Quote from Wallet:
Stu,
What you don't understand is the fact that GOD is real, his words are not some fictional storybook.
You want something concrete, something you can put your hands on, it's there in front of you, except that your natural senses cannot comprehend spiritual maters. You come to God in faith and repentance, as God draws individuals to Himself.
What you can't comprehend I feel and experience in my life. No, God does not talk to me in an audible voice, but I feel his presence, love, His guidance in my life everyday. I see his work and my answered prayers, I also feel his correction when I sin.
God's work can be seen in the life of every true believer, as they are a new creature.
Because of what He has done in my life, makes me love my family even more. Because his love shines through me, when I let it. How is it that Jesus said Love one another, yet you say hate your family. The Bible doesn't contradict itself, just our limited understanding at times.
What seems false and a fairytale to you is very much real to me.
I can't help you my friend, the understanding comes from God and God alone, but if you ask Him he will reveal it to you.
regards
Wallet,
Religious bent apart , I am sure you are otherwise well meaning, but your response to the God myth as it comes across in your post, portrays an area where contradictory and incoherent statements sound true to you, for no real reason other than emotion.
Look at this, just think about what you are saying here for one second....
"How is it that Jesus said Love one another,
yet you say hate your family. The Bible doesn't contradict itself, just our limited understanding at times."
Notice how you state I say "hate your family", when all the time the only thing I did was to point out what the Bible says and what Jesus said ... you must HATE your family to be a disciple..
How can you come to such a perverted conclusion that you would blame some limited understanding for not understanding what the word HATE means?
As I said earlier by doing that you make it reasonable to ask by the same token, why could you not follow Mein Kampf , not understand what Hitler said in the same way as you are doing with Jesus, and because of what you are told in it, let Hitler's "love" shine through too, just like that Jesus âloveâ does, but which in both cases is actually a call to hate.
In most any other sphere, I think getting things that wrong might cost you dearly. You are fortunate that the mass psychosis of invisible friends is collectively recognized as religion, and as long as you don't break the law it's ok to be delusional.
The Bible is contradictory, hateful, murderous, threatening and vulgar in enormous proportions. A peppering of love and kindness does not excuse itâs underlying malicious themes.
Thanks for the offer all the same, but I am relieved to say I don't need help from anyone or anything that tries to tell me to put my family second place.
But good luck with the loathsome religious head game you've got going there.
The big difference between you and I in this regard is, I can consider the contrary, whilst you being clearly taken by the spiritual virus, cannot.