An Open Letter to God

reply to post by Dreine


Dreine, thank for opening your heart and sharing this. I think that faith is never easy, we all fall short and none of us can fully understand how God could permit the world to plunge itself into darkness as it has.

Your passionate appeal for understanding discloses fire in your relationship with the Lord and it seems to me that you may be one of those who are being tried.

Tried by Fire

Do you think God does not love you
When you're passing beneath the rod?
Do you grow a bit discouraged;
Think the road is most too hard?

Oh, my brother, do you not know
That our Father has a plan
By which to purge and purify
And perfect this race of men?

Think it not strange, said brother Peter
When come the fiery trial;
It may come in fierce temptations
That will call forth self-denial.

It may be in deepest sorrow,
Sad bereavement, or in pain.
Your friends may all forsake you;
God will work it for your gain.

The trial of your faith, said he,
Is of value more than gold.
His fire is burning out the dross
From His chosen and His called.

Let us stay right in the furnace
Though the flames seem hard to take.
God, in His Love, is sending them
That he a perfect vessel make.

He is calling out His remnant;
Seed with which to plant again.
He must test and try each vessel,
Those to find who will remain.

Would you like for him to use you?
Would you like to add your voice
To this new day trumpet sounding?
Then the fire must be your choice.

If any dross or stain remain
Then the gold cannot be pure.
It will not reflect His image
And you never will endure.

Go through, as faithful Abraham,
For he proved his love by test;
Climbing up old Mount Moriah
On God's altar laid his best.

Think of those three Hebrew boys;
They loved God with all their hearts;
Yet each was tested by the fire
Nor from it's pain refused a part.

God saw He could count them faithful
In whate'er their lot might be.
He wants to prove the same of you
So from His testing do not flee.

Poem by Reba McMurry

www.tentmaker.org...

Job 23;10
But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

1 Peter 1:7
so that your genuine faith, which is more valuable than gold that perishes when tested by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.
bible.cc...

Originally posted by etherical waterwave
dear members,


Jesus Christ is the way to God. If you don't know Jesus you won't know the father. Jesus is the only way to the father. First there is needed a transformation of yourself to know how God is.. Few ever find it. It is nothing you could ever have imagined and it is better than you could imagine. It's not like being given a candy or such. The joy you receive is perfect. One must attain the teaching of the spirit. God is much greater than you have understanding of.

edit on 2011/3/8 by etherical waterwave because: (no reason given)

No thanks. Anything/anybody needing so much rhetoric, scholastic, Machiavellian maneuvering, violence, inner-religious disagreement can be no friend of mine.

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
If you want to find god, i highly recommend non duality or advaita vendeta. It is not a religion, but it is the ground of all religions, more of a science really. This will point you directly to god.
Lose yourself:
Check out these messengers on you tube;
Mooji www.youtube.com...
Alan Watts www.youtube.com...
Peter Brown www.youtube.com...
Gilbert
Salior Bob Adamson

edit on 8-3-2011 by Itisnowagain because: (no reason given)

A non-religion (as I understand it: A method) pointing to 'god'????

What or who is this 'god'?

How is this the 'ground of all religions'?

Calling it a pseudo-science instead of 'more like a science' would have been more correct.

I believe Alan Watts would rotate in his grave, if he knew that his name was taken up in this context.

reply to post by teapot


You wrote:

["I think that faith is never easy,"]

From my perspective 'faith' seems rather easy to acquire, as it doesn't imply much critical examination.

From a non-believer perspective the difficult part appears to be how to keep christian fanatism to yourself, instead of trying to push it on an unwilling mankind.

reply to post by bogomil

It is a science of negation, cessation. Have you explored non duality?

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
reply to post by bogomil

 

It is a science of negation, cessation. Have you explored non duality?

Yes. Starting on a rather simplistic and un-informed basis app. 45 years ago. The last 20 years or so more directed and with a growing systematic methodology.

I appreciate this offer of real communication from you. As you understand from my posts answering you, I can be grumpy, when I'm exposed to secondhand, predigested 'information'.

I must add, as a forum-related consideration, that I in spite of my often head-on criticism, do have some 'morals' concerning forum debate. I don't want to derail a thread by going off in non-topic directions, so a further development of the subject of 'dualism' would maybe be more suitable in other thread-contexts (or possible here, waiting until this thread has run its course).

But I can give you a standing offer of communication on this, only restricted by practical considerations.

reply to post by bogomil


You don't have to read these God related Threads, bogomil. Nobody is shoving anything at you.

Originally posted by teapot
reply to post by bogomil

 

You don't have to read these God related Threads, bogomil. Nobody is shoving anything at you.

