This is a great thread and would like to keep it going so I'll post my experience's. Like so many others I was raised Methodist by a single mom and was saved at the age of 10. Went into the Navy, then college and fell away from God because you know how single life is, much less the Navy and how it can keep you busy with sin. Got married and when the kids came along got back in the church and was very active in it. Life was good. Fast forward 8 years. My wife was diagnosed with Stage 3 brain cancer at the age of 30. Went to MD Anderson to get treatment and this is where I REALLY understood what Troy and a few others are talking about. God sent 5 Angels, and I do mean Angels, to us while we were there to console us and tell us that everything would be ok and she would have a full recovery. I won't go into detail about every "Angel" but I can tell you this: Everyone came up to either myself or her mother and said that God had told them to come over and tell us that everything would be ok. One woman's husband was even trying to keep her from doing it but she refused and did it anyway. Some will call this coincidence and others will call it compassion but I call it God. That was almost 5 years ago and the docs told us to consider yourself cured in 5 years so looks like we're going to make it, but not alone. It has been a rough, and I mean rough couple of years but with God walking beside my sweet little wife holding her hand, and mine, anything is possible.

There's my story straight from my heart. I hope this thread keeps going because I've asked every question that has been mentioned plus a few more and love reading everyone's perception on this. Thanks Admin for letting this run and thanks to the DTR's for not getting this locked down.

 

Thats a great post K the guy had some very interesting things to say.

Thanks.

 

War in the name of one god or another has killed more people then any other man caused event. It is Faith that in killing the other religions infidels or heathens (sometimes one christian sect killing members of another christian sect) it will make the world a better place for your chosen religion, this would be funny if it were not so sad.

If you got the testimonial of some Egyptian farmer from 6,000 years ago who worshipped the sun. You would hear him say that it was because of his faith that the sun would come up, as being the reason it did. Most people today know it is not true but why did God allow the farmer back then think that it was true?

As for the savior. Why did god wait to send him just 2000 years ago? Sin and corruption were around long before that, did God condem all those that came before to hell because they did not hear the word of Christ?

The questions are endless but if all it take is faith then more power to you.

 

So it has been posted on here that man is evil. Do not trust man. Ok with that in mind then I will ask this. If man was given the task to write the bible with inspiration from a holy influence. How do I know what is written to be true?

 

Funny you should bring that up. As much of the Christian religion is lifted from the Egyptians religion thousands of years before Christ.

Here is an interesting read. I'm not trying to change anyones mind just putting this out there in case you haven't seen it before (food for thought if you will). The similarities are pretty astounding. Scroll down to the tables and you will see what I'm talking about.

Britt

 

That is a great testimonial and I'm glad everything has worked out for you and your family. I hope it continues to do so.

Britt

 

Good post. But I'm afraid that sensible logic is pointless to those with blind faith. Instead of opening the door to greater understanding, it causes many to dig in their heels. It makes it really hard to see all this love we keep hearing about. I'm happy for those that find satisfaction in their faith, but I wish they could see that simple inner peace and good deeds would do more for the cause than wars. Once again it's God vs science instead of God hand-in-hand with science. Too bad.

John

 

Now wasn't that in interesting read.

 

Great post! Right on!

 

Some on here find it appalling to be related to an ape. Well here is some more disturbing news for them. The first multi celled animals where sponges from the ocean.
Have a look at some of your distant relatives here.
http://discovermagazine.com/2004/nov...tart:int=2&-C=

 

Can't be God vs. Science, God invented science or at least He created us with the ability to think and invent and so on.

So, in the beginning God created all things but, maybe most important, He created man and woman and gave them the ability to choose whom they would serve. Well, they made their choice and things changed forever. Now, one could argue that if God knows all things then He knew they would turn against Him so what's the big surprise. Why call their disobedience sin, why punish them (us)?

Answer, love. He loved His creation (you and me) enough to give us the ability to reject Him, reject His word, reject His ways. We do that with our kids. We love them enough to let them go. It pains us when they go astray but we let them go. Sometimes the choices they make take their life. Is that our fault as their parent, I think not. Nor is it God's fault that we choose to reject Him and act out our selfish, self-centered desires.

Folks want God to fix everything. When He doesn't He must be no good, doesn't care, doesn't exist. When someone gets sick and God doesn't instantly cure them then He is a bad God, an uncaring God. When bad things happen it's God fault for not stopping it ahead of time. None of that makes sense.

He created this world for us. He gave the ability to manage it and make it all it can be. He gave us the emotions of love, compassion, understanding, caring, etc. etc. (all of which describe Him). He gave us a brain like no other created thing has. He even allows us to do things OUR way and completely ignore Him if we want.

So, we go off and make a mess of things, but it's HIS fault. Wrong.

The great work of creation is clearly understood by reading the Bible. There is a great plan being worked out and we are all part of it.

One last comment about why didn't Jesus come much sooner, why 2000 years ago.

Well, why did God create anything at all if it was just going to go wrong anyway? Why didn't He just fix everything from the start? When the first wrong was done why didn't He just fix it then. One word, Love.

If there is one thing in the Bible that is ABSOLUTELY clear, it's that God loves us. No matter who we are, what we have done, He loves us.

The entire Bible is devoted to one message, God's redemption of man through His son Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation, God continually states his love for us and how we can be reconciled to Him through Christ.

You see, we broke the rules, not God. He is not to blame. But even at that, He provided a way back to Him that is as simple as a short prayer.

God vs. Science. Nope. God loves science, He loves the scientiest, He loves the atheist, He loves you and me.

At Joshua put it: "...But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

 

On the flip side, it takes just as much faith the believe that we came from Apes as it does to believe in a Creator.

 

We didn't come from apes. See this post.

Britt

 

this is what i tell the kids at church: " if you can boil the Bible down to one word, it is LOVE "


back on topic, you can GOOGLE "darwin reject evolution"
and that will have you reading FOREVER.

here's a good link:
http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~do_while/sage/v5i10f.htm

here's another, he seems to say Darwins 5 years of study pale in comparison to the raw amount of material to be studied in relation to this:

http://science.krishna.org/Articles/2000/10/00183.html


T-15 is just like a guy we have at our work, he was raised in church, dad's a Pastor, all that jazz.

but he fell out & got disenchanted with the whole deal.

i think you need to separate 2 things:
-organized religions
-personal faith.

--organized religion almost always seems to consist more of man (sin) than of Bible (love)

--personal faith (like Grant's post) comes from personal observance and leads to personal strength and deep seated faith - which is VERY hard to convey to someone who has never had faith, and has never had God move actively in their lives. (or, in their adult lives). Faith can be very difficult to explain, and even harder to impart to someone.

Hebrews 11:1
[ By Faith We Understand ] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.


T-15, do me a favor. GOOGLE this: somebody said, to paraphrase "Darwin looked at the human eye in his older years, and agreed that in NO WAY could evolution explain the complexity of the human eye, and He rejected his own theory of evolution "

and I can't find anything to back this up, can you?

 

This is the best thread ever!!!!!!!!!