What Are The Building Blocks Of Our Faith ?

[Neo]

You know, Neo, I'm not even sure how much choice we have in the option to look up or down. The quality of the love we receive in the first months of life can forever determine whether our glass is half full or half empty, whether we see abundance or fear scarcity.

But even in the worst of conditions people can change and people do change. This choice we have is spread out over hundreds and even thousands of lives. Eventually, I believe, the Soul begins to gain control over it's form. Eventually there comes that one life where a marked control over the form begins to take place. Without the concept of reincarnation the Church has been forced into a cul-de-sac of reasoning, trying to justify why some are born with a full glass while others others are born with a half glass and in some cases some are born into a life without any glass at all. Without the concept of the reincarnation and the karmic wheel of cause and effect (as you sow so shall you reap) the world of injustice makes no sense at all.

 

[BetteTheRed]

Aha, but now we've moved to the building blocks of your faith.

I love the idea of reincarnation, so much that it is evidence to me that it's as much wish-fulfillment as the concept of heaven for orthodox Christians.

 

[revjohn]

Well... it requires that you have faith. Whether or not you are aware of having said faith may be a different concern. I need backup here. Where's @revjohn

As to whether one must have faith or not I lean upon Matthew 25 and the common trait held among the sheep and the goats which was their collective ignorance about when God was in their midst and in their need.

Neither the Sheep nor the Goats ever say, "we knew it was you." Both were completely incapable of seeing God even when God stood right in front of them. The were completely unable to discern the image/presence of God right under their noses.

The text presents that as fact.

What distinguishes the Sheep from the Goats appears to be that the Sheep were doers of the Word and not just hearers of it. I suggest that only because the Sheep actually offered care to angels unaware. They believed that was the right thing to to and they made sure they did the right thing. The Goats appear to have a clue as to what the right thing should be they just never got around to doing it.

Apart from that I believe that Salvation is a gift of God's grace which none of us can earn and none of us deserve so, God saves whom God is pleased to save for reasons known, at present, only to God.

I don't think the right belief, right race, right creed or right nationality move God to take pity on anyone. So God's grace flows only because of God's choice to act in spite of our belief, race, creed or nationality.

Elsewhere in scripture we read that trees are to be judged by their fruit. I think that we compound ignorance by restricting "fruit" to specific doctrine or practice. That which gives life has always been described as "good." At minimum then, whatever gives life is thought by God to be good fruit. That which does not give life is thought of by God to be bad fruit.

Not operating on the same scale of husbandry as our Creator God I think we do not have the best understanding of what life truly is in each and every moment and so we fail to notice what gives it or what takes it away. Interestingly, from a purely agricultural point of view life is essentially a chemical equation involving Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. The balance changes depending on the need of the plant at any given time. When the fertilizer is applied in the most needed way it is good. When the fertilizer is applied in the least needful way it is bad.

I trust God to apply what is needed in season. I also recognize that I may misdiagnose what is needed and insist on what is ultimately harmful.

And from having spent quite a bit of time in the last week doing battle with Red Deadnettle (which is a beautiful plant in its own right and very good at multiplying) weeds are simply unwanted plants and not necessarily toxic.

 

[unsafe]

Mendalla -----your quote -----On the original topic, for me the building blocks of faith are the ways I experience and understand the world.

Thanks for posting on this -----To me your are talking Intellectual Faith here ----which comes from God and is freely given to all people and relies on our 5 senses -----Bible faith is all about the unseen ---relying on Faith that produces what God has promised in His word ------and you are so right we are in different worlds spiritually. ----

Your Quote -----I have not accepted God, but I'm not sure I've really rejected God either so much as left God as a question waiting to be answered .

To leave God is the same as rejecting God in my view ---- see list below------http://www.thefreedictionary.com/leave

leave something or someone out --------omit, exclude, miss out ,forget, except, --- reject, ---- ignore, overlook, neglect, skip, disregard, bar, cast aside, count out

Your quote here ----left God as a question waiting to be answered .------this is where in my view intellectual Faith ends and Godly Faith takes over ----we Christ--ians have only the Bible ----God's word to go by ----the Human Jesus is not here ---so Faith in what the words say are true is all we have ----- but there is a way to know if the words are true and alive as they say they are ---we can put them in action by following what the words tell us to do and see if we get the results that the words say we will ------so there is a way to test our Faith in the unseen in the following of Christ -------but it takes commitment and practice on our part -----Many would rather just say the Bible is a bunch of myths and stories and dismiss the trying of putting the words to the test cause they don't want to be bothered to spend the time -----we are a lazy society and want to take the easy root ----just down play the words and call them non productive ------

God is always available ---God never Leaves us ---we leave Him ---and say He doesn't exist --------or we need proof ---before we can believe ----so we reject ---leave --whatever term we use because it is the easy root ----Following an unseen God and relying on Him through His word is a very scary ---iffy thing ---for a lot of people -----it takes ---strength ---Growing Faith -----courage ----knowledge and wisdom ----that only comes from being in God's word every day --practicing and doing the word ------

My hope for you is that you find all you need to accept God's offer ----it is so freeing and when you experience that peace when all storms come against you will know that the one true God is alive through His word -------There is nothing like it ---believe me -----

 

[Waterfall]

Did the Ninevites repent because of their faith in God?
Why did God spare Israels enemy?

 

[chansen]

My hope for you is that you find all you need to accept God's offer ----it is so freeing and when you experience that peace when all storms come against you will know that the one true God is alive through His word -------There is nothing like it ---believe me -----

Spoken like a true shill, in over her head in a Ponzi Scheme. There is nothing you have ever offered that separates you from someone who is so personally invested in a scam that she can't allow herself to see how equal parts ridiculous and evil it all looks. Your world is based on this stuff, and buy-in from others serves to validate your beliefs. Must be frustrating that you can't get that, even after you beg for them to believe you.

 

[Waterfall]

Never seen a Ponzi scheme last 2000 years.

 

[Mendalla]

Never seen a Ponzi scheme last 2000 years.

It's a gross overstatement, I think. At most, I'd say Christianity is a multi-level marketing scheme or maybe a pyramid (there are differences). And that's the organized church as built over the last millenium or so. I don't think Jesus or Paul started it as one or set out to "scam" people. They legitimately believed in what they were teaching and preaching.

 

[chansen]

This one was intelligently designed. There's no money investment here which people might demand back - only promises of things to come after you're dead. Or a vague notion of some sort of End Times. The pyramid comes crashing down whenever Christianity makes hard claims, like the exact date of the end of the world. But as long as it stays away from anything people can demand to see, it's bloody brilliant. The authors of the faith weren't stupid, just diabolical.

 

[Luce NDs]

No schemes whatsoever in places where thought and rationalism is considered evil ... takes only a simple mental process to see through the markup ... as required to benefit the authority there!

If you have had that sort of experience (empiricism) you may know what I mean ... otherwise not! Word is funny as god ... it can confuse the lesser tiers of understanding as they subject themselves to the confidence that they know without mental process ... and it appears there is only so much of this shadowy power to go round!

Some say it is an unconscious or alternate power to real powers driven by emotions ... like fear, hate and anger. They appear to be 90 degrees to joie and curio's eddy on the vertical simulation in the Myers Briggs Construct of the imaginary attribute called psyche ...

 

[Luce NDs]

It's a gross overstatement, I think. At most, I'd say Christianity is a multi-level marketing scheme or maybe a pyramid (there are differences). And that's the organized church as built over the last millenium or so. I don't think Jesus or Paul started it as one or set out to "scam" people. They legitimately believed in what they were teaching and preaching.

They did say it all started somewhere prior to Egypt ... the land of the imagination ... and you know how the physically oriented are about indeterminate #'s! It is all hidden in the maths ...

 

[Jaebius]

It's a gross overstatement, I think. At most, I'd say Christianity is a multi-level marketing scheme or maybe a pyramid (there are differences). And that's the organized church as built over the last millenium or so.

It's the Christian church as it existed in Christendom - and still largely exists today. Thankfully, some of us are now slowly moving past that model.

I don't think Jesus or Paul started it as one or set out to "scam" people. They legitimately believed in what they were teaching and preaching.

As do many of us today.

 

[Waterfall]

@chansen, So offering hope and love is diabolical?

 

[chansen]

It's a gross overstatement, I think. At most, I'd say Christianity is a multi-level marketing scheme or maybe a pyramid (there are differences). And that's the organized church as built over the last millenium or so. I don't think Jesus or Paul started it as one or set out to "scam" people. They legitimately believed in what they were teaching and preaching.

I'm happy with MLM or Pyramid Scheme. They rely on tricking people below them into believing in a product that isn't worth close to how it is hyped.

And with the newer cults founded by obvious scammers, I don't see why we should just assume Paul was convinced. There is little reason to believe in Jesus at all, let alone the cult that emerged after his supposed death and the words attributed to him decades later, written by people who never met him.

 

[Luce NDs]

@chansen, So offering hope and love is diabolical?

With decent exchange????????

Is that Hadassah, Bazaar, or just marketplace activity ...

Can we empirically equal that imbalance in trade? How much is diabolical love in a darkened room worth?

 

[Waterfall]

I'm happy with MLM or Pyramid Scheme. They rely on tricking people below them into believing in a product that isn't worth close to how it is hyped.

And with the newer cults founded by obvious scammers, I don't see why we should just assume Paul was convinced. There is little reason to believe in Jesus at all, let alone the cult that emerged after his supposed death and the words attributed to him decades later, written by people who never met him.

There are many ways " to meet Jesus".

 

[Jaebius]

...There's... only promises of things to come after you're dead. Or a vague notion of some sort of End Times.

Actually, that's not quite true chansen. Christianity also promises a rich, intimate relationship with God in the here and now.

The pyramid comes crashing down whenever Christianity makes hard claims, like the exact date of the end of the world.

Christianity doesn't do that though. Rather, a few nutbars within Christianity (and some out of it) do. And those who do so do it against Christ's own words as recorded in the Bible - He said that no one knows the time and date save for God the Father.

But as long as it stays away from anything people can demand to see, it's bloody brilliant. The authors of the faith weren't stupid, just diabolical.

I don't agree. I'd say that the authors of the faith were pretty good, though broken, people. It's the people who got their hands on the religion in the succeeding generations and manipulated it towards their own ends who are the problem.

 

[revjohn]

Never seen a Ponzi scheme last 2000 years.

Well that is only because the originator of the ponzi scheme will not live 2000 years. 2000 years of similar ponzi schemes will have some similarity.

Of course there was a time when the scheme was a little more obvious and a great number of folk rallied against it in one way or another. Rumour tells of one guy with a hammer, ink and some parchment making a public declaration or the ponzi scheme at work. Mind you, the Ponzi scheme was less about the primaries of the Christian faith than it was the secondaries or tertiaries.

 

[chansen]

There are many ways " to meet Jesus".

Absolutely. For example, according to Berserk, you can get bonked on the head.

 

[Waterfall]

Absolutely. For example, according to Berserk, you can get bonked on the head.

Always look up.