Why I love and accept God the Father

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uglygal

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I’m getting a little tired seeing my ‘why I reject Jesus’ post popping up and receiving attention … so I thought I would put forward why I love and accept God the Father :love: :heaven:

(1) He is always there for me, He is always with me and He is always beside me in everything I do. He never abandons me or ignores me

(2) He is the constant Lord and God - who does not change and does not leave. He is the presence and the being who is with me in my darkest hour - He is closest to me in my misery and suffering because He knows that’s when I need Him the most :o Constantly throughout my life I have felt a force with me especially in the darkest hours - a force and presence that would give me strength when I had none left and I never knew who or what it was … it was God my Father

(3) He is gentle and merciful to me - understanding my frailty and weakness and humanity.

(4) He is kind to me - He blesses me with his presence and grace in many little ways throughout my days. Since turning to Him and trusting in Him I am happier. I will give you some examples:

One time about a year, year and half ago I was going to a psychologists appointment and left my car in a paid uni carpark. I couldn’t pay for the ticket because I had no coins. I asked the Father to please watch my car so I wouldn’t get booked by a ranger - when I came back to my car an hour later, under the windscreen wiper on the front window of my car was a paid parking ticket for the exact hour I was in the appointment

A week ago I had to travel to another city to go to Court to complete some professional training I was doing. I had never been in that area and didn’t know where the Court was. I asked my Father to watch me as I went to the new area. Upon getting there, I randomly asked someone at the train station if they knew where the court was … they were actually going to the court and walked me there!

I had surgery on Easter Saturday (i posted a prayer request here) and I was frightened of going. I prayed to my Father to be with me and I offered to Him beforehand any suffering I may have … I had the surgery and everything went beautifully. I even didn’t have any post-surgical pain!

In January of this year I had to search for an employment position. I asked my Father to help me and I got a wonderful position with wonderful people!

These are some experiences and blessings I have received from my Father 🙂

(5) He is not concerned with people having a correct ‘theology’ and he doesn’t damn people to hell for having an incorrect theology - He accepts people who have correct faith!

(6) He doesn’t make false promises about coming to give life to the full and happiness - He simply teaches me “I am who I am” and I know He is love and that is enough

(7) He doesn’t confer special treatment or ranking to priests, religious and Popes - people are judged by their heart and their love

(8) He doesn’t teach a ridiculous belief that a person can be saved by ‘believing’ in the right religion and then do what they want. He teaches me that faith AND works are inseperable and unite together to form a ladder to heaven

(9) He doesn’t desire and he is not pleased with offerings of Blood and guts … He desires mercy and love

(10) He is loyal and teaches - He never fails and never leaves you alone. Even if He doesn’t give you what you want or make things easier for you - He gives you the grace to trust in Him!

(11) He is TRUE love - patient, kind, loyal, present, merciful, true, forgiving, rejoicing in the happiness of his children - SORROWING at the misery of his children. He does not delight in misery and does not wish it upon us but sometimes allows it to serve a greater purpose. Afterall you need rain to get a seed to grow 🙂

That’s some reasons why I accept and trust God the Father

Thankyou 🙂
 
Glad to hear you find happiness. Just helping bumping up the thread 🙂
 
(3) He is gentle and merciful to me - understanding my frailty and weakness and humanity.

You don’t think God the Son would know a thing or two about being human?

(5) He is not concerned with people having a correct ‘theology’ and he doesn’t damn people to hell for having an incorrect theology - He accepts people who have correct faith!

God doesn’t send anyone to hell. People take themselves there by refusing to accept Him.

(6) He doesn’t make false promises about coming to give life to the full and happiness - He simply teaches me “I am who I am” and I know He is love and that is enough

Jesus is the Word of God. How can anything he says be a lie? You are calling God the Father a liar when you call Jesus a liar.

