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Easter Is More About This Than Just Another So Called Holiday...

SteveSS said:
Nope, don't believe one bit of it. I wouldn't start a conversation like this but since the topic was brought up. I was raised Lutheran. Parochial school from K through 8th grade. I remember a line from the recent war movie called The Outpost. One soldier says to another about the Muslim faith. "We can't both be right." The second says, "Yes, but we could both be wrong."

Out of the thousands of religions in the world past and present, what makes you think yours is right and the other thousands were wrong. What if you were born in Iran? Do you think you would automatically convert to Christianity? Even Christianity has splintered into hundreds of different factions. They are all convinced they have it figured out. They can't all be right. I just got over my fear of retaliation from a God that has been the main belief of our particular culture. What if I was born in India? What if I was born 500 hundred years ago from a Native American tribe? Never heard of one dang word from our Judeo/Christian Bible? None of it makes sense to me.

I
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Each person's faith is their own. Mine isn't yours, yours isn't mine. God offers himself to each of us in our own way. It's when you deny your OWN faith.
 
SteveSS said:
So, God, the Father had to send his son as a sacrifice to die for our original sin to be wiped out.
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This was to show His love for ALL of us and that He would give everlasting life to those that beleive.
SteveSS said:
then talk to me about a loving god.
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See this is the misconception of God, He did not put evil, disease, famine or any other curse on man, that is the work of Satan. God only promised that He would be with you during hardships and get you through. Nowhere in the bible does God say there wont be trouble, just a promise to see you through if you beleive.

SteveSS said:
Send these preachers your money and God will bless you with riches. Then the preacher buys a private jet. Wouldn't your god see through this and stop it?
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Giving to Gods kingdom isnt about where or how it is spent, it's about doing it in the name of the Lord freely and without reservation. When you start putting stipulations on what God has asked of us you are no longer a faithful follower but of an equal to God.
Gods intent, mission and plans are beyond anything we could rationalize. His promise of total and absolute forgiveness and eternal life in Heaven has been bought and paid for everyone that wants by Jesus.
The sinful nature of man wants to question it, Satan tries convincing you of all other possibilities in an effort to get you to deny God. We are our own worst enemy as the good vs evil warfare is in each individual's mind.
And Steve please dont take this as an attack on you or your faith, I've been there, just giving some perspective from one brother to another!
 
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Quote: "Some Christians have done some terrible things, and you judge them all by that. Some non believers have done some terrible things. Do you judge all non believers the same way?"

That reminds me of another problem I have with religion. Let's say a wonderful person be it an Atheist Jew, Hindu, or Muslim drops dead on the sidewalk from a heart attack. Sorry, you didn't accept Jesus in time. Straight to hell they go. Now another guy rapes and murders 10 children and hopefully gets the death penalty. He's on death row and now he loves Jesus. Straight to heaven he goes, even with a pastor by his side at the death chamber. All this we don't have to understand God's reasoning is a cop-out. It should make some sense. Do you really believe Noah put two of every dinosaur on the ark and two of the 18,000 species of birds?

Different religion, a Muslim blows up a school for girls. Yep, straight to paradise, he goes. With the 72 virgins waiting on him. I know you say well he was a Muslim and his beliefs are wrong. Well not to him, he believed it fervently.


The best answer came from Shaw in Ridley Scott's Alien movie, Prometheus. When asked about her faith she said, "It's what I choose to believe." I'm okay with that answer.
 
I'm cool with that but I didn't start this thread. If members want to get on the board and start preaching about Easter's Christian importance I'm not going to sit quietly. As we all know the two subjects you don't want to bring up are religion and politics. I spent a lovely Sunday with my family at the ranch. We colored about 3 dozen eggs then we had an Easter egg hunt. I hid 71 plastic eggs filled with candy and money and the kids went at it. I think it was about 75 degrees that afternoon. Then we had a wonderful dinner. It was so much fun!!!
 
