God's Existance

[MakeYouThink]

Fedei,

If all you need is faith, don't look for it in you. The Bible says not to be snared up with the sins that so easily entangle us, but to look at the great cloud of witnesses, so we can find the strength to run the race.

You can't have the faith to live alone. You always need friends, and mentors in the Christian faith to guide you to having stronger faith in God.

All you need is to ask why people here believe in Jesus, despite the huge amounts of falsehoods presented in the media.

You see, you have heard all the arguments, but is that where faith starts. Faith doesn't come from these philosophies, but it comes from hearing, and by the word of God.

I will not doubt, though all my ships at sea
Come drifting home with broken mast and sails;
I shall believe the hand which never fails,
From seeming evil worketh good to me.
And, though I weep because those sails are battered,
Still will I cry, while my best hopes lie shattered,
"I trust in Thee."

Ella Wheller Wlcox

Draw on my strength, draw on Ella's, and every person of faith. I have more than enough faith to share with you, for I know a God who can save people from strokes, madness, and disillusionment. I know a God who takes those that society has discarded and make them into warriors against the coming darkness. I know a God who loved us so much that he sent his only begotten son to the earth because he wants us where he is! I know a God, a great God, filled with wisdom, love, and power - enough to create all we see around us!

He defies any explanation we can try to pigeon hole him into. He is simply infinite, and I am finite!

Come, learn about him, not through books or reading, but taste and see that the Lord is good!

Make up your mind. Is he God or not God?

[Fidei Defensor]

I don't see what makes Jesus any better than any of the other great religious leaders. Even when I was Catholic, I felt empty. Maybe that's why I stopped believing. There was nothing left for me to believe in.

[MakeYouThink]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1639285' date='Aug 27 2008, 12:40 AM']I don't see what makes Jesus any better than any of the other great religious leaders. Even when I was Catholic, I felt empty. Maybe that's why I stopped believing. There was nothing left for me to believe in.[/quote]

That is the danger of learning the words, but not the spirit of those words.

Someone said, you don't read the Bible like a text book, and I responded, you're right - I never read even a chapter of the Bible before I pray before and after it, and I wouldn't do that with a text book.

Faith is so much more than that. You have to delve into it, and see into the spirit of the Bible. If I told you that the Bible is the blue print to a society that is the Libertarian paradise, would you believe me? Would you believe me, if I said, God doesn't need government to guide us. I don't need some stuffy politician to tell me what is right and what is wrong and how to live. I have God who gave me his word to provide guidance!

Wow, how cool is that!

I couldn't possibly put the Christian Faith down, as all my hopes, all my dreams, all my desires is to see God one day rule over us all, as he fulfills this prophecy.

[quote]For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and [b]the government shall be upon his shoulder[/b]: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.[/quote]

Since this hasn't happened yet, I am pretty sure it is going to happen in the future. Jesus will govern us, and the believers with him.

Imagine, only God guiding all nations, under the rule of his son!

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1639285' date='Aug 27 2008, 12:40 AM']I don't see what makes Jesus any better than any of the other great religious leaders. Even when I was Catholic, I felt empty. Maybe that's why I stopped believing. There was nothing left for me to believe in.[/quote]

Every time I open the Bible, every time I walk into a Church, every time I say my prayers - I just know there's something different going on. It's not your typical book, it's not your typical building, it's not your typical personal thoughts. When I truly think about God I get a warmth in my heart. There's got to be a better way to explain it, but it's hard to.

I'm sure you've had those conversations before where you're telling a great story, and then you think that the other person just isn't listening. I don't know, maybe their body language, or the fact that they keep glancing around you, triggers you to believe this. However, while the person may not be listening (from what you assume, of course - for all you know, your friend [i]is[/i] listening) they are physically there, right in front of you.

My point is that just because you felt "empty" as a practicing Catholic, doesn't mean that God wasn't there the entire time. Just because you [i]felt[/i] that God wasn't listening to you, doesn't mean He wasn't. Did you ever think that perhaps your struggle is with yourself, and not with God?

[Fidei Defensor]

All of that is fine and dandy, but if I didn't feel anything and had no will to believe before, what will it change if I embrace it again, when I still feel that same way? That's exactly why I chose against it. Belief without actually feeling like it's worth it is not the life I want to live.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1639299' date='Aug 27 2008, 01:03 AM']All of that is fine and dandy, [b]but if I didn't feel anything and had no will to believe before,[/b] what will it change if I embrace it again, when I still feel that same way? That's exactly why I chose against it.[/quote]

I think you approached the faith all wrong, as if faith is something you can learn out of a textbook. You can't force yourself to have faith, you have to ask God for it and willingly keep your heart open to it. (And this is a constant process.) My impression is that you've given faith a half-hearted attempt. You didn't experience what you expected to "get" within a certain time period, and then you gave up on it. And if you begin your spiritual journey with no will to believe - well, first of all, my question is, if you have no will to believe why did you bother to attempt to find God? Anyway, if you begin your spiritual journey to Christ with no will to believe in Him, you won't find Him, because you're not being receptive and you're not listening.

You can embrace God again, you just have to change your "approach" as it were.


[quote]Belief without actually feeling like it's worth it is not the life I want to live.[/quote]

I would dare say that you never had true belief in the first place. After all, you just admitted that you had no will to believe.

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1639301' date='Aug 26 2008, 11:14 PM']I think you approached the faith all wrong, as if faith is something you can learn out of a textbook. You can't force yourself to have faith, you have to ask God for it and willingly keep your heart open to it. (And this is a constant process.) My impression is that you've given faith a half-hearted attempt. You didn't experience what you expected to "get" within a certain time period, and then you gave up on it. And if you begin your spiritual journey with no will to believe - well, first of all, my question is, if you have no will to believe why did you bother to attempt to find God? Anyway, if you begin your spiritual journey to Christ with no will to believe in Him, you won't find Him, because you're not being receptive and you're not listening.

You can embrace God again, you just have to change your "approach" as it were.




I would dare say that you never had true belief in the first place. After all, you just admitted that you had no will to believe.[/quote]
I disagree. I was a Catholic for a good 9 years, by choice. I wasn't raised Catholic, I chose to be Catholic. I alienated myself from friends due to differences in opinion. I was an altar boy by choice. I seriously considered the priesthood and began to talk to the right people about starting the process. But something changed and I lost the faith, and I have no interest in embracing it again.

I invite you to search my old posts if youre interested in my story. My story can be told through what I believed and said while here on Phatmass.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1639307' date='Aug 27 2008, 01:30 AM']I disagree. I was a Catholic for a good 9 years, by choice. I wasn't raised Catholic, I chose to be Catholic. I alienated myself from friends due to differences in opinion. I was an altar boy by choice. I seriously considered the priesthood and began to talk to the right people about starting the process. But something changed and I lost the faith, and I have no interest in embracing it again.

I invite you to search my old posts if youre interested in my story. My story can be told through what I believed and said while here on Phatmass.[/quote]

Thanks for letting me know a little background history, it's helpful for me to understand.

I don't have the stamina to truly check out all your threads - I did run across the one where you stated you are no longer a Catholic, your "dark night of the soul" as well as foreclosure.

But this one too.
[url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=53034&hl=Fidei"]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?s...34&hl=Fidei[/url]


Maybe you just need to remember how God used to make you feel. Because clearly He made you feel something.

[havok579257]

[quote name='fidei defensor' post='1639257' date='Aug 26 2008, 11:59 PM']Despite my prayers for renewed faith, they failed and I fell away. I just stopped believing.[/quote]


So because your prayers failed, you fell away? Let's try this one more time. What caused you to believe in the first place and then what caused you to fall away?

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='havok579257' post='1639421' date='Aug 27 2008, 10:35 AM']What caused you to believe in the first place and then what caused you to fall away?[/quote]

Oh, very good question - I didn't even think to ask why he became a Catholic in the first place. He said he's a convert. And yeah, Fidei, you were even considering the priesthood - so something huge must've happened. Or, perhaps you weren't prepared and you were doing too much at one time?

[MakeYouThink]

I may not be a Catholic, but I too had a day when I wondered if God existed as I believed in him, and if everything was created just to keep us 'simple' minded people in line. . .

I asked myself if God was real, and I started to have fantastic thoughts about who I should be. But in the back of my mind, for those four long days, but what about this, and that, and that.

The first thing that helped me was 1st Samuel 8:5-18. Whoever wrote that wanted to make sure people knew that we should just focus on God and not let men's opinions dictate what we think, feel, and do.

And then, I watched Kent Holvind's movies about 6-day creationism, and I knew then, God was real, and that all that I believed was true again, as he went through his hypothesis that the world is only around 6,000 years old.

I was first nursed by the person who originally scribed 1st Samuel, and then by another person's faith.

Faith, therefore, is not a singular thing, it is a communal thing. Your lack of faith is because you're trying to find faith only inside yourself. Faith is never found inside you, but it is shared, like love is shared. Love is not a feeling, and neither is faith, they are actions, and as actions, they are only gained by sharing.

You can't prove faith by study, you gain it by acting through sharing it with others.

[HisChildForever]

Sorry to get off topic but...

The world is not 6,000 years old.

[Fidei Defensor]

Part of my thinking is that religion isnt the most important thing in my life and I dont really care to spend my days contemplating it.

I have school, I have a job... I have more important things than deciding whether or not there is a God.

Don't bother saying "your salvation is more important than all of that" because, well, i don't believe in salvation.

[MakeYouThink]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1639638' date='Aug 27 2008, 01:37 PM']Sorry to get off topic but...

The world is not 6,000 years old. [/quote]

I've said as much on the evolution topic, as my opinion.

The way I see it, since there has been no declaration that you have to believe the earth is older than 6,000 years in anybody's doctrine as of late, it is up to the believer to decide what he/she believes in regard to the creation. This isn't a, as I was use to be told, 'A heaven or hell issue', so we shouldn't sweat anything about it. People have they're right to they're opinion.

The fact it is debated by believers and non-believers alike that we should realize that the absolute claim for evolutionists that it happened is far from concluded. They should be just as open minded that God didn't do it like that, and take it as a forgone conclusion.

Though most evolutionists would just say, you just don't educate yourself enough about it, so if you do, you would start believing it, I would say, why don't you educate yourself on the 6-day creationism science and educate yourself as well. Maybe then we could meet half-way.

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='MakeYouThink' post='1639660' date='Aug 27 2008, 01:05 PM']I've said as much on the evolution topic, as my opinion.

The way I see it, since there has been no declaration that you have to believe the earth is older than 6,000 years in anybody's doctrine as of late, it is up to the believer to decide what he/she believes in regard to the creation. This isn't a, as I was use to be told, 'A heaven or hell issue', so we shouldn't sweat anything about it. People have they're right to they're opinion.

The fact it is debated by believers and non-believers alike that we should realize that the absolute claim for evolutionists that it happened is far from concluded. They should be just as open minded that God didn't do it like that, and take it as a forgone conclusion.

Though most evolutionists would just say, you just don't educate yourself enough about it, so if you do, you would start believing it, I would say, why don't you educate yourself on the 6-day creationism science and educate yourself as well. Maybe then we could meet half-way.[/quote]
The thing is, though, the age of the earth has nothing to do with evolution. You can't argue with science here, it's clear that the earth is older than 6,000 years.