(8) He doesn’t teach a ridiculous belief that a person can be saved by ‘believing’ in the right religion and then do what they want. He teaches me that faith AND works are inseperable and unite together to form a ladder to heaven

Either does Jesus. "Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Matthew 7:21

(11) He is TRUE love - patient, kind, loyal, present, merciful, true, forgiving, rejoicing in the happiness of his children - SORROWING at the misery of his children. He does not delight in misery and does not wish it upon us but sometimes allows it to serve a greater purpose. Afterall you need rain to get a seed to grow 🙂

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

That’s some reasons why I accept and trust God the Father

And here’s why you should accept and trust His Son, too:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-21
 
The God of Israel said:

“Even if your mother and father forget you,
I will never forget you.
See? I have written your name on the palm of My hand.”

Should your sins be of scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.

Return to Me, that your faces may be
radiant with joy. The teshuva, the turning back to Him.

The psalmist speaks of the God of Israel:

The Lord is my Shepherd…
He leads me to green pastures,
where He gives me repose.
Beside restful waters, He leads me,
He revives my drooping spirit.
He restores my soul.
Truly - though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death - I will fear no evil,
for He is with me.
His rod and His staff protect me…
The God of Israel saves, forgives sin,
and remembers each of us, in His mercy.
He hears our prayers and the unspoken
cries of our heart.

reen12
 
quote:beckycmarie
God doesn’t send anyone to hell. People take themselves there by refusing to accept Him.
Click to expand...
quote: reen12, from another thread
The God of Israel is far more compassionate and merciful
than is the God/Man proclaimed savior, by Christianity.
Anyone who would dream of accepting another as God Himself,
  • who speaks of ‘eternal fire that is not quenched’ - can go talk with someone else,
    and take their scriptures with them, thank you.
Human beings are more merciful than Christ ever dreamed of being, apparently.
People work night and day, to relieve the terrible suffering of a burn victim. And here is, supposedly, Mercy Himself, speaking of roasting someone alive, eternally.

If one dropped down from another planet, and heard of this “merciful God/Man,”
they would have great cause to wonder about this deity.
And when our visitor read of the God/Man cursing a fig tree,
perhaps he would begin to tiptoe away.
And, if urged to can it, and read the scriptures - you must! -
it wouldn’t be long before this visitor headed back to his own planet,
where a sturdier and clearer concept of mercy prevailed.
Click to expand...
That sturdier and clearer concept of mercy is to be found
in the God Who created all, and Who revealed Himself
to His chosen people.
Blessedly, when Christians wave hell fire around…
[it’s your! fault that you are to burn forever!]
when the flames are waved about, one simply extingushes such nigtmarish images, by pouring the restful, quiet waters, found in the green pasture -
wherein God protects His shorn lambs from such images
of ghastly ‘offended Goodness.’ It’s your fault! that a deity
would create a place of eternal torment. You sinned and
rejected Him.
I suppose it never occurs to boosters of Christianity that
this brand of “mercy” is politely declined - as the shorn
lambs seek Mercy where He is to be found. In the green
pasture, far from the clarion cries of the ‘merciful,’ who,
apparently, can wrap their minds around eternal pain inflicted
by their version of Godhead.

reen12
 
Reen,

Your profile doesn’t say you are Jewish, so I don’t get why you accept God the Father of Abraham, but deny His Son whose coming was mentioned about 40 times in the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis 3:15. The fulfillment of every single one of those prophecies is in the New Testament.
 
On my way back to the faith, I relied much on God the Father. However, I believe you have some misunderstanding of the Church and Christ. If you wouldn’t mind, please read below and then make your mind up.

(1) He is always there for me, He is always with me and He is always beside me in everything I do. He never abandons me or ignores me

This is 100% true. Taking this a little farther, the doctrine of the trinity would say that where God the Father is, so too is God the son and the Holy Spirit. Just words for thought.

