You can only come to know God through deep study of his word. To love and respect a person you need to know who that person really is. Study builds faith and sincere desire to worship God as he wants to be worshiped, not how we choose to worship him. Look around! Evidence of God's wisdom is seen in all his creative works. As Paul said, "We are walking by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) If you love anyone (yourself, your wife, your kids, etc.) more than God then you are not worthy of him. Jesus said that he came to cause division with a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a young wife against her mother-in-law. He that has greater affection for son or daughter than for him is not worthy of him. (Matthew 10:32-28)
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Loving God.
- Thread starter jeffrey
- Start date
If I were a believer, I'd say that yourself, your wife, your kids, etc. are the works of God and that by loving them, you come to a greater understanding about God than you would come to by reading the Bible alone. After all, to rely solely on the Bible for knowledge of God is to ignore the handicraft of God that is all around us. At least, that's how I'd see it if I was a believer in the first place.Ernestine said:
Ormiston
Well-Known Member
Sunstone said:
When I think of someone who loves God more than life itself or anything else that makes up our lives, I think of the mother from Carrie or some other psychopath who is unable to seperate his religious beliefs from reality. That type of person is frightening to me.
jeffrey
â Ãig Dogâ
Not sure who Cromwell is, but I agree with you and the big O. And I can't see God being a God that would expect you too. (After reading all the posts to this thread. ). I wouldn't want to end up like that woman on trading spouses. My wife has a ringer of her now. LOL.michel said:
I completely agree, Ormiston. Again, if I were a believer, I would find it difficult to believe that the only reason we were put on this earth, God's creation, was to reject the world and love God more than his creation. I think such a rejection can lead to fanaticism. I recall hearing on several occassions young Muslims in the Middle East saying, "We love death more than life", and implying thereby that they have a higher calling than to deal with the reality of this world. To me, that's just an escape from reality, God's creation. I sometimes wonder, if there's a Creator who judges us, whether or not at the end of our lives that Creator will not hold us accountable for how well we loved the creation he gave us.Ormiston said:
AtheistAJ
Member
I don't think I would be able to love my mother more than my friend if I never saw her in my life.Victor said:
If you or anyone else think a god would want you to kill your children or anyone else for that matter, I see no reason of worshiping "him".
I don't know who that is, but I think of Susan Smith and yes it is extremely eerie.
Sorry!jgallandt said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (April 25, 1599 September 3, 1658) was an English military leader and politician. After leading the overthrow of the British monarchy, he ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland as Lord Protector, (or, some would claim, essentially as a 'dictator'), from December 16, 1653 until his death; which is believed to have been due either to malaria or by poisoning. After his burial he was exhumed and executed
Religious beliefs
Cromwell's understanding of religion and politics were very closely intertwined. Cromwell was a committed "Puritan" Protestant, believing that salvation was open to all who obeyed the teachings of the Bible and acted according to their own (individual) conscience. He was passionately opposed to the Roman Catholic Church; which he saw as denying the 'primacy' of the Bible in favour of 'Papal' and Clerical authority, and which he blamed for 'tyranny' and 'persecution' of Protestants in Europe. For this reason, he was bitterly-opposed to Charles I's "reforms" of the Church of England, which introduced Catholic-style Bishops and Prayer Books, in place of Bible study. Cromwell's feelings of association between Catholicism and persecution were deepened with the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which were marked by massacres (wildly-exaggerated in Puritan circles in Britain) by Irish Catholics of English and Scottish Protestant settlers. This would later be one of the reasons why Cromwell acted so harshly in his later military campaign in Ireland.
Cromwell was also opposed to the more radical religious groups on the Protestant side of the Civil Wars. Although he co-operated with Quakers and Presbyterians, Cromwell was opposed to their authoritarian imposition of their beliefs upon other Protestants. He became associated with the "Independent" faction, which argued for religious freedom for all Protestants in a post-war settlement.
Finally, Cromwell was also a firm believer in "Providentialism" - the belief that God was actively directing the affairs of the world, through the actions of 'chosen people' (whom God had "provided" for such purposes). Cromwell believed, during the Civil Wars, that he was one of these people, and he interpreted victories as indications of God's approval of his actions, and defeats as signs that God was directing him in another direction.
The Oxford historian Christopher Hill has written a semi-popular account of his influential studies in this area in 'God's Englishman' (Penguin, 1970)
John Eastern
Member
It's a feeling, not a thought.jgallandt said:
John Eastern
Member
Feelings are not assignmemts, or lists of "have to do's". That's fake, and you are fooling yourself. Been there, done that. Try pleasing your neighbors. Say "hello" to an elderly person, to children, in that order. Actually, the truly actualized individual begins with self, family, neighbors, strangers (which includes animals and all of nature). This pleases God, and everyone smiles, even the stars.jvi said:
nutshell
Well-Known Member
I think it means you put God first in your life and everything else will fall into place. Afterall, will a person who has truly put God first do anything that would harm his wife or children? I don't think so. I think he will actually put his wife and children on a pedastal and serve them with all his heart, might, mind, and strength.
John Eastern
Member
And if one puts God first in one's life, what do you suppose that involves? Begins with an "s"... ends with an "e"... is 9 letters. Okay, the word is sacrifice. The whole being aspect of loving god has to do with looking at all those things that one "was" doing that were not all so healthy. For instance, what we eat, how we prepare food, how one relates to table manners. Food consumption is one of the essential areas of where relationship values are established. Oh yeah, healing and God are connected concepts. But one has to be flexible to change with all this; I mean very flexible, like takes your whole being, the parts of yourself that you don't even know yet. So there's an adventure aspect to this, except anger and fear get dropped out. Okay, I'm pooped.nutshell said: