Comments | ghostfriendly: love for God

ghostfriendly

love for God

Oct 24, 2012 15:12

I've never even thought before of raging at God, or questioning Him directly. I honestly find it hard to like the ideas that He may want me to completely drop comics, anime and athiest writers, that so many people in the world are going to hell, and that homosexuality is wrong. I can understand and argue why all these things are just. I just can't ( Read more... )

Comments 9

fanged_geranium October 24 2012, 19:58:02 UTC

Sounds to me like you need to go and have a nice, long chat with your local C of E vicar about all of this.

ghostfriendly October 24 2012, 20:45:22 UTC

Probably a New Frontiers elder from Loughborough, but quite a decent chap. thanks.

kawakiisakazuki October 24 2012, 20:55:26 UTC

I think it was Saint Augustine who said that God didn't give commandments expecting man to obey them, but to help man realise certain things through struggling with them. As you're aware, it's a catch-22: you can't love God out of obligation or fear or guilt or by trying very hard to do so. You can't have yourself have "the law written in your heart" by your own efforts. So obviously the commandment is not a rule to follow but rather a puzzle to figure out.

As for the specifics, I'll just say that personally I think there's a difference between questioning God and questioning whether certain ideas are rightly attributed to God by people. If God didn't like comics and anime and atheists then there wouldn't be any, because where else would they come from?
I am the Lord, there is none else! I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things...

ghostfriendly October 24 2012, 21:32:02 UTC

We do need to understand the commandments, but obidience through faith is the first thing. I've heard it said that being born again involves some immediate visible change where a love for God and His law is written on the heart. I trust that God has intangibly renewed my spirit that way, so that I can be sure of being saved, and becoming better than I am. But I can't be sure of either of these things unless I succeed in cutting off all the major sins from before.

God creating something doesn't mean it hasn't been corrupted since then, or that it's good for me to have to do with it. In these cases I probably won't drop them completely, just deprioritise a lot.

kawakiisakazuki October 24 2012, 21:59:35 UTC

obidience through faith is the first thing.

But test everything that is said (Thess5:21) and though I have faith to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1Cor13). And Christ has freed us so that we may enjoy the benefits of freedom. (Gal5)

We don't do the born again thing here, so I can't say anything meaningful on that I'm afraid...

ghostfriendly October 24 2012, 22:05:51 UTC

Absolutely right about love; you were certainly right about being unable to force love, it has to be chosen and grown. For freedom, I want to be free from my own faulty opinions and addictions before anything else.

sharikqah October 26 2012, 03:53:01 UTC

Reading this post, I felt you're talking about two separate things here: questioning God (and His commandments) and guilt from doing so ( ... )

ghostfriendly October 26 2012, 10:33:04 UTC

I've been baptised for 8 years and I've always believed in God, but until about 3 months ago, He wasn't what defined my life. I did realised over a short time that I can't value anything else for its own sake, if I want to be called a Christian, but renewing my mind and actions to this standard are certainly going to take a lifetime ( ... )

sharikqah October 27 2012, 02:56:31 UTC

Again, this are just some thoughts ( ... )