As you may know I don’t belong to a specific church anymore. Yes, I agree religion can tend to be ridiculous. People can get caught up with other people. Religion is man made. I like to say that I’m not trying to entice people to religion but to a relationship. It’s always been a spiritual thing. Maybe I have tried too hard too often. What it comes down to in the end is what is there between you and the one that created you? Is there a relationship? Are you giving thanks to the One who gave you life?
My biggest concern about this film is that he is seeking evidence. Faith is the evidence of things unseen. You can’t see the wind but you can see the effects of the wind. Do you not believe that wind exists because you can’t see it? Do you believe thunder doesn’t exist because you can only hear it and not see it? Faith is all about belief. You don’t need evidence for faith. I can understand why Bill is trying to search for answers. People do crazy things in the name of God. But we as humans are fallen and make mistakes and do stupid things. So no one can give you the right answer. You could seek and seek and seek until you turn blue and die and never get the evidence that you need. It’s just something you feel inside of you and I can’t nor can anyone else give you God. We can share how God is changing our life. We can share what our relationship with God is like. We can’t force you to like someone you don’t like or want to like. If you don’t want to get to know someone you don’t get to know them. It’s all about the relationship, it’s not a religion!
I am Question girl. I will never have all the answers. I never will. I seek all the time. It’s seriously like the blind leading the blind. Some lead to do harm and some lead with good intent and yet it harms. Some lead and it brings people to do, have, seek good things in life without harm. No MAN has the answer. The answers come from God. So Christians seek Jesus because we believe he was God. We also seek truth from the Bible because we believe that it was written by God through the hands of men. We are just God’s instruments and if we are fully connected and fully pure at heart seeking God in what we do, there is only beauty, peace, joy, love, kindness, gentleness, etc.
I don’t have the answers as to why bad things happen. I don’t know the right answer. I believe, however, that we are imperfect and that God loves us and gives us free will. He lets us do what we want and often that leads to disaster. Yet, we don’t see through God’s eyes and we never will. So we can’t see the whole picture of how all good and bad events/things/people fit into the whole wonderful beautiful plan. So yes, it’s very frustrating at times. There is anger towards God. There is impatience, sadness, weariness, tons of questions, etc. But there is soooooo much joy too!
God doesn’t hate anyone! God isn’t man. We are, and therefore, may never understand Him/Her fully. If we could understand God it would be like we could fit God in a box and God is sooooooo much bigger than us. God can do impossible things. Our job isn’t to sit there and figure out why God does what he does because we may never know. WE can’t see the whole picture. We should just be joyful people who love God and other people. Is that too much to ask of God after he created EVERYTHING? And why would you want to argue whether or not God is there and loves you? It just is that way. Accept it and be amazed by that.
Doubt. One of my favorite Christian authors, Phillip Yancy, is a skeptic. He writes about doubt. He says the opposite of faith is not doubt, its fear. Totally believe that one. So I have faith and doubt. It’s a constant struggle every moment of life balancing this. Life is not about the destination it’s about living life to the fullest and being positive and grateful for all that you have been given. We aren’t the star in this story called life. God is. We need to stop being so selfish and ungrateful. We should give credit where credit is due when we see a beautiful sunset, smell a delilicous type of natural food, feel a cool breeze when it’s unbearably hot or a drenching rain when the earth is thirsty.
Miracles. Do you believe in miracles? Yes, sometimes you just have to believe crazy things. Jonah lived inside a “big fish” or a whale whatever you want to say the being was. All these stories just show us how powerful God is and how God can let anything happen. We shouldn’t limit the possibilities of God.
10 commandments. God’s laws. If you remember in the Kite Runner, I forget what character it was but I think it was the one kids dad, one character explained it best. That everything comes back to stealing. If you murder, you steal life. If you commit adultery, you steal someone’s spouse. If you molest someone, you steal their innocence. We should not kill. It doesn’t take much to convince anyone that this is wrong. If we kill ourselves, we are taking our own life. If we murder in any form (abortion, capital punishment, IVF) we are taking away life. We shouldn’t play God. God decides when it is time for someone to go. We need to cherish life because it is a gift from God.
Evolution. Why is it so strange to believe that we started out from one man and one woman? Isn’t that how human beings are conceived these days? Between a sperm and an egg? So couldn’t one man and one woman start all creation off. Yeah, it’s kinda gross to think that their kids reproduced with each other, but here we are. Do we really have to debate that? Can’t we just enjoy our bodies and all the creation that God gave us? Can’t we just have simple childlike faith that God did what He said he did? He wanted life so he created it.
Sabbath. Why does it seem weird that we should have a day of rest??? Short and sweet. God worked really hard for 6 days forming this whole place we live in and such. Afterwards, he rested. He wants us to do the same. Work really hard and take a whole day and rest.
Trinity. LOVE the water analogy! God is in three forms. God is ice, Jesus is water and the Holy Spirit is vapor/steam! Awesome!
Sin. Adam and Eve were created in a perfect world. They disobeyed God and through that act sin entered the world. Everyone born was then a sinner. I am a sinner. But thankfully, God fixed that problem with Jesus.
Finally, God can do ANYTHING! And all He asks, through Jesus, is to LOVE Him with all our hearts and to LOVE others as we show love to ourselves. So simple, yet so hard to do. But that’s it! All the while we are to live on this evil infested earth around other sinners like ourselves struggling to make it through. We could focus on all the negatives but there is soooo much positive out there.
We are loved by God, the Creator of EVERYTHING! God is amazing!