(2) He is the constant Lord and God - who does not change and does not leave. He is the presence and the being who is with me in my darkest hour - He is closest to me in my misery and suffering because He knows that’s when I need Him the most :o Constantly throughout my life I have felt a force with me especially in the darkest hours - a force and presence that would give me strength when I had none left and I never knew who or what it was … it was God my Father

It is true that God the Father hears your prayers and gives you strength. Remember my answer to #1. Now, if Jesus was truly God, and he truly suffered, wouldn’t he truly understand your suffering and trials and have complete mercy? Again, please remember the doctrine of the trinity from #1…because God the Father would be included.

(3) He is gentle and merciful to me - understanding my frailty and weakness and humanity.

This is true, God knows all.

(4) He is kind to me - He blesses me with his presence and grace in many little ways throughout my days. Since turning to Him and trusting in Him I am happier. I will give you some examples:

Great examples!

(5) He is not concerned with people having a correct ‘theology’ and he doesn’t damn people to hell for having an incorrect theology - He accepts people who have correct faith!

This is a huge assumption. What if your faith believes that God is not merciful (as you say above), and believes that God created all the evil in the world, and also believes that you become God when you die? I realize people can be misled and God must take this into consideration, but what if after confronted with the Truth and evidence to the contrary…you persist in the incorrect faith?

(6) He doesn’t make false promises about coming to give life to the full and happiness - He simply teaches me “I am who I am” and I know He is love and that is enough

I would need to know what false promises were made by Christ, and I’d need your proof or evidence that shows they were false.

(7) He doesn’t confer special treatment or ranking to priests, religious and Popes - people are judged by their heart and their love

The special treatment is conferred by other human beings, not God. Also, being a priest, bishop, cardinal or pope is not a special ranking. It is a vocation. Other vocations include being married, the single life, being a monk or nun, etc. All of these vocations are special and equal and include things that the other vocations do not have. You aren’t judged by what vocation you have, however, you are called to fulfill that vocation best as you can with God’s help. Although many people believe ministarial priests are “more special”, this would be false. They have an extremely important role, but so does the married couple. I would urge you not to think of the “order of importance” as Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, priests, monks and nuns, everyone else. It’s completely false and taught no where.

(8) He doesn’t teach a ridiculous belief that a person can be saved by ‘believing’ in the right religion and then do what they want. He teaches me that faith AND works are inseperable and unite together to form a ladder to heaven

Surprisingly, neither does the Catholic faith. This is a false teaching of some protestant religions. Faith and works need to be inline with each other. Glad we agree!

(9) He doesn’t desire and he is not pleased with offerings of Blood and guts … He desires mercy and love

The earliest accounts of God the Father, through the jewish people in the Old Testament would tend to disagree with you on this point. He very often asked for offerings, specifically of a lamb. You will find almost no accounts of a single “God” outside of the Jewish faith.

(10) He is loyal and teaches - He never fails and never leaves you alone. Even if He doesn’t give you what you want or make things easier for you - He gives you the grace to trust in Him!

Very true! Sometimes God’s best answer to a prayer is “no”. Just saying we agree again here.

(11) He is TRUE love - patient, kind, loyal, present, merciful, true, forgiving, rejoicing in the happiness of his children - SORROWING at the misery of his children. He does not delight in misery and does not wish it upon us but sometimes allows it to serve a greater purpose. Afterall you need rain to get a seed to grow 🙂

This is true, God is love. Funny that the pope just wrote an encyclical on this. To be a little picky on your last comment, you assume that everyone thinks of rain as dreary etc. The reason I make this point is because, evil and negativity in the world are nothing like a “rainy day”. Evil and negativity result from original sin. If you don’t believe in original sin or why evil is in the world, you must eventually ask yourself why a perfectly good God would have created evil (which he didn’t).

I am glad we agree on much. Also, I am glad for your belief and love in God. Regardless of whether any of my comments mean anything to you, please stay faithful to God and keep asking him to take care of you, He will. Thank you for your post…I will say a prayer for you that he continues to lead you with His grace.

God bless!!!
 