Eternal God created every living breathing creature, plant and fish there is to honor and glorify him and man was created to be furnished unto all good works but he willfully chose to disregard God’s will , at that moment he became guilty unto and eternal death , but God being rich in his mercy whereby he loved us his ( his creation) he sent his only begotten Son (his Christ) to pour out a perfect blood that he the creator would accept as payment for that sin , Whomsoever will trust ( believe) that his debt is paid and turn to God can be Saved ! Amen! Pure and Simple P.S And his Salvation is once and forever and can not be lost for the work happened on the Cross ONCE
 
Jc cooper said:
Eternal God created every living breathing creature, plant and fish there is to honor and glorify him and man was created to be furnished unto all good works but he willfully chose to disregard God’s will , at that moment he became guilty unto and eternal death , but God being rich in his mercy whereby he loved us his ( his creation) he sent his only begotten Son (his Christ) to pour out a perfect blood that he the creator would accept as payment for that sin , Whomsoever will trust ( believe) that his debt is paid and turn to God can be Saved ! Amen! Pure and Simple P.S And his Salvation is once and forever and can not be lost for the work happened on the Cross ONCE
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:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Sahara said:
I only worry about me, my business, and what I believe. You, they, them and whoever can believe what they want. That’s yours and their business, not mine.
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Pretty much sums it up for me also - we all make such a choice at some point in life - heck, sometimes
folks change their minds on it a few times along the way, for that matter.

That said, I'm now going to participate in this thread by stating my own life experiences.
Fair warning:
If you're one of those who simply cannot let another post their opinions on things without resorting
to attempting to enter debate or "correct" them, move past my post now.
You'd be wasting your time with me. Trust me on this...

Ok, a lot of you know how many times I've had cancer. You know that I've written ad nauseum about how
many times I've "officially" flatlined in hospitals (as in died).
Before all that mess started over a dozen years ago, I wasn't much different than any other swingin' dick
really - going through life best I could, doing the work, spending the money, raising a family, all that.
In the back of my mind though, when things got real quiet at night, I always felt there was something
more, though...
I'd been raised by a Christian mother (Southern Baptist, no less) and more or less a non-religious father.
Good people, good family, properly raised although we never attended church much or any of that, so
I guess you'd have called me "ambiguous" on the subject in those days.

Like anyone else, I had that same question even in those days though:
"Why are we here?"
As I was soon to find out, the answer to that one turned out to be simple:
We're here for each other.
Yep, that simple. Living proof, right here. If there is a generic "calling" for all humans, that's it.

"But Ed - you don't have to be a Christian to believe that!" some of you are thinking...
ok, fair enough...

So let's get to the big question of relevance to this thread (and where a few of you start to guffaw and
smirk condescendingly):
Do I believe in God? Do I try to follow Christ?
Answer (and another disclaimer again): I'm a lousy Christian - but I "R" one nonetheless.
Now, about that whole "faith" and "belief" stuff - that's the real challenge, right?
Well, in my case, that was settled the first time I found myself in an ER, flatlined and out of blood at
age 28 (and never had a sick day in my life up to that point)...
I've told the story here before and it's still a really hard one to tell, so straight to the punch line here:
I don't have to believe in God, because I met Him that day.
No doubt. It happened, sure as rain - and even the ER doc was amazed at what he witnessed that day...
so when I'm asked if I believe I shake my head and reply "I know" - because I do, like it or not.

Now, wondering a lot about why I've been kept alive so many times when I should have been dead
several times over - doctors are fascinated with me, like I'm a lab experiment to study or something -
a fella could come to the conclusion there's bigger things afloat than what he's privy to.
Has to be, because I sure wasn't doing the world any great service that I needed saved to continue
or anything - I ain't nobody.
So why then?
Only thing I can come up with is I'm supposed to tell others what I've experienced, be a witness of
sorts - which I do when asked (and only then, if I feel really comfortable doing so on top of that).
I guess if even a lowly redneck from the ridge is worthy, than anyone else can be too, right?

Epilogue:
Do I push my beliefs on others? Nope, that's not part of the deal.

Do I see things a bit differently than I used to? Sure, but I think the point is that I'm actually
taking the time to SEE things that were easily overlooked in life before, too.
I'm not blowing people off that might seem at first glance to be less than worth the time;
I LOVE meeting new folks before, even if it takes time out of my busy day to do so.
I stop. I listen. I interact. If nothing else, I share a lot of smiles with strangers...whatever.
It's an amazing thing, this whole "living" thing. It really is!

Finally, do I think Easter is the "most important" Christian holiday?
Yes. Yes, I do. Christmas was the first birth. Easter was the most important one.
Hey, I may be wrong, but that's the way I see it.
God bless all a yas,
Ed
 
Back in 2004 was when my wife first got sick, we didn't know what to make of it until one day I had to call the ambulance. She had a tumor in her colon abdomen area the size of a small egg plant according to the surgeon.
To keep the story short she went into the OR and before they could start the operation her blood pressure dropped so low she went into cardiac arrest. She coded on the OR table. They got her heart started and she spent the next 10 days in intensive care until they could get this tumor out of her. They did and in 2010 she was diagnosed with Stage 4. Chemo and four surgeries so far and we may be looking at another.
I asked her what it was like when her heart stoped. She looked at me and said how should I know. She told me no meeting anyone, no green fields of tranquility and she didn't meet Jesus either.
She has never complained, doesn't use cancer like a crutch or look for sympathy, never plays the attention whore card.
She is more understanding of people who have cancer or are sick with any other illness, that much I will say.
She's a little fed up with the Catholic church, won't go to Sunday mass with me. I don't push the issue.
Whats the point to this story? The point is its not me me me and I I I. Ring my own bell, knock people who hold different views, pull lousy **** on others, all about me never anyone else.
And I resent the **** out of it because that woman I married almost 47 years ago after everything she's been through never not once made it about herself because she knew the gift she was given and she is grateful every day of her life.
You can figure it out, I'm done for tonight
 
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As believers, we are instructed to judge ourselves as whether we are walking according to his (Christ) instructions,and not to judge others for that is God’s work, but through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in the Redeemed ( those who have trusted and accepted his ,Christ finished work on the Cross , we are to have the Spiritual eyes to discern between good and evil ! Any rejection of God’s law is Sin (bad) for Christ said in his own words , that he came not to take away the Law but to Full Fill it in every aspect!
 
It’s a wonderful and amazing thing to hear the testimony of so many of you and to recognize that God is so very busy doing great works in so many of our lives , I too have been near death several times in my career as a union pipeline welder , at the best it’s a very dangerous job and my body has paid the price several times , but to God’s honor and glory, he has chosen to keep me alive a little longer , so purpose as you guys have started is to tell anyone wanting to know about him and his Grace !
 
So God visited these terrible health problems on you so doctors and scientists could repair them so you could meet him and tell people? Heck, why not appear to people as he did according to the Bible and to the TV evangelists? Did God make a bet with the devil as he did with Job?

These are just the first two afflictions of Job by Satan. God agreed to let him do this to Job to win the bet. There's lots more after this.

Over the time of one day, Job is given four reports, each informing him that his sheep, servants, and ten children have all died due to thieving intruders or natural disasters. Job rips his clothes and shaves his head in sorrow, yet he still praises God in his prayers. Satan arrives in heaven again, and God allows him another opportunity to test Job. This time, Job is distressed with terrible skin sores. His wife urges him to denounce God and to give up and die, but Job protests, trying to endure his inflictions.


This is kind of how the debates go. You say I can't prove there is no god. I say you can't prove there is. (Unless you go to the circular logic that there is god because the Bible says so.) I just base my beliefs on current evidence. Two thousand years from now we will laugh at how much we didn't know and so far that knowledge has made Christians back off a lot of their claims. i. e. Now it's intelligent design rather than creation.


BTW I love reading the Babylon Bee.
 
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for , and the evidence of things not seen ! Hebs 11:1 We can have it anyway we choose for now ! In 2000years it’s to be seen ! Thank you Lord ,! I can have it no other way , that’s my only position, Sir
 
Jerry Hall said:
All religions believe in a higher being. Some are based on nothing other than graven images. These are man made idols. Others a deity that is beyond all understanding. Of those the major two, one believes that all who don't should be destroyed and promises seven virgins as the reward. The other promises to walk beside us daily, eternal life, to lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, and a place prepared for us in heaven with streets paved in gold. Following Jesus is not an easy road, but the road I chose. I'm just glad that I was protected until I made that choice. All will have that choice before your time is up here. The decision is yours, make it count.
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Jerry Hall said:
All religions believe in a higher being. Some are based on nothing other than graven images. These are man made idols. Others a deity that is beyond all understanding. Of those the major two, one believes that all who don't should be destroyed and promises seven virgins as the reward. The other promises to walk beside us daily, eternal life, to lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, and a place prepared for us in heaven with streets paved in gold. Following Jesus is not an easy road, but the road I chose. I'm just glad that I was protected until I made that choice. All will have that choice before your time is up here. The decision is yours, make it count.
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Yes Jerry yes , Amen
 
SteveSS said:
So God visited these terrible health problems on you so doctors and scientists could repair them so you could meet him and tell people? Heck, why not appear to people as he did according to the Bible and to the TV evangelists? Did God make a bet with the devil as he did with Job?

These are just the first two afflictions of Job by Satan. God agreed to let him do this to Job to win the bet. There's lots more after this.

Over the time of one day, Job is given four reports, each informing him that his sheep, servants, and ten children have all died due to thieving intruders or natural disasters. Job rips his clothes and shaves his head in sorrow, yet he still praises God in his prayers. Satan arrives in heaven again, and God allows him another opportunity to test Job. This time, Job is distressed with terrible skin sores. His wife urges him to denounce God and to give up and die, but Job protests, trying to endure his inflictions.


This is kind of how the debates go. You say I can't prove there is no god. I say you can't prove there is. (Unless you go to the circular logic that there is god because the Bible says so.) I just base my beliefs on current evidence. Two thousand years from now we will laugh at how much we didn't know and so far that knowledge has made Christians back off a lot of their claims. i. e. Now it's intelligent design rather than creation.


BTW I love reading the Babylon Bee.
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And God rewarded Job for his faithfulness 1000x over from what he lost.
The other thing you have to consider and Job is my favorite book of the Bible by the way, but that is Old Testament before Jesus. Jesus was the game changer for mankind, God gave one way to enter heaven and that is through the Son, no more trials, no more tests of faith. Simply profess Jesus as your savior and believe it with your heart.
Faith is hard at first when we are unfamiliar in seeing His works daily and often. When you do start to believe God reveals a lot of things, sight becomes spiritual in sense, evils shadows are thrown into the light. It sounds hokey but I'm here to tell you I've come from a similar place with similar questions and doubts; but I do see things a lot differently now and am happier for it. Things that used to irritate me are minimal but the best thing with my faith is the ability to see good when things are bad, to feel at peace when things are sad, worry is almost nonexistent.
I grew up Catholic and Baptist, was taught about heaven and hell but always thought the devil was a guy in a read suit with a pitch fork. It wasn't until recently that I realized the Devil doesn't hang out in hell waiting for you but lives in your mind and whispers into your ear constantly. But so does the Holy Spirit. Satan's path and choices are the easy ones to make, they are typically self serving while the Spirit asks of us to take a harder path.
There were many cartoons I watched as a kid that would show an angel on one shoulder and the Devil on another each giving advice to the character, the Devil would always win and the character would lose only to be saved by the Angel, never in a million years would I have thought I could have learned something about spirituality from a cartoon...I'm 51 now and am in awe of its simplistic truth.
 