And you don't have to read my comments or comment on my comments. You are equally unobliged.

reply to post by bogomil


Hi bogomil, i have written this on another thread and thought you might like to read it:
There a is problem with believing in god. The problem is believing. Do not believe, either god is known or not.
Churches and organized religions are not the best places to find god, although when god is known they make more sense.
When i was 26 i had what is called an awakening, i didn't know what it was at the time. I was not at all 'religious' before, but i was compelled to read religious books, all different religions. I was trying to understand what had happened, it was amazing, i kept telling people that i wanted to wrap it up in a beautiful box with a big bow on it and give it to everyone. Life had become incredibly sweet, it was horrendous before. I remember saying that as long as there are clouds (to look at), i would never be unhappy again.
That was the awakening, it lasted about a year, and then faded. God had graced me with his presence and then left me. I felt huge grief and sorrow for years after, until i found others on the net who had experienced the same.
Generally there is an awakening (to something more), a glimpse and then it seems to go away. But it is enough to know and then there is a passion to find again. The spiritual seeker is born.
The spiritual seeker then searches to find this experience again. It is so real and so beautiful but very illusive. Liberation can take many, many years. This is when it has been totally integrated, realized.
There are people on youtube who speak about this.
I think that unless there has been an awakening that it would be impossible to believe, or understand.

reply to post by Itisnowagain


Thanks for your answer. I hope, that this responding post will be taken in a spirit of relaxed communication, rather than as an offensive attack, in spite of my dissenting opinions.

1/ I have elsewhere asked you the equalent of this question: "What do you refer to, when you speak of 'god'? A general abstract 'god'-concept, or a specific, defined 'god' associated with any religion or group of religions?

You have stated, that you have answered this. Sorry, I either don't understand your answer as an answer, or there is none. Better late than never though; this is not a moot-point, where an answer comes 'too late'.

2/ Your 'awakening' experience is not unique, as you probably already know. It's been repeated in many different contexts, with- or without 'divine' participation, in- or outside religion. As in my own case completely non-divine and non-religious.

3/ I believed, that your central interest was in dualism per se, with the 'god'-aspect as a secondary facet. There are some serious reconciliation problems between non-dualism and e.g. the alleged abrahamic monotheistic 'god'.

In this thread-topic perspective, dualism can be VERY relevant in some different sub-categories. E.g. observable mundane 'cosmic' dualism as compared to theistic speculations on the trans-mundane 'nature' of (a) 'god'.

reply to post by bogomil


The god i refer to is consciousness, Peter Brown explains in these videos. Let me know what you think.
www.youtube.com...
www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by sykickvision
If he can't, then he isn't all powerful. If he won't, then he is evil and doesn't care.

This is a common paradox: If he can't then he isn't omnipotent, If he doesn't know then he isn't omnisapient, If he doesn't care then he is not a god I want to believe in

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
reply to post by bogomil

 

The god i refer to is consciousness, Peter Brown explains in these videos. Let me know what you think.
www.youtube.com...
www.youtube.com...

edit on 11-3-2011 by Itisnowagain because: (no reason given)

Thanks for the links. Unfortunately I don't have technical possibilities for looking at videos. Can you refer me to any text on the subject?

reply to post by bogomil


The youtube links provided are of Peter Brown, it is a shame you can not watch them. He does have a website called theopendoorway.org.

reply to post by Dreine


A question eh? I can answer this if you are willing to hear. And the answer is this. This world is under a curse. I'll explain the details of it below because they are a bit lengthy but the quick summary is that this world is generally cut off from God at present. However the curse should end by 2028 at the latest by my estimates. And then it will be a different world. The problem will be getting there. So here is the details of the curse.

The answer according to the Christian bible is this. Someone two thousand years ago triggered the curse of Malachi. It's a bit of work to put it all together but I did discover on my research of it that those under a Leviticus 26 curse are not supposed to know it. So heres to breaking the curse. So here is Malachi 4 and pay attention to the last 2 verses of the chapter.

1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

So according to the new testament Herod would have triggered the curse with the death of John the Baptist. So to figure out the particulars of the curse you have to reference verse 4 and look at the laws of Moses. Particularly Leviticus 26. The compact that the Jews made in the desert with God. Contained in Leviticus 26 are the benefits of being in a relationship with the God of the Jews. And the punishments for breaking the agreement.

Ultimately the top level punishment is to have your country and cities destroyed and the people scattered to the world. And that did happen to the Jews in the first and second centuries AD. So then the problem is finding the declaration of the curse and the timeframe of it. And I found that in the book of Hosea. Doesn't hurt to read all of it but here are the highlights.

Chap 1
9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Chap 3
3 And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

Chap 5
3 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

Chap 13
7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?
11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

But here is the timeframe of the curse. And 2nd Peter 13 explains the 3 days.

Chap 6
1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

2nd Peter 3
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The curse is 2000 years long. Followed by a thousand year day of Jezreel.

And that is the answer. Remember it's always darkest before the dawn. And that according to Matthew 24 you were to watch for it.

reply to post by Dreine


don't worry about things like "why would god let such things happen?". if there really is a god and eternity is what we are truly destined for, then any amount of crap that we are dealt on earth won't really seem that bad in the long run. if he says he's got our back, he's got our back. just have faith that all will work out in the end.

imagine for a second that you have your own kid (i don't know, maybe you do) and you put that kid into a situation that they perceive as dangerous such as teaching them to swim. they're convinced that they're going to drown if they jump in but you, who knows considerably more about things than your child, tell them that nothing bad will happen to them if they jump in and that you will protect them. of course this example is hardly on the same level, but you get the idea.