and the narrow path refers to those who truly seek after God, and that they will be found throughout the various creeds and denominations that we have created. In that light, I think we will find that heaven is inhabited by people who didn't all believe the same things while on earth and who, when they arrive in heaven, may learn that they had this wrong or they had that wrong, but that their errors were not salvational.

    I don't believe that sincerity is all that matters. Jesus came to earth in order to provide us with a means of salvation, despite our sins, but He also warned the woman at the well to go, and sin no more. Did He really expect her to sin no more, or was He looking for an effort on her part? Would He really have told her to go and sin no more if He knew that He was asking an impossibility?

    Jesus came to earth to die as a sacrifice for our sins, but first He spent some time trying to teach us something. This leads me to believe that He expected us to learn something.

    I have no doubt that we have made a mess of things, and that the confusion began long before any of us got here. It seems unreasonable to expect that any one of us is going to figure it all out, and be one hundred percent correct in everything we believe. His own Apostles weren't of one mind, and they were about as close to the source as one could get without being the source.

    Yes Babs, I do believe that God doesn't expect us to figure everything out, yet I think He wants us to try, or at least to seek after the will of God, and I think there's room for differences there.
     
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  3. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I don't believe we are supposed to figure everything out either @Ken Anderson what I do believe is that just like Jesus was teaching His Disciples the Truth, etc. Jesus will also come back and teach us who believe in Him the Truth too and how to live that Truth. As long as we are in our human and not glorified bodies I don't believe any of us would be able to stop sinning completely...that is why we need the redeeming blood of Jesus to keep washing us clean of those sins and the Holy Spirit to show us when we are still sinning.

    God's plan of salvation offered to all of us and received by faith and trust in Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross is a priceless gift offered to all of us freely and I have a hard time understanding why anyone would not want to take that gift as their own even though God's Word tells us not everyone will accept it or even want it.

    God's beloved children can not only be found in every man made denomination, but in every Country and nationality too. It is not the denominations or the buildings that make up the Church that Jesus Christ started on this earth, Christ's Bride and His Church is made up of every person that believes and receives the gift of salvation through Jesus' redeeming blood. Our belief, faith, and trust in God's plan of salvation and in Jesus who carried out that plan for all of us as well as our allowing the Holy Spirit to teach, lead, and guide us into God's Truth and walk in His ways while on earth is what makes us the Church on earth...yet just as God created us all differently physically, etc. we may also have differences of opinion, etc. in our beliefs and how we interpret God's Truth too. This only makes life more interesting to me. Jesus' Disciples were all very different men probably physically as well as in how they interpreted what Jesus taught them. Yet they all knew the God of the Bible as their Father and ended up knowing and believing Jesus was their Lord and Savior(their Messiah)too.

    There is no doubt in my mind that God is and will continue to "offer" His priceless free gift to each and every person on this earth until Jesus comes back. Whether each person accepts or rejects this gift of redemption from sin and eternal life is a choice they have to make on their own with the free will God has blessed them with. Our flesh will continue to sin and get things wrong as long as we walk this earth but our faith and trust in Jesus to redeem our sins and turn our wrongs to right will also so continue if we have accepted the priceless gift God offers us.
     
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    Last edited: Apr 25, 2017
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