Well, Job didn't get his children back, he just had 10 more.


A reader wrote in asking what use was it to Job to have his first 10 children killed with God's permission and then have them replaced with 10 more children? How about God not permitting his first 10 children to be killed by Satan in the first place? Who wants another 10 different children. It is not about replacing bodies it is about loving characters. Who would say to God: Yer go ahead and permit Satan to kill my existing family so long as I get the same number of children back afterward as I had before! Having children is not about numbers it is about love.


Most of what I'm hearing is dogma put forth by the Christian religion. We seem to be short on facts so here you go. This was one of many studies on the effectiveness of prayer.


The result: There was virtually no difference in the recovery trajectories of each group, with all three groups experiencing more or less the same rates and levels of complications. The only minor differences that did arise actually worked against the prayers: 18 percent of the patients who had been prayed for suffered major complications such as strokes or heart attacks, compared to only 13 percent of the patients who did not receive any prayers.


Here's the whole study, I hope you read it. I'm only asking for you to take a step back and look at what you've been taught. If Noah's Ark, Jonah and the whale, and the garden of Eden aren't true in your critical mind, don't you wonder about the rest? You really have to put the blinders on to believe it all.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-secular-life/201909/does-prayer-work

I was once on top of a mountain with a group of guys and we were looking out over a huge mountain range. One guy said, "How can you look at this and not believe God made them?"

I can. I'm a geologist and I know how plate tectonics work and the vastness of geologic time it took to make these mountains. Like anything, if you study it, you can understand it. I was too polite to contradict him.
 
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SteveSS said:
So God visited these terrible health problems on you so doctors and scientists could repair them so you could meet him and tell people?
"He" never met Jesus Christ", He could have accepted Jesus into his life, dreamt of entering into eternal salvation, he could have truly repented for his sins and saw a sign.
Read between the lines
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SteveSS said:
Well, Job didn't get his children back, he just had 10 more.


A reader wrote in asking what use was it to Job to have his first 10 children killed with God's permission and then have them replaced with 10 more children? How about God not permitting his first 10 children to be killed by Satan in the first place? Who wants another 10 different children. It is not about replacing bodies it is about loving characters. Who would say to God: Yer go ahead and permit Satan to kill my existing family so long as I get the same number of children back afterward as I had before! Having children is not about numbers it is about love.


Most of what I'm hearing is dogma put forth by the Christian religion. We seem to be short on facts so here you go. This was one of many studies on the effectiveness of prayer.


The result: There was virtually no difference in the recovery trajectories of each group, with all three groups experiencing more or less the same rates and levels of complications. The only minor differences that did arise actually worked against the prayers: 18 percent of the patients who had been prayed for suffered major complications such as strokes or heart attacks, compared to only 13 percent of the patients who did not receive any prayers.


Here's the whole study, I hope you read it. I'm only asking for you to take a step back and look at what you've been taught. If Noah's Ark, Jonah and the whale, and the garden of Eden aren't true in your critical mind, don't you wonder about the rest? You really have to put the blinders on to believe it all.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-secular-life/201909/does-prayer-work

I was once on top of a mountain with a group of guys and we were looking out over a huge mountain range. One guy said, "How can you look at this and not believe God made them?"

I can. I'm a geologist and I know how plate tectonics work and the vastness of geologic time it took to make these mountains. Like anything, if you study it, you can understand it. I was too polite to contradict him.
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Faith, its a hard road...
Mountain top and plate tectonics of course, but God made the plates, he made the sky and is a master painter and craftsman to blend it into something so breathtaking.He is a mountain mover when needed.
I appreciate your view Steve and ability to share, but Ill politely disagree and won't even entertain something that tries to challenge faith as it holds no credibility or purpose with me.. This guy kind of sums it up.
Thanks
 
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