With reference to your question:

quote: beckycmarie
…I don’t get why you accept God the Father of Abraham, but deny His Son whose coming was mentioned about 40 times in the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis 3:15. The fulfillment of every single one of those prophecies is in the New Testament.
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aish.com/spirituality/philosophy/Why_Dont_Jews_Believe_In_Jesus$.asp

At the dedication of the first Temple, King Solomon asked God to hear the prayers of the foreigner - who was not a member of God’s chosen people, when that person came and prayed to the God of Israel, facing toward His Temple. I Kings 8:22-53

The great Maimonides stated that all ‘righteous Gentiles’ -
who acknowledged and accepted the God of Israel -
and who followed the basic laws that create and foster
an orderly and a just society, would have a share in
the world to come, Olam Haba.

No conversion to the faith of Israel was looked for or encouraged.

The concept that mankind is afflicted, at birth, with the sin of Adam -
from which sin we must be saved - is a concept that is
not at all accepted, in Judaic thought.

As to the existence, in reality, of ‘original sin’:

jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Original_Sin.html

I do not at all feel a call to convert to Judaism.
I don’t need to convert.I acknowledge the existance of the
God of Israel, Whom I pray to - offering prayers of gratitude,
prayers for the forgiveness of my sins, prayers of praise and petition.

If God is, indeed, triune, then He is.

Yet the biographers of Jesus of Nazareth present a figure claiming to be one with Godhead -
yet one who speaks of fires that never quench - which removes him, utterly, from the realm of a God of mercy - much less the realm of sonship - in a hypostatic union with other divine persons, in such trinity.

If Jesus did not say this, then the concept of inerrent writings may be dismissed, out of hand.

reen12
 
reen12 said:
. . .
If God is, indeed, triune, then He is.

Yet the biographers of Jesus of Nazareth present a figure claiming to be one with Godhead -
yet one who speaks of fires that never quench - which removes him, utterly, from the realm of a God of mercy - much less the realm of sonship - in a hypostatic union with other divine persons, in such trinity.

If Jesus did not say this, then the concept of inerrent writings may be dismissed, out of hand.
Click to expand...
The Son Who is One in all things with the Father, thus including His mercy, is merely echoing what His Father has already said:
"For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.
Click to expand...
“And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the ones that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” Isaiah 66:22-24.
Click to expand...
 
beckycmarie said:
(3)
And here’s why you should accept and trust His Son, too:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-21
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Oh yes, I’m going to trust and accept Him or … He will damn me and torture and torment me and terrorise me in Hell forever if I don’t - with love of course! 😉

🙂
 
uglygal said:
Oh yes, I’m going to trust and accept Him or … He will damn me and torture and torment me and terrorise me in Hell forever if I don’t - with love of course! 😉

🙂
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You don’t think God the Father has ever punished people? What about the flood? The tower of Babel? Sodom and Gomorrah to name a few examples.

Besides, God doesn’t “damn” anyone. We take ourselves to Hell by refusing Him.

If at your moment of death, Jesus appears to you to offer you a place in Heaven, are you going to say “I HATE YOU!” and run from Him to Hell? Think about that.

You might want to check out the “To Hell and Back” video I posted in another thread.
 
uglygal said:
Oh yes, I’m going to trust and accept Him or … He will damn me and torture and torment me and terrorise me in Hell forever if I don’t - with love of course! 😉

🙂
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Again - ‘I and the Father are one’. It’s logically totally inconsistent to believe such things of Jesus and not of the Father as well, this being the case.

If you’re in hell being tormented for ever, it is your own evils - including your choices to separate yourself from God the Father by putting your own pride, pleasure or what have you above knowing Him and doing His will - and the natural consequences thereof - including that same separation from God the Father - that are the cause of it all.

Either believe all the good things about BOTH or believe all the bad things if you will, or believe the most likely truth which is somewhere in the middle, but don’t delude yourself into seeing some sort of false dichotomy between Jesus and the Father.
 
