Nothing we do changes God's love for us

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Mendalla

Mendalla

Happy headbanging ape!!
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Just read the following in a meditation from Richard Rohr:

You can’t make God love you one ounce more than God already loves you right now. You can go to church every day for the rest of your life. God isn’t going to love you any more than God loves you right now.

You cannot make God love you any less, either—not an ounce less. Do the most terrible thing and God wouldn’t love you less. You cannot change the Divine mind about you! The flow is constant, total, and 100 percent toward your life. God is for you.
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Do you believe this is true? That God's love is absolute and nothing we do can diminish or increase it?

The full meditation:

cac.org

A Constant Grace

Indwelling Spirit A Constant Grace Wednesday, May 22, 2019 The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to reveal to us the truth of our being so that the
cac.org cac.org
 
Mrs.Anteater said:
Just don’t understand why God would be a Trinity. If this is true, God would be unmeasurable.
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Tis a virtuous curiosity ... except in the case of those that believe different and that God is confined and inhibited by the bounds of limited word(s) ... yet the essence of them go on ... mysteriously across time fighting the positives and negatives of all things ... physically demonized by the one way crowd on the topic of the Golden Rule! Grab bars may be required ...

Remains complex even in the flare of burning simplicity!
 
Mendalla said:
Do you believe this is true? That God's love is absolute and nothing we do can diminish or increase it?
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As god is in the imagination of all the religious. The answer would be a resounding yes, and as such a pointless question. (captive audience)
However, as I don't imagine god/gods. In my case, the answer would be no. Because it would be foolish to think something imagined could love.
Given how hateful god is described in the bible anybody reading who wasn't religious would also have to say no.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Pavlos, do you admit to the existence of the emotion/action/feeling of "love"?
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Given his atheist materialism, he will likely point to the action of hormones like oxytocin and such. So it exists, but just as a function of our endocrine system, not a "cosmic" force or feeling.
 
Mendalla said:
Just read the following in a meditation from Richard Rohr:



Do you believe this is true? That God's love is absolute and nothing we do can diminish or increase it?
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Although I believe God is love.....
I have to wonder why we would even desire or bother to seek unity/or redemption with the divine, if God's love was absolute....
 
Mendalla said:
It's about changing ourselves, not changing God, isn't it? Finding the Love that's there and making it part of our lives, not making God love us.
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Of course, but why not just do what we want? eg. Be immoral, bad or whatever.
 
Waterfall said:
Of course, but why not just do what we want? eg. Be immoral, bad or whatever.
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God may love us but you can still be disappointed in someone you love. And just because God loves us doesn't mean God will protect us from consequences. God doesn't cause them, they are a natural part of the flow of existence, but God also doesn't save us from them. If you rob a bank, don't expect God to step up and square things with the cops, IOW.
 
Mendalla said:
God may love us but you can still be disappointed in someone you love. And just because God loves us doesn't mean God will protect us from consequences. God doesn't cause them, they are a natural part of the flow of existence, but God also doesn't save us from them. If you rob a bank, don't expect God to step up and square things with the cops, IOW.
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Let's go further.....how do you square God's absolute love in the world for those who are starving, less privileged or persecuted....and choosing not to step in to save them rather than leaving it up to a world that doesn't?
I'm playing devil's advocate here a bit,.....but the pat answers you/we give .......don't always add up to an absolute love in my mind, more like our own parental love to describe God's love......I would think an absolute love would not have created a world that contains horrors at all?
 
Waterfall said:
Let's go further.....how do you square God's absolute love in the world for those who are starving, less privileged or persecuted....and choosing not to step in to save them rather than leaving it up to a world that doesn't?
I'm playing devil's advocate here a bit,.....but the pat answers you/we give .......don't always add up to an absolute love in my mind, more like our own parental love to describe God's love......I would think an absolute love would not have created a world that contains horrors at all?
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Actually, I don't believe in pat answers. Read the book God Can't. Basically, Tom Oord, the author, argues that God's love is absolute but God's power is not. It basically says that God's power over the world is constrained by God's loving nature. Freedom is of the essence for God and Love requires God to allow that freedom. God can't change the world by Divine fiat because that wouldn't be loving. Which means God has to act in other ways. God can't stop suffering, but God can work with us and inspire us to mitigate and prevent it. Which requires us to be loving and to act out of that Love.

And that's only one approach to how there can be suffering in a world with a loving God.

The pat answers are the ones that try to preserve God's absolute power, the ones that say "God had a reason" or "God works in mysterious ways" when something terrible happens. Or that victim-blame by trying to find some sin or fault that God is punishing.
 
Mendalla said:
Actually, I don't believe in pat answers. Read the book God Can't. Basically, Tom Oord, the author, argues that God's love is absolute but God's power is not. It basically says that God's power over the world is constrained by God's loving nature. Freedom is of the essence for God and Love requires God to allow that freedom. God can't change the world by Divine fiat because that wouldn't be loving. Which means God has to act in other ways. God can't stop suffering, but God can work with us and inspire us to mitigate and prevent it. Which requires us to be loving and to act out of that Love.

And that's only one approach to how there can be suffering in a world with a loving God.

The pat answers are the ones that try to preserve God's absolute power, the ones that say "God had a reason" or "God works in mysterious ways" when something terrible happens. Or that victim-blame by trying to find some sin or fault that God is punishing.
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Comes down to......what was Gods purpose to create us this way?
 
Waterfall said:
Comes down to......what was Gods purpose to create us this way?
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To have free beings with whom to interact. If God wanted robots that God controlled, then God could have done so. But one cannot love a robot. It's just a machine.

And this also assumes God created us directly. If God's creativity consists more of being a shaper and guide of forces like evolution, rather directly creating things, then God does not have total control over the end product. And that, again, is part of the need for free entities that can be loved.
 
Mendalla said:
Do you believe this is true? That God's love is absolute and nothing we do can diminish or increase it?
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Yes, I do believe to be true. One of our ministers who was with us for many years, reminded us of this very thing every Sunday too.
 
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