Uglygal and Reen12:

Just remember, God is perfect. He is perfect mercy, but he is also perfect justice.
 
quote: uglygal
Oh yes, I’m going to trust and accept Him or … He will damn me and torture and torment me and terrorise me in Hell forever if I don’t - with love of course! 😉
Click to expand...
Bingo!

A classic of double-messaging…

“Love Me…or else…” Now *there’s *incentive…

quote: IsaacSheen
Uglygal and Reen12:

Just remember, God is perfect. He is perfect mercy, but he is also perfect justice.
Click to expand...
I’m trying to forget, not remember, the hideous torments
apparently handed out by this God of love.
But, by all means - let’s turn our rememberance to images of God’s
“perfect justice.”

If we consider images of hell, found in the Hebrew scriptures,
why not take it all the way - and consider what else these “inerrant” texts contain:

Consider the sentiment of the psalmist, addressing the captor, Babylon…

“Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock.” Ps 137: 9.

And here’s a wonderful depiction - of a God Who, apparently,
has issues of anger management and self-control to ponder:

“The Lord, the Almighty, will punish them on the Day of Judgment
by putting fire and worms into their flesh, so that they cry out with pain
unto all eternity” Judith 16:17

Not a dull word in that! verse.

[All of this is “inerrant” description, mind you.] :coffeeread:

One supposes that these sentiments = projecting onto God man’s *own *wishes.
This is excusable, because human beings grew in moral understanding.
Not necessarily in practice, but in understanding.

Yet for one who claimed to be God/Man, yet threatened eternal flame, one would have to accept a return to barbaric imagery - as consonant with a God of mercy, in order to “accept” such a
claim to deity.

A Creator - triune or not - less compassionate than His creatures. Absurd, on it’s merits.

What gets me, is: Day after day, across the world, people are actually
chanting the words of the psalms - including Psalm 137 - as an act of worship.

“Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock.” Ps 137: 9.

And these words are offered to Deity - as a form of ritual prayer!
The “Divine” Office. The 2nd most significant liturgical form.

Bumper Sticker: “Lord, save me from Your followers.”

Scriptural words that fall short of the compassion shown - by even human beings -
cannot be words worthy to be held as sacred or ‘inerrant.’

It is the human desire, for absolute certainty, that creates still another
“golden calf” = the scriptures are inerrant.
The successor to Peter speaks infallibly, on matters of faith and morals =
the emotional need to be guided, without possiblity of error = an inablilty to parse meaning,
when it comes to God or to the things of God.

The Israelites were told not to save manna, in the desert.
To take what was needed for today. This, of course, injected a
note of anxiety, into the proceedings. A tolerance for uncertainty
was being mastered. A genuine reliance on God - for things needful.
Growth in understanding of the word compassion still needs mastering.

If I recall, correctly, it was the fashion, in sermons, during part of the
18th century, to speak often of a “wrathful God.” Some preachers
simply could not resist! the temptation - to drape deity in their own
unlovely conceptual garments.

Ah, yes. Now I remember. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

One assumes that God waits patiently for human beings
to stop throwing off -onto Him - their own ignoble thoughts,
and their childish wishes for eternal, hideous revenge.

A good beginning, in terms of casting off this wrathful,
out of control, revenge-filled “God” - would be to stop
insisting that God is prepared to whip up a “worm”
capable of gnawing away - forever.

“The Lord, the Almighty, will punish them on the Day of Judgment
by putting fire and worms into their flesh, so that they cry out with pain
unto all eternity” Judith 16:17

To stop creating a God in our own image, thereby
creating still another golden calf. “Inerrancy.”

reen12 :coffee:
 
quote: FCEGM
The Son Who is One in all things with the Father, thus including His mercy, is merely echoing what His Father has already said:

Quote:
…“And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the ones that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” Isaiah 66:22-24.
Click to expand...
Please see my post # 16 in this thread - which is, in part,
a reply to your post - which I partially quoted, above.

Thank you,

reen12
 
I love God the Father.
He found me. He is the God who has been with me from the beginning. He is the One who remains at the end. He is who He is and He is Love. He is the God I have always loved and always longed for, yet never knew.

I wanted to share why I love Him as opposed to having attention directed to negative things.
Here it is and there it stands. The Father is enough.

You can share my joy or reject it. I don’t believe as you do - I don’t believe in the theology of God you believe in.

The God who loves and protects me today will love and protect me tomorrow … His love doesn’t change just because my body grows old and will one day die 🙂

And if “god” will damn me to eternal hell for my belief in God the Father … then I will go into the pit with my head held high and without regret for having chosen my Father over all other “gods” 😛

🙂 🙂

Why won’t anyone share what good they have experienced from the Father?
 
uglygal said:
I love God the Father.
He found me. He is the God who has been with me from the beginning. He is the One who remains at the end. He is who He is and He is Love. He is the God I have always loved and always longed for, yet never knew.

I wanted to share why I love Him as opposed to having attention directed to negative things.
Here it is and there it stands. The Father is enough.

You can share my joy or reject it. I don’t believe as you do - I don’t believe in the theology of God you believe in.

The God who loves and protects me today will love and protect me tomorrow … His love doesn’t change just because my body grows old and will one day die 🙂

And if “god” will damn me to eternal hell for my belief in God the Father … then I will go into the pit with my head held high and without regret for having chosen my Father over all other “gods” 😛

🙂 🙂

Why won’t anyone share what good they have experienced from the Father?
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Because the best thing the Father has ever done for me was to send his Son to die a horrible death on the Cross so that I won’t have to. That is the Son you so sadly rejected in your other thread.

You say Jesus abandoned you? He died on a Cross for you. That’s how much the Father loves you. A paid parking ticket is merely a bonus. Everything else is just a bonus.
 
There are probably endless ways of meditating on The Blessed Trinity and each Person of The Blessed Trinity…we can only ever hope to remotely approximate something of Truth.
I have just more or less finished reading Frank Sheed’s “Theology and Sanity” which gives a truly wondrous - though still only a rough and remote approximation of Truth which is all the very best of intellects can ever hope to grasp - understanding of The Blessed Trinity and the particular life of each of the Persons of The Blessed Trinity and much too complex and long to quote here.
My personal and very simple grasp is that Jesus taught us to say “Our Father” and that is how I think of God - as my Father, and the very best of loving Fathers to whom I can turn confidently and trustfully in all things, whose heart is one of Tender Love and of Mercy. He loves each of us with an all embracing totality of all each one of us actually is…and as if each of us was the only person He ever created. Julian of Norwich said that God dances for the very joy of each one of us. He is there for us in every moment of our lives and in every event He is there with His Tender Love and cherishing of us…and in our failures, He greets us with his Tender Loving Mercy which equally cherishes us in our fallings and failures.
These things are a matter of Faith which can become inexplicable knowledge or even inexplicable experience…so much so one can easier deny one’s own existence than the reality of what one knows and experiences.
"The Father and I are One"
After having received Communion on the feast of St. Augustine, I understood - I’m unable to say how - and almost saw (although it was something intellectual and passed quickly) how the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, which I bear imprinted in my soul, are one. By means of the strangest painting and a very clear light, I was given an understanding that was an activity very different from merely holding this truth by faith. As a result I haven’t been able to think of any of the three divine Persons without thinking of all three.

Thus I was reflecting today upon how, since they were so united, the Son alone could have taken human flesh; and the Lord gave me understanding of how although they are united they are distinct. These are grandeurs which make the soul again desire to be free from this body that hinders their enjoyment. For although it seems our lowliness was not meant for understanding anything about them, the soul, without knowing how, receives incomparably greater benefit from this understanding even though it lasts only a moment - than from many years of meditation
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
Spiritual Testimonies, 42 (©ICS publications)
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